Court of Appeal in Abuja has voided the judgment of Bayelsa State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal which nullified the election of Governor Duoye Diri.

A five-member panel of justices presided by Mr Adzira Mshelia on Friday unanimously held that the grounds of the appeal by Diri of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has merit and upheld their submissions.

In the lead judgement read by Mr Obande Ogbuinya, the court ruled that candidate of Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP) was not lawfully nominated to contest the November 16, 2019 governorship election.

The appellate court also ruled that the petition of ANDP, filed outside the time allowed by the 4th Alteration of Nigerian Constitution, 1999 for pre-election matters, was statute barred and stale, which robbed tribunal the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

Mr Diri had filed the appeal challenging the August 17 judgement of the election tribunal which nullified his election on the grounds of unlawful exclusion of the deputy governorship candidate of ANDP by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for being below 35 years, provided by Section 177(b) of Nigerian Constitution, 1999.

Daily Trust