Fresh facts have emerged that the protest by Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri forced the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors to discontinue the case filed at the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the February 25th election.
In the suit initially filed by the Attorneys- General of seven PDP states namely Adamawa, Akwa- Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Taraba and Sokoto which has Attorney- General of the Federation as they defendant, they had asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the concluded presidential election claiming that the declaration of Tinubu did not follow the provisions of the Electoral Act.
The suit was also challenging the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload the election results to the IReV using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System,(BVAS).
However in a volte-face the PDP state governments through their counsel, Mr Mike Ozekhome had filed a Notice of Discontinuance.
Sources close to Bayelsa State Government House stated that Diri was angry over the inclusion of Bayelsa state in the suit without informing him.
Diri had during the election in an interview commended INEC for a credible election which saw the PDP winning the Presidential election and seven out of the seven national assembly seats results declared so far.
He was said to have told close associates that he was not consulted and the Attorney- General of the State was also not in the known before the case was filed.
The source said Diri told his political associates that he could not have spoken from both sides of his mouth having hailed the INEC over the conduct of the national elections in the state, which he said was largely credible apart from some logistics challenges.
Diri was said to have told his political associates that as soon as he was informed about the case, he immediately took necessary steps to exclude Bayelsa, which eventually led to the withdrawal of the suit.
“It was not to my knowledge that Bayelsa was joined in a suit against the February 25 election. Not even my Attorney General knew and once we found out, we asked to be removed because we could not be speaking from both sides of our mouth after hailing the same elections in Bayelsa” the source said Diri told those that attended the meeting.
