The Supreme Court on Thursday sacked David Lyon of the All Progressive Congress (APC) as governor-elect of Bayelsa State, barely 24 hours to his inauguration.

A five-man panel of the apex court led by Justice Mary Peter-Odili ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw the Certificate of Return issued to the All Progressives Congress’ candidate as the winners of the November 16, 2019 governorship election in the state.

The Apex Court ordered INEC to issue a fresh certificate of return to the candidate of the party with the next highest votes and with the required constitutional spread of votes in the results of the election, which are the Peoples Democratic Party.

Justice Ejembi Ekwo, who read the lead judgment made the orders after disqualifying the APC’s deputy governorship candidate, Degi-Eremienyo, as a candidate in the election.

The court upheld the November 12, 2019 judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja which had disqualified Degi-Eremienyo in the election for submitting forged certificates to INEC.

The court ruled that Mister Degi-Eremienyo’s disqualification had infected the joint ticket with which he and the governorship candidate, Lyon, ran for and won November 16, 2019.

The five-man panel further held that on the basis of that both candidates and their party, the APC ought to have abstained from participating in the election.

With the judgment of the apex court on Thursday, the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP), Diri Duoye, is expected to be inaugurated on Friday as governor of Bayelsa State.

Mr Duoye came second in the election with 143,172 votes to Mr Lyon’s 352,552 votes. He won the election in two of Bayelsa’s eight local governments while Mr Lyon won in the remaining six.