The Supreme Court has dismissed the objection of Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State to the playing of a video evidence tendered at the Election Petition Tribunal by the All Progressive Congress and its governorship candidate Mr Timipre Sylva.

The video is to substantiate their allegation of fraud and malpractices against the election of the governor.

The Apex Court agreed with counsel to Sylva, Mr. Sebastine Hon that the objection of Dickson against the playing of the video by the tribunal was misplaced, unwarranted, baseless, lacking in merit.

The court in a unanimous judgment of its full panel of seven justices delivered by Justice Chime Nweze ordered the Bayelsa State Governorship Election Tribunal to play the video evidence tendered by a witness of the APC candidate, to prove his petition against the governorship election conducted on December 5 and 6 of 2015 and January 9 of 2016.

The Apex Court held that counsel to the appellant Mr. Tayo Oyetibo’s objection to the demonstration of the video tape “rail-loaded the tribunal into unwarranted exercise” adding “that it is the fallacious piece of reasoning because Section 84 of the Evidence Act did not require the production of two certificates before electronically generated evidence can be demonstrated in court.

Justice Nweze said “demonstrating the evidence in court will allow the applicant to link the evidence and also allow the opponent to test and contest the accuracy of the said evidence”.