This is an appeal from the decision of the Local Government Council Electoral Petition tribunal of Bayelsa state of Nigeria (herein after to be referred to, simply as the tribunal for short) sitting in Yenagoa on the 1/2/99. In the Numbe Local Government Chairmanship election held on the 12/12/98 there were two contestants, namely the petitioner/respondent herein who contested the election on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the 1st appellant who contested on the platform of All Peoples Party (APP). The 2nd to the 6th appellants were some of the officials of independent national electoral commission (INEC) in charge of conducting the election. At the conclusion of the election exercise, the 1st appellant was returned as having been duly elected, having scored the majority of the lawful votes cast.

Dissatisfied with the return, the petitioner/respondent filed an election petition on the 24/12/98.