Justice Mary Odili, a retired Supreme Court Justice, has stated that Senator Duoye Diri’s appointment as Bayelsa state governor was well merited.
The case was determined on merit, according to Justice Odili, who chaired the panel of Supreme Court Justices that decided the case.
She was speaking during a book launch in her honor on Monday in Port Harcourt.
The criticisms that accompanied the 2020 judgment, as well as assertions that she had an interest in the case, did not bother Justice Odili, she stated.
JUST IN: Supreme Court Dismissed suit Against Bayelsa Governor, Deputy
She stated that she had always made decisions with the knowledge that she would have to give an account of her life to God one day.
She said ” like I tell people, that case of Bayelsa was a case decided by God himself. None of us in that panel foresaw what was going to happen.
“Everyone who read the file had their hands on the head because there was nothing else to do than to give the judgement to the person who deserved that judgement.
“So when people were asking, are you not worried? I said I cannot be worried. Since God decided that this is the man who should occupy that seat, who am I or my colleagues to say otherwise?
“We had to do it as the law had dictated that we do it. If the haven fell, too bad, that is the way it was”.
She also stated that she refused to recuse herself from the case due to her “closeness to Bayelsa State” as suggested by others.
UPDATE: Supreme Court Judge, Mary Odili Retires (Photos)
Last Monday, Justice Odili left the Supreme Court after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.
On February 13, 2020, she led a panel of Supreme Court Justices in dismissing David Lyon as the state’s governor-elect.
On the eve of his planned swearing-in ceremony as Bayelsa state governor, Lyon was replaced by Diri.
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