The Federal High Court Abuja has disqualified the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, from the November 11 governorship election.
A member of the APC in the state, Demesuoyefa Kolomo, had in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/821/2023 asked the court to determine whether Sylva was qualified to contest in the election, having occupied the office of governor of Bayelsa from May 29, 2007 to April 15, 2008 and May 27, 2008 to Jan. 27, 2012.
In a judgment delivered on Monday night, Justice Donatus Okorowo held that allowing Sylva to contest again would breach the provision of the 1999 constitution having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as a governor of the state.
The judge also said Sylva would spend more than eight years in office if allowed to participate in the election and eventually win.
Citing the case of Marwa vs Nyako at the Supreme Court, Justice Okorowo noted that the drafters of the country’s constitution stated that nobody should be voted for as governor more than twice.
He added that the parties to the suit agreed that Sylva was voted into office two times.
Justice Okorowo stated that the Supreme Court had ruled in the case of Marwa vs Nyako that nobody can expand the constitution or its scope.
He said if Sylva was allowed to contest the next election, it would mean that a person can contest as many times as he wishes.
But the APC leadership rejected the judgment, and proceeded on appeal.
Apart from the notice of appeal, Sylva, through his lawyer, Dr Ahmed Raji, (SAN) also filed a stay of execution of the judgment.
The APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, described the development as a little distraction that the party would overcome.
“It is democracy in action. But we learned that the person who took the issue to the court of law is not even qualified because he did not contest with the Sylva. Therefore, he’s not even qualified to take the issue to the court,” Ganduje told State House Correspondents after he emerged from closed-door talks with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
He said his party would continue its campaign plans.
“Last two weeks, I was in Bayelsa for two good days and I think they were ready and still ready to win the election. Therefore, this is a little distraction anyway, but we will overcome it,” he said.
Sylva had clinched the APC governorship ticket last April.
He got 52,061 votes to defeat five other aspirants: Festus Danumiebi, Joshua Machiver, Maureen Etebu, Isikima Johnson and David Lyon.
Meanwhile, reacting to the development,Bayelsa State Governor and the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Duoye Diri, mocked the APC in a statement titled, “Bayelsa Doesn’t Deserve Serial Deceiver As Governor, Says Diri.
In the statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, Diri said, “Bayelsa needs an honest and sincere leader that is focused on its development and not a man widely known for deception.
“Timipre Sylva is a man you cannot trust. He displaced all those he promised that he would give the governorship ticket and turned around to become the candidate himself. A man who said a road from Yenagoa to Nembe was not economically viable; a man who proposed an airport but the site was turned into a ‘seaport’ after sinking in millions of naira of the state’s resources.
“When the immediate past governor built a very good airport, Sylva said it was a seaport but today he uses the same airport,” he said.
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