BY EFE MODESTUS
The Abuja division of the Federal High Court, has disqualified the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, from contesting the November 11 election in Bayelsa State.
In a judgment that was delivered last night, Justice Donatus Okorowo held that Sylva, having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as governor of the state, would go against the provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended) if allowed to contest again.
In addition, the court declared that Sylva was not qualified to run in the November poll because if he wins and is sworn in, he would spend more than eight years in office as governor of the state.
Justice Okorowo who relied on the case law in Marwa vs Nyako, a Supreme Court decision, noted that the drafters of the constitution stated that nobody should be voted for as governor more than two times and that the parties to the suit agreed that Sylva was voted into office two times.
The judge who emphasized that by the Supreme Court decision in the case of Marwa vs Nyako that nobody can expand the constitution or its scope, said if Sylva was allowed to contest the next election, it meant a person could contest as many times as he wanted.
The suit, with number FHC/ABJ/CS/821/2023, was filed on June 13, 2023, by a member of the APC Demeauoyefa Kolomo.
Demesuoyefa Kolomo, a member of the APC, had asked the court to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delete Sylva’s name from the list of candidates contesting the governorship poll in Bayelsa on November 11.
The plaintiff averred that by the provisions of section 182(1)\(b) of the 1999 constitution (as amended), Sylva is not qualified to contest the election on APC’s platform or any other political party’s platform because he was elected in April 2007 and May 2008.
However, in his affidavit, Sylva had said he was elected once as the state’s governor, insisting that there was no election in 2007.
While referencing a court of appeal judgment in April 2008 that nullified the 2007 election, the former minister maintained that he is within his constitutional and legal rights to contest the forthcoming election in Bayelsa.
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