BY Bolanle Olabimtan
A federal high court in Abuja has disqualified Timipre Sylva, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), from contesting the November 11 election in Bayelsa state.
Delivering judgment on Monday, Donatus Okorowo, presiding judge, held that Sylva, having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as governor of the state, would breach the 1999 constitution if allowed to contest again.
The judge held that Sylva was not qualified to run in the forthcoming poll because if he wins and is sworn in, he would spend more than eight years in office as governor of the state.
Citing Marwa Vs Nyako, the judge stated that the supreme court had ruled that nobody can expand the constitution or its scope.
He added that if Sylva was allowed to contest the next election, it meant a person could contest as many times as he wanted.
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 election.
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.
But 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.
Sylva was minister of state for petroleum resources from 2019 to 2023.
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