The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal on Tuesday restored Timipre Sylva to the governorship ballot of the November 11 governorship election as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had removed the name of Sylva from the candidates that will contest the election following the Oct. 9 judgment of Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja.
Justice Okorowo had disqualified Sylva as a candidate in the Nov. 11 election while delivering judgment in a suit filed by one Demesuoyefa Kolomo, who described himself as a registered voter and a member of APC.
Kolomo had, in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/821/2023 filed on June 3, prayed the court to delete Sylva’s name from the list of candidates vying for the election, having taken an oath of office twice as governor of the state.
But ruling in an appeal filed against the judgement, the Court of Appeal in a unanimous judgment on Tuesday, held that the trial court which nullified Sylva’s candidature lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
This, the appellate court said was because Kolomo who filed the suit was not an aspirant in the primaries that produced the ex-minister of petroleum.
The Court therefore affirmed Sylva as the validly elected candidate for the APC in the Nov. 11 Bayelsa governorship election.
The court also awarded the sum of N1 million in favour of the appellant (Sylva) in the first appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1060/2023 between APC and Kolomo.
credit; PM News
