Sylva appealed the high court’s judgement and asked the appellate court to set it aside.
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division has cleared the All Progressives Congress’s candidate for the Bayelsa governorship poll, Timipre Sylva, to contest in the poll scheduled for November 11.
The ruling was made on Tuesday by a three-man panel of the appellate court.
An Abuja Federal High Court had on October 9 disqualified Sylva from the contest following a suit by a member of the APC in the state, Demesuoyefa Kolomo.
Kolomo in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/821/2023, had 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.
Ruling, Justice Donatus Okorowo held that allowing Sylva to contest again would breach the provisions of the 1999 constitution, having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as a governor of the state.
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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, Okorowo noted that the drafters of the country’s constitution stated that nobody should be voted for as governor more than twice.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, Sylva appealed and asked the court to set aside the judgment by the lower court.
In a unanimous decision by a three-man panel on Tuesday, the court held that the litigant who initiated the suit that led to Sylva’s disqualification lacked the locus standi to do so.
The court, however, set aside the judgment of the high court and awarded a cost of N1 million against the respondent, Kolomo.
