By Ken Afor
The Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, has given the go ahead for Timipre Sylva, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest in the November 11 election in Bayelsa State.
This comes following the dismissal of an application filed by Honorable Isikima O. Johnson, a member of the APC challenging the nomination of Sylva for the election.
According to Johnson who lost the party’s primary to Sylva, he argued that the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources ought to have been disqualified from participating in the primary on the grounds that he had been elected twice as Bayelsa State governor.
Johnson further argued that the APC ought to have conducted primary in Bayelsa after it had collected the sum of Ten Million Naira (10,000,000) from him and five other aspirants.
“A perpetual injunction restraining the 3rd Defendant(Sylva) from howsoever holding out or carrying on or parading himself as the gubernatorial candidate of 1st Defendant for the November, 2023 gubernatorial election or any subsequent postponement of the said election in Bayelsa State,” the applicant had prayed through his counsel, Reuben Egwuaba.
Meanwhile, countering Johnson’s position, the APC stated that its primary election was valid and Sylva was validly nominated as its guber candidate.
However, the presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo, in his judgment held that Johnson failed to prove to the court that an APC primary election was not held.
He added that the governorship primary election of the APC in Bayelsa State was conducted on April 14, 2023 based on evidence tendered.
Subsequently, his application was dismissed for lack of merit.
“I find in the end that the plaintiff has not proved this case upon preponderance as required by law,” Ekwo held.
It would be recalled that Sylva was elected as governor of oil-rich Bayelsa State between May 27, 2008 and January 27, 2012.
The 59-year-old one-time House of Assembly member representing Brass federal constituency in 1992 did not complete his tenure as governor following the judgment of the Supreme Court on January 27, 2012.
Sylva was out off the radar for seven years until he was appointed as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources by the former president Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.
