Bayelsa Guber : Again, Court Dismisses Suit Seeking Sylva’s Exclusion

By Garry Ochigbo

In less than 24 hours to conduct of Governorship election in Bayelsa State, the Court of Appeal in Abuja has finally cleared the coast for former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva to participate in the election.

The Appellate Court on Friday dismissed the last of the chains of suits seeking exclusion of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship candidate in the gubernatorial poll.

Delivering judgment in an appeal instituted against Sylva and two others by one Isikima Ogbomade Johnson, Justice Binta Zubar held that the suit was not only unjusticeable but brought in bad faith by the appellant against the respondents.

The Court agreed with Chief James Ogwu Onoja, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria that the allegations of taking oath of governorship office twice being held against Sylva cannot stand in the face of the law because the first one had been invalidated by competent Courts.

The unanimous judgment agreed with Onoja’s arguments that the overwhelming evidence adduced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and APC pointed to the facts that all legal steps were taken in the conduct of the primary election.

Onoja had in his brief on behalf of Sylva narrated how APC adopted direct primary as mode of electing the governorship candidate and how a 5-man Electoral Committee on April 14 conducted the election in 106 Wards of the 8 Local Government Areas of Bayelsa.

Justice Zubar also held that the case of the appellant was statute barred having been instituted outside the 14 days allowed by law as a pre- election matter.

In totality, the Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo which on September 26 dismissed the suit for want of merit and substance.

Mrs Johnson had, by an originating summons, dragged APC, INEC and Sylva before the Federal High Court, praying for an order to disqualify him from being allowed to participate in the governorship election in Bayelsa State.

At the same time, she also claimed that the April 14 primary election that produced Sylva was illegal and unlawful, having been allegedly done in contravention with APC’s guidelines.

The High Court however dismissed the suit while the Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal of the suit.

Edited By Grace Namiji