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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Governorship Election Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has said it would appeal Monday’s decision of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, which disqualified its candidate, Timipre Sylva, from participating in the November 11 poll.
The spokesperson for the campaign council, Perry Tukuwei, disclosed this in a statement, on Tuesday.
Tukuwei, who blamed judgement on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), urged APC members to remain steadfast in backing thr party’s candidate.
“The party has briefed its lawyers to appeal the judgement and it is confident that the Court of Appeal will overturn the judgement of the Federal High Court.
“This reassurance is coming on the heels of a judgement which has the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate written all over it by a Federal High Court in Abuja in an already failed bid to dash the hopes of Bayelsans to have their preferred candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva as the next helmsman,” he said.
Recall that Federal High Court in Abuja had on Monday disqualified Sylva from participating in the election.
The court held that Sylva, a former governor of the state, having taken the oath of office twice and ruled for five years as governor of Bayelsa State, would be violating the 1999 Constitution if allowed to run in the forthcoming poll.
But the APC campaign council assured Bayelsans of a landslide victory at the November 11 governorship elections, downplaying the legal basis of the judgement.
According to Tukuwei, the plaintiff who instituted the suit lacked the locus standi to do so.
He cited sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act 2022 to back his stance, arguing that it is only a person who contested the primary election of a political party “that has the locus standi to file a pre-election matter to challenge the qualification of the party’s candidate in any election.”
He said Demesuoyefa Kolomo who filed the suit that led to Sylva’s disqualification by the court was not a member of the APC and could not have participated in the primary election that produced the former minister as the party’s candidate.
Tukuwei further contended that Kolomo’s case was filed outside the 14 days statutorily required for a suit to be lodged after the conduct of a primary election.
“Section 285 of the 1999 Constitution enjoins any aggrieved party to file an election matter within 14 days of the occurrence of the event but this case was filed on the 13th of June, 2023 whereas INEC published the names of the governorship candidates for Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi on the 12th of May 2023,” he added.