Twelve days to the governorship election in Bayelsa state, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Tuesday restored Mr. Timipre Sylva to the ballot as the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 11 governorship election in the State.

Relief came the path of the former Minister when the three-member panel, in a unanimous judgement held that the trial court which nullified Mr. Sylva’s candidature lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit filed by an APC member, Mr. Demesuoyefa Kolomo, having not been an aspirant in the primary election that produced the former minister.

The court also awarded the sum of N1 million in favour of the appellant (Mr. Sylva) in the first appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1060/2023 between APC and Kolomo.

The court equally awarded the sum of N1 million in favour of Mr. Sylva in the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/1061/2023 between Sylva vs. Kolomo and two others.

Mr. Sylva’s appeals were against the October 9 judgement delivered by Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which disqualified Sylva as candidate in the November 11 governorship election.

Mr. Kolomo, who described himself as a registered voter, 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.

Last Thursday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) published a final clean-up of the list of governorship candidates for the 11 November governorship election in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states removing the name of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) candidate, Mr. Timipre Sylva and his running mate, Joshua Maciver .

Also, the Commission included the names of Mr. Uchechukwu Ishiodu as governorship candidate and Mr. Ahumbe Chiazor as the running mate for Imo state Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) for the election.

The Federal High Court, Abuja, on 10 October,2023 disqualified Mr. Sylva from participating in the state governorship election.

Justice Donatus Okorowo, in the judgment, ruled that Mr. Sylva having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as governor of Bayelsa would breach the 1999 constitution as amended if allowed to contest again.

The judge also declared that Sylva was not qualified to run in the November poll because if he won and was sworn in, he would spend more than eight years in office as governor of the state.

Also the Federal High Court, Owerri judicial division in Suit No. FHC/OW/CS/35/2023 – PRP & Anor v. INEC, amongst others, equally ordered INEC to include the name of the PRP governorship candidate in the list of nominated candidates already published on the INEC website.

The amended list, which was signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, was uploaded on the Commission’s website.

In the uploaded list, the columns for the names of APC candidate and his ruining mate were left blank with “court order” remarks on it.

The INEC Secretary, in the amended document, explained that the action of the Commission was in obedience to court orders on the lists, posted on the Commission’s website.