Bayelsa Guber: Stick to Electoral Act to Avoid Litigation, Group Cautions APC

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

A group,  Progressives Minds of  Bayelsa has called on the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to prevent the party from running into litigations that may affect its chances of fielding a candidate for the election ahead of  Bayelsa state governorship election scheduled to hold on November 11, 2023.

The group,  in a statement issued yesterday  by its National Coordinator, Raymond Ayebapreye, pointed out that less than 30 days to the primaries scheduled to hold on April 10, some persons, who bought nomination forms for the contest were  still holding political appointments contrary to the provisions of the new Electoral Act.

The group noted that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipree Sylva had been cleared by the APC screening committee to contest for the primary election.

The group added that allowing Sylva, who has remained in office till this moment, would be counter-productive for the party, adding that other political parties mindful of the provisions of the law would definitely make a case that may jeopardise the chance of the APC in the election.

Consequently, it drew the party’s attention to the Section 84 (12) of the Electoral Act which stipulates thus; “that no political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of nomination of candidate for any election.

While Section 84(13) reads: “Where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of this act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate for the election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in issue.”

The group therefore,  urged the party not to forget in a hurry the outcome of similar situations in the state in the last elections where the party won the governorship election at the polls but lost out in court over pre-election litigations.

It recalled that David Lyon, won the governorship on the platform of the APC in2019, but was sacked by the Supreme Court, though the circumstances might be differ but called on the party to pay close attention to the provisions of the Electoral Act to avoid a repeat of the ugly situation.