As Sylva, Bayelsa APC Walk a Tightrope

With the judgment of the Federal High Court disqualifying former Governor of Bayelsa State and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Timipre Sylva, from contesting the November 11 election in the state, the stage is set for a repetition of what happened in 2020 when the Supreme Court sacked the then governor-elect, David Lyon and ordered Duoye Diri to be sworn in, Alex Enumah writes 

With less than a month to the Bayelsa State governorship election, a Federal High Court in Abuja last Monday disqualified former Governor Timipre Sylva from the race.

Sylva, the immediate-past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, had clinched the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket in April, when he polled 52,061 votes to defeat five other aspirants – Joshua Machiver, Festus Danumiebi, Maureen Etebu, David Lyon, and Isikima Johnson.

However, delivering judgment on a suit filed by an APC member, Demesuoyefa Kolomo last Monday, Justice Donaltus Okorowo ruled that Sylva was not qualified to vie for the state governorship seat. The judge held that Sylva, having taken the oath of office twice and ruled for five years as governor of Bayelsa, would violate the 1999 Constitution if allowed to run in the forthcoming poll.

The former minister was governor of Bayelsa State between 2007 and 2011 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But he later defected to the APC and became a minister in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He resigned his ministerial position in March to contest APC’s primary election.

But citing a Supreme Court decision on a suit between Marwa and Nyako, Justice Okorowo explained that the drafters of Nigeria’s constitution said nobody should be voted for as governor more than two times. He noted that parties in the suit agreed that Sylva was voted into office twice as governor.

Even though Sylva and his party have the chance to challenge the decision up to the Supreme Court, many observers believe that the party stands a grave risk of not having a candidate for the election if the Supreme Court rules against him in the end, when the window for swapping candidates would have closed.

They also fear that this could end up being a repeat of the fate the party suffered in the last cycle of the governorship election in the state when the apex court sacked its candidate, David Lyon, who had won the poll, on the eve of his inauguration.

Trouble started when Kolomo, a member of the APC, approached the court, urging it to order the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to delete Sylva’s name from the list of candidates vying in the November 11 governorship election in the state.

In the suit he filed in June by his lawyer, Abiodun Amuda-Kannike (SAN), which had INEC, the APC and Sylva as defendants, the plaintiff sought the court’s interpretation of two questions:

“Whether having regard to the indisputable facts that Sylva was elected to the office of governor of Bayelsa on two previous occasions; April 14, 2007, and May 24, 2008, he was qualified to contest the 11 November election in view of Section 82 (1)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“Whether having regard to the indisputable fact that Sylva occupied the office of governor of Bayelsa from May 29, 2007, to April 15, 2008, and from May 27, 2008, to January 27, 2012, he is qualified to contest and be elected to the office of governor of Bayelsa for another four years term in view of Section 180(2)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”

Therefore, Kolomo prayed for a declaration that by virtue of Section 182(1)\(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Sylva was not qualified to contest the election to the Office of the Governor of Bayelsa on the APC platform or on any other political party’s platform in the election.

In court filings, Kolomo further averred that the former petroleum minister was first elected to the office of governor, Bayelsa on April 14, 2007 and assumed the said office on May 29, 2007, and was in the said office until 15 April, 2008 when his election conducted on 14 April, 2007, was nullified by the Court of Appeal. He was consequently removed from office.

He added that Sylva was reelected on May 24, 2008, and assumed office as governor on May 27, 2008 until January 27, 2012. He said INEC recently published the names of governorship candidates for the state, including Sylva’s name.

Recall that Sylva had, in 2006, joined the PDP governorship primaries challenging ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, who, at that time, was vying for the same position.

However, after Sylva emerged as the PDP candidate, he went on and won the election in 2007. He succeeded Jonathan, who had also become the Vice President to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. But Sylva’s opponent in the 2007 election, Ebitimi Amgbare of the defunct Action Congress (AC), challenged his victory at the state Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

While the tribunal upheld Sylva’s election, Amgbare took the matter to the Appeal Court, Port Harcourt in Rivers State, which overturned the tribunal’s decision and nullified Sylva’s election on April 15, 2008. The appellate court ordered that the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Werinipre Seibarugo, be inaugurated to replace Sylva as acting governor, with a new election to be held within 90 days, as stated in the Electoral Act. When a new election was held on May 24, 2008, Sylva again won and was sworn in.

When his tenure was about to end in May 2011, he secured a court order that his tenure began in 2008, not 2007, claiming that his one year as governor was a bonus. Governors Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto), Liyel Imoke (Cross River) Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) and Ibrahim Idris (Kogi), who had at different times had their elections nullified, copied Sylva. The quintet refused to stand for elections in 2011.

However, there arose people who felt otherwise. One of them was Brig-Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd), who was eyeing the governorship of Adamawa State, but was told the guber election would not hold on account of Sylva’s court order. Marwa challenged the order, and lost his appeal. Undaunted, the retired army officer pressed on with the matter against Governor Nyako until it got to the Supreme Court. On January 27, 2012, the Supreme Court sacked Nyako, Sylva and all the other governors who refused to stand for elections in 2011. The Supreme Court held that the 1999 Constitution pegged the tenure of governors at four years.

According to the justices of the apex court, they relied on section 180 (2) of the Constitution wherein the tenure of office of governors were prescribed. They held that the said section did not envisage any form of elongation of occupants of the office as well as that of the President.

In the case of Sylva and his colleagues, they had spent nearly five years, a situation the justices said was a breach of the constitution. Speakers of the five affected states became acting governors for three months, and INEC conducted fresh elections.

While other governors won their reelections, Sylva was denied PDP ticket to participate in the poll because at that point, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan had become president and settled for Hon. Seriake Dickson as the Bayelsa PDP candidate.

Curiously, last April, Sylva contested and won the APC ticket to contest the November 11, 2023 governorship election. As soon as he emerged APC flagbearer, many had raised objections against his candidacy. While some challenged his qualification to contest, others felt that the APC should have given the ticket to Lyon

Recall that in 2020, Sylva had declined to contest the governorship, preferring instead to back Lyon. The former minister vigorously campaigned for Lyon who later won the election. However, a day to Lyon’s inauguration, the Supreme Court nullified his victory on the grounds that his would-be deputy, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, presented false information to INEC to aid his qualification for the election. In his place, the apex court ordered that Senator Duoye Diri of the PDP, who came second in the election be sworn in as governor.

Many analysts had thought that the same Lyon would be given an automatic ticket to contest the governorship seat for next month’s poll. But this was not to be.

Having appealed the Federal High Court judgment, it is hoped that it won’t be too late for Sylva and Bayelsa APC when the Supreme Court finally resolves the issue.