Bayelsa poll: Sylva protests exclusion from gov candidates’ list 

Bayelsa poll: Sylva protests exclusion from gov candidates’ list   

Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, has written to the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), demanding the immediate withdrawal of its amended candidates’ list for the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa State.

Sylva, in a letter addressed to INEC through his counsel, Ahmed Raji, accused INEC of being prejudicial.

Sylva’s name was excluded in the amended list of candidates running for the election released by the electoral umpire on Wednesday.

This followed the disqualification of the former Bayelsa Governor by Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court Abuja on October 9, 2023.

But he immediately filed an appeal at the court challenging the judgment.

Sylva in his letter demanded the immediate withdrawal of the amended list.

He said it was shocking for the INEC to release such publication when the judgment the commission acted upon had already been appealed against.

The high court judge had said that having been sworn in twice and served five years as governor of the state, it would breach the 1999 constitution as amended if Sylva was allowed to contest again.

He also declared that Sylva was not qualified to run in the November poll because if he wins and sworn in, he would be spending more than eight years in office as governor of the state.