The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja Friday reserved judgment on appeals seeking to determine the authentic governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming November 11 polls in Bayelsa State.
One appeal was filed by former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, whose candidacy was nullified by Justice Donatus Okorowo of Federal High Court in Abuja.
The lower court had agreed with an APC chieftain, Demesuoyefa Kolomo, that Sylva was not qualified to contest in the poll having been elected in April 2007 and May 2008.
The court also ordered INEC to delete Sylva’s name from its list of candidates- an order which has since been complied with.
But Sylva’s legal team maintained that the lower court’s judgment was faulty, citing wrongful evaluation of affidavit evidence.
The second appeal was filed by the APC against Kolomo, asking the appeal court to set aside the judgment of the lower court in the interest of justice.
APC’s lawyer, K. Balogun told the three-man panel of the appellate court chaired by Justice Haruna Tsammani, that the party has no choice but to field Sylva.
He contended that Kolomo lacked the locus standing (legal right) to approach the Federal High Court, adding that in 2007, Sylva was elected but within eight months in office, his election was nullified.
He alleged that Kolomo was fighting a proxy war for the People’s Democratic Party against the sacked APC candidate.
He told the court that despite serving a stay of execution order on INEC, the electoral umpire took laws into their hands by removing Silva’s name from its list of candidates.
On the part of INEC, its legal team told the court that it was in agreement with the judgment of the Federal High Court.
“Judgment reserved,” Justice Haruna Tsammani replied to the counsels.
