BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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The Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State says Timipre Sylva, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress is not qualified to contest governorship again in the state having been elected twice in the past qualified
THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Bayelsa State at the weekend said Timipre Sylva, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the December 5, was not qualified to contest the election.
Reacting to an advertorial published by the Truth Movement of Nigeria, a concerned organisation.
In a statement by Godspower Keku, state publicity secretary of the PDP, the party contended that the inherent issues contained in the advertorial were subsisting and had cogent foundation to render Sylva’s candidature null and void.
Truth Movement of Nigeria had in the said advertorial signed by Fred Amakom, its publicity secretary, posited that though Sylva had been nominated as candidate of the APC in the election, but that he was ineligible on account that he been elected twice as governor in 2007 and 2008.
Citing constitutional and legal precedent to back its argument, the organisation claimed that Sylva having been elected twice would be violating provisions of section 182 (1) (b) of the 1999 Constitution as amended which states that: “No person shall be qualified for election to the office of governor if “he has been elected to such office at any two previous elections”
So, to allow Sylva to contest again, it claimed, would amount to a breach of the constitution as Sylva would be serving more than the stipulated maximum of eight years in office.
“Chief Timipre Sylva has previously been elected twice as governor of Bayelsa State namely in 2007 and 2008. The 2007 election was nullified by the Court of Appeal and Chief TimipreSylva contested and won the re-run election where upon he was elected the second time and served for about a cumulative period of four years and seven months as the governor of Bayelsa State. He now seeks to be elected a third time as the governor of Bayelsa State in the said forthcoming elections.
“But the Supreme Court clearly recognised the earlier nullified election of Governor Timipre Sylva as having led to his first election. Thus his success in this re-run election was obviously his second election and has thus barred him from contesting again having been previously elected twice”, it stated.
On this legal ground, therefore, the PDP scribe said in the statement that allowing Sylva to contest in the next election would be an assault on the constitution of the federal republic and a clear impunity which he noted could create constitutional crisis.
Keku called on President Muhammadu Buhari, Bukola Saraki, Senate president, Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the House of Representatives, and Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to intervene urgently to protect the sanctity of the constitution and ensure justice was done in the interest of the nation.
— Nov 24, 2015 @ 16:20 GMT
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