JUST IN: Appeal Court Reverses Timipre Sylva’s Disqualification as APC Candidate

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has cleared the immediate-past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipreye Sylva, to contest the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa State.

The appellate court, on Tuesday, said the respondent in the appeal before it, Deme Kolomo, who is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), lacked the legal right to approach the court for an order to disqualify Sylva from the governorship race.

The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of Justices, vacated the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which disqualified Sylva from participating in the gubernatorial poll.

It held that the litigant, Mr Demesuoyefa Kolomo, who initiated the suit that led to Sylva’s disqualification, lacked the locus standi (legal right) to do so.

Consequently, the appellate court, aside from setting aside the verdict of the high court, awarded a cost of N1 million against the Respondent, Kolomo.

It will be recalled that the high court had in a judgement it delivered on October 9, declared that Sylva who is the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, was not eligible to participate in the gubernatorial contest having already spent five years in office as governor of the state.