Timipre Sylva, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has approached the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to set aside the judgement that disqualified him from participating in the Bayelsa State governorship election come November 11.
In a three-ground notice of appeal he filed through his team of lawyers led by Ahmed Raji, Sylva faulted the judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja which declared him ineligible to participate in the gubernatorial contest.
The immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources maintained that the verdict was against settled principles of law and notable precedents.
The APC candidate, however applied for stay of execution of the judgement against him.
He applied for an order of the appellate court, “staying execution and/or further execution of the entire judgment and the orders contained in the Judgment of the Court, delivered on the 9th October, 2023, pending the hearing and final determination of the appeal lodged against the judgement and Orders of this Court before the Court of Appeal, Abuja.”
Sylva further prayed the court for an order of injunction, restraining all the Respondents in the appeal from implementing and/or giving effect to the declaratory and executory orders contained in the judgment.
According to him, Justice Donatus Okorowo of the high court wrongly assumed jurisdiction by delving into an issue that was within the domestic affair of a political party.
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He argued that the issue of nomination of a candidate by a political party is a non-justiciable cause of action.
While insisting that the judgement that disqualified him from contesting the governorship election occassioned a grave miscarraige of justice against him, Sylva, argued that the trial court had a duty to understand and properly evaluate the case presented before it by the parties and apply the law correctly.
In ground two of the appeal, the former Governor of the State maintained that Justice Okorowo erred in law when he wrongly conferred, allowed and adjudicated on the matter, even though the litigant had no locus standi to initiate or institute the action.
He told the appellate court that the plaintiff in the suit that led to his disqualification, Demesuoyefa Kolomo had admitted that he did not participate in the primary election that produced him as the governorship candidate of the APC.
Sylva contended that Kolomo, not being a contestant in the primary election, lacked the legal right to query his emergence as the flag-bearer of the APC.
He said the court failed to properly evaluate, determine and pronounce on a preliminary objection he filed to challenge the competence of the suit and thereby breached his right to fair hearing as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
No date has been fixed for the appeal to be heard.
