Posted by Chief Timipre Sylva, the governorship candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), was barred from running in Bayelsa State’s election on November 11 by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Justice Donatus Okorowo issued his decision on Monday.
Okorowo concluded that allowing Sylva to run again would be a violation of the 1999 constitution as modified because Sylva had already been sworn in twice and had been governor for five years.
After calculating that Sylva, should he be elected governor in November, will have served for more than eight years, the judge ruled that he was ineligible to run in the upcoming election.
Okorowo argued that nobody should be elected governor of the country more than twice, citing the Supreme Court case Marwa vs. Nyako, and that all parties to the litigation agreed that Sylva had been elected twice.
The judge further claims that the Supreme Court determined in the case of Marwa vs. Nyako that the Constitution’s scope cannot be expanded.
If Sylva could run for office again, the court reasoned, then anyone may run for office as many times as they liked.