INEC obeys court order, removes APC’s Sylva from list of Bayelsa guber candidates

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed Timipre Sylva’s name from the list of candidates contesting the Bayelsa governorship election.

The name of Sylva’s running mate, Joshua Maciveras, was also yanked off. Both men are candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the poll.

On June 9, INEC published the final list of candidates for the off-cycle polls in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi.

But on October 10, the federal high court in Abuja disqualified Sylva from participating in the race.

The court held that Sylva, having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as governor of the state, would breach the 1999 constitution if allowed to contest again.

In the amended list of candidates posted on the commission’s website on Tuesday, the column meant for the Bayelsa APC candidates was left blank with the remarks “court order”.

In the same vein, the commission included the names of the Peoples Redemption Party’s (PRP) Uchechukwu Ishiodu as the governorship candidate and Ahumbe Chiazor as his running mate, for the Imo state election.

In the previous list published in June, the PRP had been excluded entirely but the federal high court, Owerri, reportedly ordered INEC to include the name of the PRP governorship candidate in the list of nominated candidates already published on the INEC website.

The amendments were signed by Oriaran-Anthony, alongside a statement.

The statement said INEC was served with a court order on the nomination of the APC candidate for Bayelsa and the PRP candidates for Imo.

“By virtue of the provision of section 287 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Commission is bound to enforce the Orders of Court on nomination of candidates by political parties in the state,” the statement reads.

Speaking on Tuesday at the commission’s quarterly consultative meeting with leaders of political parties, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, had said the commission is concerned about the spate of recent judgments on candidature in the off-cycle elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi.

“Reprinting of the materials in compliance with court orders within a short period of time is not only expensive but the management of the process is very challenging,” he said.

“These changes have been reflected in the updated list of parties and candidates on our website.

“However, this decision is without prejudice to any pending appeal by the affected candidates or their political parties.”