Bayelsa Stakeholders Urge INEC To Respect Court Ruling On Sylva’s Disqualification

The Bayelsa Democratic Coalition, has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to respect the decision of a Federal High Court, which disqualified the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, from participating in next month’s governorship election in the State.

Coordinator of the coalition, Orama David, in a statement, yesterday, in Abuja, hailed the decision of the court, describing it as victory for democracy.

Earlier, a civic society organisation, Save Ijaw Nation Group, had conducted an independent investigation and presented a 285-page report, which identified places, victims, perpetrators and sponsors of the violence, which erupted during the December 2015 governorship election.

Subsequently, the government of Bayelsa State constituted the Justice Margaret Akpomiemie (retd) Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the violence and identify its perpetrators. It submitted its report years ago.

But former deputy national publicity secretary of the APC, Yekini Nabena, and close ally of Sylva, had described the state government’s action as a political witch-hunt. He said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government constituted the Commission, saying it was expected that the panel would be biased.