On October 24, 2023, a Facebook user posted on a prominent Bayelsa group on Facebook, “BAYELSA FOCUS GROUP.” He posted a picture of INEC’s final list of candidates for the 2023 Governorship Election with the caption, “INEC is merely following the court’s directive. The race is now officially over for APC.”
Claim: INEC excluded APC candidates’ names from the final list following court orders
Verification:
On June 9, 2023, INEC released the final list of candidates for the November 11 off-cycle gubernatorial elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states. In the released list, the All Progressives Congress (APC) fielded Timipre Sylva and Joshua Maciver as the party’s governorship and deputy governorship candidates.
However, on October 9, 2023, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja disqualified Timipre Sylva and his running mate from contesting in the November 11 gubernatorial election in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/821/2023 filed by a member of the APC in the state, Demesuoyefa Kolomo.
Kolomo asked the court to determine whether Sylva was qualified to contest in the election, having occupied the office of governor of Bayelsa from May 29, 2007, to April 15, 2008, and May 27, 2008, to Jan. 27, 2012.
The presiding judge, Justice Donatus Okorowo, held that allowing Sylva to contest again would breach the provision of the 1999 constitution, having been sworn in twice and ruled for five years as a governor of the state. The judge added that Sylva would spend more than eight years in office if allowed to participate in the election and eventually win.
It is based on this court judgement that INEC released a press statement titled “AMENDED LIST OF CANDIDATES FOR 2023 BAYELSA STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION PURSUANT TO COURT ORDERS.”
Attached to the statement is a 3-page list of candidates and their political parties for the 2023 off-cycle governorship election. According to the amended list of candidates, of the 16 political parties, only the APC has a blank row with the remarks reading “COURT ORDER.”
Furthermore, the APC and its candidate have approached the Court of Appeal to overturn the decision of the Federal High Court, which would mandate INEC to recognise Sylva and Maciver as the candidates of the APC in the November 11 gubernatorial election.
Verdict: TRUE
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed the name of APC candidates from its amended candidates list for the Bayelsa governorship election due to a court order by the Federal High Court, Abuja.