(Bayelsa guber) Anxiety as Court fixes Friday to hear ineligibility petition against Sylva’s running mate
The resumed hearing of the substantive lawsuit brought against Great Joshua Maciver, the Deputy Governorship candidate for the Bayelsa All Progressives Congress, APC, over his alleged ineligibility to run for governor on November 11th, has sparked unrest in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State.
Ikisima Johnson, a female candidate for governor in the APC who competed in the party’s governorship primary but ultimately lost to Chief Timipre Sylva, is questioning Joshua Maciver’s legitimacy and requesting that he be disqualified from serving as the party’s running mate.
According to information obtained by Platinum Times, the petition is based on the purported claim that the petitioner is an ex-offender who was given a 10-year sentence for terrorism and sea piracy but who broke out of jail before serving the whole term.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Timipre Sylva, and Joshua MacIver are the second through fourth defendants in suit number FHC/YNG/CS114/2023/, with the APC identified as the first defendant.
The Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Maj. Gen. Barry Tariye Ndiomu (ret. ), and Sylva are allegedly planning to insert Maciver’s mame into the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, database and submit an affidavit to support it in court, according to a civil society organization, Coalition for Social Justice and Equity Initiative.
The organization urged the presiding judge, Justice Olaide Quadiri, and the inspector general of police, Kayode Egbetokun, to be attentive in order to thwart the alleged scheme in a statement released in Yenagoa on Wednesday.
According to Ezra Areo, the Coalition for Social Justice and Equity Initiative’s public relations officer
“Information at our disposal has revealed that the duo of the Presidential Amnesty Boss, Maj Gen Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd.), the Governorship aspirant of APC, Chief Timipre Sylva are plotting to insert the name of the embattled running mate, Joshua Maciver into the Amnesty beneficiaries platform and are planning to submit an affidavit to that effect to the court Thursday.
“We are calling on the presiding judge and the inspector general of police to be aware that the document to be tendered are fake and an allege attempt to lie on oat. Joshua Maciver has long been verified not to be on the list of Amnesty Beneficiaries.”
The Bayelsa APC Deputy Governorship candidate, Maciver, was, a few months ago, enmeshed in controversy over his alleged conviction and involvement in jailbreak.
It was reported that he was convicted by a court and sent to Kaduna Prison to serve a 10 years sentence for sea piracy and terrorism.
The group added,
“Maciver was never a fighter for the people, he was a convicted sea pirate and terrorist, he escaped from prison in 2006 and was already out of the creeks in late 2007 and early 2008 hiding in Bayelsa Government House with Timipre Sylva the then Governor, when Amnesty had not been proclaimed, for fear of being rearrested and returned to prison.
“Maciver has over the years publicly claimed to have accepted the Amnesty Programme, however, he never presented himself for proper documentation like the 30,000 Amnesty beneficiaries to the Presidential Amnesty team. Maciver was not alone in this reasoning as over 10,000 ex-agitators felt the same way.”
The group argued that, due to the nature of the crimes for which Maciver was allegedly convicted, he cannot be a beneficiary of the Federal Government’s amnesty for militants.
“In the case Joshua Maciver, he was allegedly convicted by a competent court of jurisdiction sometime in 2006, for murder and terrorism and an alleged fugitive which conviction has no relation with militancy activity, therefore the amnesty proclamation of 2009 which cannot operate to serve as a pardon for the conviction of the offences committed by Joshua Maciver, which is not in any way associated with militant activities in the Niger-Delta,” the group added.