Right now, there’s a lot of tension in Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State. Why? Well, there’s a court case going on about whether or not Great Joshua Maciver, the Deputy Governorship candidate for the Bayelsa All Progressives Congress (APC), is eligible to run in the upcoming gubernatorial election on November 11th.
A woman named Ikisima Johnson, who also wanted to be the APC’s governorship candidate but lost to Chief Timipre Sylva, is the one challenging Maciver’s eligibility. She believes that Maciver shouldn’t be allowed to run because he has a criminal record. Apparently, he was convicted of Terrorism and Sea Piracy and was supposed to serve 10 years in prison. However, he escaped before completing his sentence.
The case has a few different people and organizations involved. The APC is the first defendant, while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Timipre Sylva, and Joshua Maciver are the second, third, and fourth defendants, respectively.
On top of all this, there’s another twist. A civil society group called the Coalition for Social Justice and Equity Initiative is claiming that there’s a plot to add Maciver’s name to the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) database. They say that the Interim Administrator of the PAP, Maj Gen Barry Tariye Ndiomu (rtd.), and Sylva are working together to do this. The group is worried that this could affect the court case, so they’re calling on the judge and the Inspector-General of Police to be aware of what’s going on.
