Nigeria’s Timipre Sylva has resigned as the country’s minister of state for petroleum to seek a new term as governor of oil-producing Bayelsa State in the southern Niger Delta, ministry and presidency sources told Reuters on Thursday.
He resigned through a resignation letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari on the 14th of March just before the All Progressives Congress (APC) screening of governorship nominees for the Bayelsa gubernatorial election last week Saturday, 25th March.
It was recently reported that some APC members in Bayelsa State had called on the national leadership of the party to disqualify Sylva from contesting the governorship primaries of the party over his refusal to resign his position as a minister.
The report stated that party members from 43 Wards in Ekeremor, Ogbia, Sagbama, Kolokuma/Opokuma and Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas of the state, in a petition to the party national leadership, pointed out that as at the time the minister was screened, he had not resigned.
The APC primaries is fixed for April 14 with six aspirants vying for the sole ticket of the party.
They include a former Governor-elect Chief David Lyon, Former Vice Chancellor of the Maritime University Okerenkoko Delta State Professor Maureen Etebu, Barrister Festus Daumiebi Chief Mrs. Isikima Johnson Ogbomade and Joshua Machiver and Chiefs Timipre Sylva.
The winner will square up against the incumbent governor Senator Douye Diri who the sole contestant of the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties.
The Labour Party has one aspirant who was a former President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Comrade Udengs Eradiri.
The governorship election is billed for November 11, 2023 as fixed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
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