The minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva has said that the sacked deputy governor-elect of Bayelsa State, Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo is mulling suicide over allegation of certificate forgery.
Sylva, who stated this on Monday when he appeared on a Channels TV programme: Sunrise Daily, disclosed that he has been constantly in touch with him to avoid unwarranted scenario by the traumatised senator.
It would be recalled that the apex court had on February 13 sacked the governor-elect, David Lyon and ordered that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Duoye Diri be sworn-in as the governor of the state.
The APC leader, while describing the Supreme Court judgement as unfair, argued that “the apex court seemed to have made a decision against the principles of justice”, adding that the judgement of the lower court which the supreme court upheld sacked only Degi-Eremienyo, not Lyon.
“Anybody that says it is not a matter of life and death doesn’t really understand the issue. I’m today, dealing with a former deputy governor that is on the verge of committing suicide. Every day I have to call to be sure that he hasn’t done anything to himself.
“If you were here and somebody just said you forged your certificate, you built your life on that integrity and somebody – seven people, five people, all of a sudden bring everything down, that can actually lead to suicide.
“You’re now stigmatised for life as having forged your certificate.
“If you have a case in court challenging the authenticity of the certificate of a candidate, that is a different problem, but if you say you’re going to establish forgery and you have not heard from the person concerned, then you have not established anything.
“You haven’t gone to school or university where this person studied to confirm the veracity of the certificate and from paper evidence, you condemn such a person, it’s really very sad and for me, it is very dangerous.
“Forgery is supposed to be a criminal offence and when you have this kind of situation you have to come out and correct the impression. There was no forgery here at all. There were just variants of the name on the certificate and the Supreme Court went ahead to uphold the judgement of a lower court.
“We are also saying that the Supreme Court has introduced extraneous things to that judgement. That judgement said that the deputy governor had been disqualified, but that judgement did not disqualify the governorship candidate,” he said.
He added, “Supreme Court went ahead and disqualified the governorship candidate. Where did that come before the court because you don’t give what was not asked?
“We’re not saying that the Supreme Court erred, we’re saying that they overlooked certain things.”