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The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a suit brought by the immediate past Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, asking the court to declare him the rightful candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last  governorship election in the state.

The court dismissed Sylva's suit and upheld an appeal by the PDP, which challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to hear the suit.

In a unanimous decision, the panel of justices of the court dismissed the suit on the grounds that the matter in dispute related to pre-primary election affairs of the PDP, which were not 'justiciable' and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the FHC.

Sylva had initially emerged the governorship candidate of the PDP in the primaries held on Jan 12, 2011, but the Independent National Electoral Commission postponed the April 2011 poll in Bayelsa and four other states after a court verdict extended the tenure of the governors.

However, after INEC fixed Feb 12, 2012 as the new date for the governorship election in Bayelsa, Sylva was disqualified from another PDP primaries, held on Nov 19, 2011, which produced the current governor, Seriake Dickson, as the party's candidate.

Sylva had headed for the FHC, Abuja in a bid to stop the PDP from going ahead with the primaries and also to compel INEC to recognise him as the party's governorship candidate on the strength of his victory in the Jan 12, 2011 primaries.

The PDP, however, approached the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, to challenge the powers of the Abuja FHC to hear Sylva's suit.

The party asked the appellate court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the trial court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

The Court of Appeal ruled that the FHC had the powers to entertain the suit, and ordered that the matter be remitted back to a different judge of the lower court for hearing of the originating summons.

Dissatisfied, the PDP approached the Supreme Court to appeal the decision of the Court of Appeal.

Sylva also filed a cross-appeal, asking the Supreme Court to evoke the provisions of Section 22 of its statutes and hear the matter.

In its lead judgement, which was written by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour and delivered by Justice John Fabiyi, the Supreme Court dismissed Sylva's suit while agreeing with the PDP that the action in dispute related to the party's pre-primary election affairs, which were outside the jurisdiction of the FHC.

"The right to nominate or sponsor a candidate by a political party is a domestic right of the party.

"A member of the political party has no legal right to be nominated/sponsored by his party.

"A court has no jurisdiction to determine who a political party should sponsor.

"Nomination or sponsorship of a candidate for an election is a political matter solely within the discretion of the party, and this is so because the sponsorship or nomination of a candidate is a pre-primary election affair of the party," Rhodes-Vivour held.

The Supreme Court also held that the Jan 12, 2012 primary election won by Sylva was no longer relevant since the election for which the said primaries was conducted was cancelled.