Nigeria's junior oil minister Timipre Sylva has resigned -sources

Nigeria's Timipre Sylva has resigned as the country's minister of state for petroleum in order to seek the ruling party nomination to run for governor of oil-producing Bayelsa State, ministry and presidency sources told Reuters on Thursday. Sylva last week handed his resignation letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as petroleum minister, and stopped coming to the office, said two sources who did not want to be identified.

Nigeria's Timipre Sylva has resigned as the country's minister of state for petroleum in order to seek the ruling party nomination to run for governor of oil-producing Bayelsa State, ministry and presidency sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Sylva last week handed his resignation letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as petroleum minister, and stopped coming to the office, said two sources who did not want to be identified. The ministry of petroleum declined to comment on Sylva's resignation. Sylva could not be reached for comment.

Sylva has already served as governor of Bayelsa in the past, for one full term between 2008 and 2012. At the time, he was a member of the People's Democratic Party, which was then in power at the federal level but is now in opposition.