BAYELSA: PDP CARPETS APC LEADERSHIP OVER COMMENTS ON DICKSON

State Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State, Hon. Keku Godspower, has lambasted the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state over possible emergence of former governor Timipre Sylva as its candidate and the party’s belief that he could beat Governor Seriake Dickson in the December 5 governorship election.APC State Chairman, Chief Tiwei Orunimighe, had recently claimed that with Sylva as the candidate, Dickson should be preparing his hand-over notes as the former governor would win.But in a statement in Yenagoa, the state capital, yesterday Keku said such pronouncement was bereft of the knowledge of the situation on the ground in the state and indeed the mindset of the people.The statement noted that the choice of either Sylva or Timi Alaibe, meant that “APC was dead on arrival”, claiming that the former governor’s years in government were full of failures, huge debts and record of criminality. The same applies to Timi Alaibe, who made a mess of the NDDC during his tenure as Executive Director of Finance and Admin and later as Managing Director.

According to him, Sylva was a failed governor and as such the people were now wiser and will not allow his return to power for what he referred to as “primitive accumulation”.The statement read in parts:” We know politics is in the air right now, so talk is cheap. We noted Chief Tiwei Orunimighe’s misplaced comment on Governor Dickson but that will be decided at the polls. We, however, wonder how a man who governed the state for five years, plundered its resources so terribly leaving behind a massive debt burden of N400 billion will now be celebrated as a worthy candidate to beat Governor Dickson who has so far reduced the debt to N90 billion. Dickson will be judged by his various achievements in the major areas of development in the state and Bayelsans are ready to re-elect him with massive votes.

“We recall with much disappointment how Sylva obtained several bonds from the capital market purportedly meant for major projects including the Nembe-Brass road only to divert the huge resources into private accounts. He did same thing with workers salaries. These are the sad memories of Sylva as governor in Bayelsa State but our people are now wiser and will never allow such to happen again. Bayelsans will not be hoodwinked into voting for a man who could at best be described as representing the darkest days in the history of the state.

“Without doubt, Sylva’s era was replete with cases of criminality, killing and maiming of innocent Bayelsans, using his so-called security outfit “Operation Famo Tamgbe”. It is therefore a sad commentary that the APC in Bayelsa is thinking of returning a failed leader to office to further gag, enslave and plunder state resources to enrich a few at the expense of the good people of Bayelsa. But we know certainly that the people are wiser. The era of primitive accumulation and gross incompetence is gone; our people will not fall for those old antics to allow any failed leader return to office. APC is dead on arrival”.