The embattled candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State governorship election, Timipre Sylva, left the Aso Rock Villa on Monday night disappointed after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari over the botched December 5 governorship election.Sources informed that after much pressure and lobby by Sylva, the President eventually granted him audience in a meeting which lasted for about 20 minutes but left disappointed as he failed in his mission to get the cancelled election reversed.Sylva was said to have initiated the meeting to urge President Buhari to prevail on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare him winner of the election following the controversial rerun in Southern Ijaw LGA.But after prostrating to Buhari and cajoling him, the President firmly told Sylva to return home and mobilise his supporters and be prepared for a rescheduled election.A source privy to the development but who pleaded anonymity informed journalists that the APC flagbearer left Aso Rock wearing a sad look as he was seen in the company of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Engr. Babachir David Lawal, just before he entered his car to leave at about 1.45 am. Ahead of the rerun election in Southern Ijaw, President Buhari, it was also gathered, directed INEC and all heads of the various security agencies to ensure that every arrangements were put in place to guarantee a free, fair and credible election.Meanwhile, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on Buhari not to allow Sylva to destroy his presidency through acts capable of eroding his integrity and respect not only among Nigerians but also before the international community.
The PDP in a statement by its Bayelsa State Secretary, Hon. Keku Godspower and made available to journalists in Yenagoa, said by his antecedents, Sylva has succeeded in ridiculing and bringing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into disrepute “by using his friends in the Vila to pressure the courts to quash his well-established corruption cases”.The party accused Sylva of using the same friends in Aso Rock Villa to force him on APC as its candidate during the governorship primary, adding that the violence he allegedly unleashed on his party men and women by using thugs and fake PVCs to rig the election and eventually got the ticket.
“The whole world saw what this same Sylva did in the December 5 governorship election which invariably also succeeded in messing up the military as an institution. Of course, the report of the international observers and other monitoring groups clearly put the blame at the doorsteps of the security agencies with the police and the military taking sides with hired militant groups and miscreants to unleash terror on hapless citizens all because they wanted to forcefully install Sylva as governor against the wishes of the people”, Keku stated.
The PDP warned that Sylva was at it again, trying to discredit INEC as an institution through his maneuverings by going to President Buhari in the middle of the night to lobby him to force INEC to reverse the cancelation of Southern Ijaw election and declare him winner.He further stated: “President Buhari should know that any attempt to force the electoral umpire to reverse itself over the cancellation of Southern Ijaw election will spell doom for his presidency. He should be advised to do what is right in order to continue to maintain not only the integrity and credibility of these national institutions but also that of his presidency”. “Without doubt, the world is patiently watching to see how INEC will capitulate under pressure from the Presidency to rig the election in favour of the APC candidate, Timipre Sylva. It will not only be a mockery of democracy but certainly one terrible step that is capable of consuming the Buhari Presidency”.
The PDP in a statement by its Bayelsa State Secretary, Hon. Keku Godspower and made available to journalists in Yenagoa, said by his antecedents, Sylva has succeeded in ridiculing and bringing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into disrepute “by using his friends in the Vila to pressure the courts to quash his well-established corruption cases”.The party accused Sylva of using the same friends in Aso Rock Villa to force him on APC as its candidate during the governorship primary, adding that the violence he allegedly unleashed on his party men and women by using thugs and fake PVCs to rig the election and eventually got the ticket.
“The whole world saw what this same Sylva did in the December 5 governorship election which invariably also succeeded in messing up the military as an institution. Of course, the report of the international observers and other monitoring groups clearly put the blame at the doorsteps of the security agencies with the police and the military taking sides with hired militant groups and miscreants to unleash terror on hapless citizens all because they wanted to forcefully install Sylva as governor against the wishes of the people”, Keku stated.
The PDP warned that Sylva was at it again, trying to discredit INEC as an institution through his maneuverings by going to President Buhari in the middle of the night to lobby him to force INEC to reverse the cancelation of Southern Ijaw election and declare him winner.He further stated: “President Buhari should know that any attempt to force the electoral umpire to reverse itself over the cancellation of Southern Ijaw election will spell doom for his presidency. He should be advised to do what is right in order to continue to maintain not only the integrity and credibility of these national institutions but also that of his presidency”. “Without doubt, the world is patiently watching to see how INEC will capitulate under pressure from the Presidency to rig the election in favour of the APC candidate, Timipre Sylva. It will not only be a mockery of democracy but certainly one terrible step that is capable of consuming the Buhari Presidency”.
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