By Daniels Igoni
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, and incumbent Governor Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday, engaged in a war of words over allegations of spying and violence ahead of the November 11 polls.
Sylva claimed in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Julius Bokoru, that Diri had recruited spies to monitor his movements but the second-term-seeking governor denied the allegation, saying the APC governorship flagbearer was crying wolf where none existed.
The former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources said this is according to a credible intelligence available to him.
The statement said, “Credible reports available to H.E Chief Timipre Sylva, governorship candidate of the APC in Bayelsa State suggest that Governor Douye Diri has commissioned spies across the state, especially at the Bayelsa International Cargo Airport, to document and report Chief Sylva’s movements in Bayelsa and environs to some off-grid security architecture in the state.
“This desperate, illegitimate security operation is headed by a close security aide to Governor Diri, and the end game, as is known, is to compromise the convoy and security of Chief Sylva.
“This is to alert the general public and especially the security agencies across the nation to take note of Governor Diri’s strategy of violence against Sylva and the Bayelsa people with a special focus being Opu-Nembe.
“A serving Governor’s chief campaign strategy, naturally, was to reel out achievements and milestones, not investing in an orgy of violence. Diri should be commissioning projects, not commissioning spies.
“Sylva’s push to Creek Haven is an act of liberation and Bayelsans are massively aligned. The change is soon, the change is inevitable and the soul of Bayelsa state will be salvaged from the jaws of characters whose futile way of masking their inefficiency is violence.”
However, Diri in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah, said he believed that the former minister going by his antecedents was the one plotting what he (Sylva) was accusing the governor of.
The statement read, “Governor Douye Diri is a well-known pacifist and an advocate of politics without bitterness. He has said he won’t spill blood to get re-elected into office.
“It is on record that for the first time in the history of elections in Bayelsa State, the February/March general election in the country was so peaceful in the state that there were no reported cases of bloodshed and killings unlike in the past. This was due to the governor’s peaceful disposition that has permeated the politics of the state.
“Chief Sylva is good at crying wolf where there is none. Going by his antecedents, we believe he is the one planning what he is accusing the governor of. But it is better to ignore the rantings of a drowning man seeking straws to hang on to or trying to make excuses for his failed governorship project. His rejection by his party chieftains, his Nembe/Brass people and indeed the Bayelsa electorate is total.”
