From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the November 11 Bayelsa governorship election, Chief Timipre Sylva, has lambasted Governor Douye Diri over his comments in Nembe during his campaign tour in the area.
Sylva who is from Nembe declared that Diri should allow the people of Nembe to be in peace, adding that the entire communities have rejected all the lies he told them during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign in the area.
He equally took a swipe at the former Deputy Governor of the state, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah for lying and blackmailing him before the people.
Sylva, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Media and Public Affairs, Julius Bokoru, said that the Bayelsa governor went to Nembe to campaign for his elusive re-election, but could not point at any reasonable project he executed in the area other than the Unity Bridge that was almost completed before he assumed office.
He said that because the governor had no blueprint and had done almost nothing in the area, but he and Jonah resorted to attacking him with lies and attempted to blackmail him before his people.
Sylva, who also hails from Nembe, asked Diri to stop dissipating his energy on Nembe, insisting that no amount of blackmail and desperation would make him win Nembe in the forthcoming poll.
While insisting that the people had rejected him, he said Diri’s obsession with Nembe had only brought death and destruction to the council.
“Under Diri”s administration, Nembe had been subjected to dehumanisation, rights abuses, neglect and made a theatre of war in pursuit of the governor’s selfish interest of winning election.
“Only last month the Inspector General of Police’s SWAT team rid Nembe of dangerous criminals, sponsored and inspired, of course, by the current occupants of Creek Haven, who turned Opu-Nembe to a dystopian setting.
“Nembe cannot remain the theater of Governor Diri’s frequent lies and even worse, the playground of his violent games and extreme political ambitions,” he said.
Sylva said that Diri and the PDP had failed the people of Nembe and the entire state, stressing that it was for the same reason they lost to the APC in the 2019 governorship election with more than 80 per cent of the votes.
Meanwhile President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the leader of the APC has approved Saturday, October 14 as the flag-off of the party’s governorship campaign in the state.
The flag-off is expected to attract the National Working Committee, NWC of the party, as well as top members of the party to drum up support for its governorship candidate.
Sources within the party said that in preparation for the flag-off, the State Working Committee of the party would commence campaigns from Sagbama Local Government Area from Monday, October 9.