
Rivers crisis echoes in Bayelsa as Gov. Diri, Sylva seize each other’s throat

By Chris Eze, Port Harcourt

For Rivers and Bayelsa States, the saying that there is no difference between six and half a dozen holds very true.

But for the state creation in 1996 by the late Gen. Sani Abacha, the two states would probably still be together answering one name as Rivers State. It was that exercise by Gen. Abacha that birthed Bayelsa as a state on its own.
However, the mere separation of the two states into different entities did not take away or obliterate a common attribute shared by the two sister states – political intolerance!
Political actors in the two states have a history of engaging one another in fierce, acrimonious battle for positions.
What is trending now is the Wike-Fubara’ war’ in Rivers over the headship of Rivers political firmament and by extension, control of its vast resources. In Bayelsa, the Diri-Sylva diatribe is over the fall out of the November 11, 2023 Governorship election in the state. The actors are all daggers drawn!
The story of Rivers – Nyesom Wike, the FCT minister versus Governor Siminalayi Fubara is already well told. While verdict on the cases pending in various courts are being awaited, the battle front has now shifted to the local government areas where both gladiators are aiming to corner grassroots support for future electoral contest. Events are still unfolding.
In Bayelsa, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC had declared Senator Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, winner of the November 11 Governorship election held in the state. But the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, a former governor of the state and immediate past minister of state for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva was embittered for losing the election and headed straight to the tribunal to challenge the result. He again lost at the tribunal and yet headed to the Appeal Court. As it appears, the final destination would likely be at the Supreme Court whichever way it goes at the Appeal Court.
But while the matter is pending at Appeal Court, Governor Douye Diri opened a can of worms, accusing Sylva of orchestrating the scenario that led to the killing of a youth in Brass during the collation of the Governorship election and directing the Attorney General of the state to institute a legal action against Sylva and other accomplices over the death of the youth.
Outraged by Diri’s accusation, Sylva fired his own missile back to Diri, dismissing the allegations against him.
In a statement signed by his Special Assistant, Media, Julius Bokoru, Sylva said that the directive, which Diri gave to his Attorney-General, had shown the governor’s desperation to deploy diversionary tactics and distractions against his case at the Appeal Court.
The former governor recalled that Diri had abandoned a phantom EFCC case he conjured to distract him and had devised another style in his failed attempt to stop him and the APC from concentrating on their case.
Sylva said Diri’s new “devilish” plot was dead on arrival as he knew nothing about the death of George Sibo, whom he described as an illustrious and promising youth of the state.
Sylva asked members of the public to discountenance the new plot by the governor insisting that nothing would stop him from reclaiming his stolen mandate.
The statement said: “Chief Sylva is curious at what Diri’s apparent desperation can push him to. It is clear this recent effort is a symptom of fear, shortly after Diri tried to conjure some phantom EFCC case against Sylva he has devised a new method of distraction which, of course, is dead on arrival.
“Sylva knows nothing of the murder of George Sibo, an illustrious and promising youth of the state, it is important to note that by the time the young man died Sylva was well out of the Island”.
The statement observed that Diri had continued to spend huge amounts of taxpayers’ money on heavy propaganda to distract Sylva’s focus on his case.
The statement added: “It is clear that this is fear, anxiety and everything to distract Chief Sylva after his attempt to bring up EFCC issues failed at the wake of a long and relentless string of propaganda against Chief Sylva with tax payer’s monies.
“It is clear that any attempt to drag Chief Sylva into this issue is either inspired by fear and anxiety or by a thoroughly jaundiced-mindset.
“Everything imaginable has been put in Sylva’s way to distract him. After Diri’s attempt to bring up phantom EFCC issues failed; after the endless and relentless string of propaganda failed against Chief Sylva. Now this!
“This response, which at this point is forced from Chief Sylva, is painful for two reasons: how can a sitting governor assume the role of a forensic and criminal investigator, and convict Chief Sylva even before investigations commenced? How much more can a sitting governor debase the office, making such wild, frantic and baseless allegations?
“In the course of the last elections we saw strange things from Gov Douye Diri who seemed constantly edgy and ready to emotionally erupt, but this latest unwarranted combustion is a new low.
“This is an unequivocal affirmation that we have a mentally brittle individual at the helm in Bayelsa State who cannot free himself from a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which he apparently contracted since the electoral heist of November 2023.
“Chief Sylva, concerned Bayelsans and the APC are trying everything within the law to get a stolen mandate back.
“Until justice is done, Diri’s Governorship remains illegitimate in the minds of every sincere Bayelsan and every sincere person of goodwill”, Sylva insisted.
Apparently stung by Sylva’s reaction, Gov. Diri aimed another salvo at him, describing the former minister’s reaction as “mindless and lacking any feeling of contrition”
In a statement entitled, “Sylva dancing on grave of slain Brass youth”, Gov. Diri asserted, “It is just as ridiculous that Chief Sylva, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 11, 2023 governorship poll in the state, could turn around to deny and feign ignorance of the dastardly killing of a young man; an act he instigated by his own action.
“If the APC candidate, an interested party in the election, had not invaded the INEC collation centre in Twon-Brass and held hostage officials of the electoral umpire, would George Sibo have been attacked and killed by his supporters and party men?
“It would have been better for Chief Sylva to show remorse instead of this vile show of dancing on the grave of the slain Brass youth.
The statement signed by Dan Alabra, Gov. Diri’s spokesman said it also amounts to sheer prevarication to claim Governor Diri was desperate in an election that was his to win; and which he won convincingly.
“Sylva’s feckless effort to stand truth on its head only reinforces the generally-held opinion that he lacks character and honour.
“It is only a man who relishes in untruth and lies that would claim a “stolen mandate” in an election that was adjudged by the National Chairman of his own party as credible and won freely by Governor Diri, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate.
“Undoubtedly, there was no “electoral heist” in Bayelsa on November 11, 2023 except only in the warped imagination of Sylva and his dyed-in-the-wool associates”
Gov. Diri insisted that by the affirmation of the Bayelsa electorate and the imprimatur of INEC, Sylva has no mandate to lay claim to, advising the former minister to pick the pieces of his political misadventure and move on.
The Bayelsa Governor added, “Perhaps, the serial governorship contestant has forgotten the criminal indictment of the tribunal hanging over his head like the ‘Sword of Damocles’ for presenting forged electoral documents to the court.
“Let it be clear, however, that Governor Diri has no reason to be afraid of Sylva. But the governor remains his albatross because of his political forthrightness and for his ability to dismantle the violent political culture that the likes of Sylva enthroned in the state.
“Today, elections in Bayelsa are no more a do-or-die affair. November 11 was a referendum on the new political culture and Bayelsans overwhelmingly preferred Governor Diri. They will not go back to Egypt”.
Concerned Bayelsans say with the “missiles” emanating from the two gladiators in the last governorship election, they are beginning to throw faggots into an already smoldering fire which could burn beyond imagined. They called for caution citing Rivers State which they say political actors have already driven to the edge of a precipice.