Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has asked his predecessor, Chief Timipre Sylva, to consider his ambition of returning to Government House in 2016 as an illusion, saying the people of Bayelsa are now wiser.
Dickson told the former governor and the leader of the All Progressives Congress in the state that he could not be governor of Bayelsa State again.
He reminded him that his era was the darkest days in the history of the state. Sylva was stopped from contesting for the second term in office in 2011 by the Peoples Democratic Party allegedly due to pressure from former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sylva, in an interview in Yenagoa last Friday, did not state categorically whether he would run or would not for the governorship election expected to take place at the end of the year.
Sylva, who said the PDP was dead in Bayelsa and that the APC would capture the state, however, stressed that his decision to run or not to run was dependent on his party.
During the interview, he had accused Dickson of ruling the state by fear and intimidation.
Sylva had said, “Governor Seriake Dickson is ruling the state by fear and intimidation. And when you rule by intimidating your people, then the loyalty is liable to break under any form of stress.
“Once you rule a people by fear and not love, it will break. The time for that loyalty to break is now.”
But Dickson in a statement on Monday by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said Sylva’s remarks epitomised those of a man who had lost focus and not in touch with the realities on ground.
The governor said, “Sylva remarks epitomised those of a man, who has lost focus and not in touch with the realities on the ground. It is heartwarming that he (Sylva) is not accusing me of multiple crimes and criminality, secret killings, cultism, large scale corruption and brigandage, which were the hallmarks of his tenure as governor of Bayelsa State.
“Sylva’s era as governor of Bayelsa were the darkest days in the history of the state. Bayelsans have become wiser and would not be cajoled or hoodwinked by his antics. If Sylva is a wise man, he would have seen the writing on the wall, that Bayelsans have since rejected him by voting massively for the Peoples Democratic Party in all the recent elections.
“As a clear manifestation of the people’s total dislike for Sylva, he lost in his unit, ward and constituency in the state and National Assembly polls that were conducted recently in the state. These are ominous signals that he can’t be governor again.”
Dickson wondered how Sylva would in his wildest imagination, think that he and the APC would stand any chance of defeating a performing PDP Governor in the forthcoming election in the state. -Punch.
