The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Timipre Sylva

  • $9.6b judgment: Govt draws battle line against P&ID

    NIGERIA will go on the full offensive to fend off the $9.6 billion judgment obtained against the country in Britain by Irish firm, Process and Industrial Development (P&ID).

    The first leg of the action is to file a stay of execution at the court when it resumes from vacation by month end.

    After this, the government will file an appeal. This new position is contrary to an earlier plan to consider entering into another round of negotiation with P&ID.

    Following a legal review, the government is convinced that the provision of the State Immunity Act 1978 (the Act) which bars UK courts from confiscating assets of a foreign state without the consent of that state, gives it a leeway in the matter.

    The decision to go all out was taken on Monday at a meeting chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    The more than two-hour session was attended by Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister Zainab Ahmed; Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN); Minister of Information Lai Mohammed; and Minister of State for Petroleum Timipre Sylva.

    Others are Minister of State for Niger Delta Affairs Festus Keyamo (SAN); Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mele Kyari; Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu; and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele.

    The Federal Government’s team met with an American lawyer alongside Mr. Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN), who has been central to the handling of the case with P&ID.

    Before the  meeting commenced, Malami met with the Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, who took him to the President’s office.

    Although none of those who attended the meeting spoke with journalists after the meeting, The Nation scooped the outcome of the session.

    A source said: “At the meeting, it was concluded that Nigeria must contest the judgment debt vigorously. We will take advantage of all legal options available to us when the court resumes later in September.

    “We have drawn the battle line against P&ID. There are many loopholes in the judgment. We will engage in a fight-to-the finish on this case.

    Read Also: P&ID rejected Fed Govt’s $250m settlement offer

    “The meeting resolved to immediately apply for a stay of execution of the judgment and thereafter, we will go on appeal to quash the $9.6billion award.”

    On the attachment of Nigeria’s assets abroad, the highly-placed source added: “The chances of garnishing our accounts, including foreign reserves,  or seizing our assets, are very remote.

    “P&ID has no legal window of enforcement of the judgment going by the State Immunity Act 1978 (the Act) of the United Kingdom. This is why the Irish company has resorted to blackmail.

    Further findings by The Nation revealed that the Act bars UK courts from attaching assets of a foreign state without the consent of the state.

    In an article, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP (the largest law firm in the world devoted solely to business litigation and arbitration)  said the Act allows a written consent of a foreign state before the enforcement of a judgment which could lead to seizure of assets or freezing of accounts.

    The March 20, 2019 article was titled “Sovereign Immunity in the United Kingdom—Lexology”

    The firm  said in part: “Section 13(2) of the Act provides that:(a) relief shall not be given against a State by way of injunction or order for specific performance or for the recovery of land or other property; and (b) the property of a State shall not be subject to any process for the enforcement of a judgment or arbitration award or, in an action in rem, for its arrest, detention or sale.

    “Pursuant to section 13 of the Act, state assets ‘shall not be subject to any process for the enforcement of a judgment or arbitration award or, in an action in rem, for [their] arrest, detention or sale’ unless the state has provided its written consent (see, for example, Gold Reserve Inc v Venezuela [2016] EWHC 153 (Comm), finding that Venezuela had submitted to arbitration in writing by entering into a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with Canada) or the assets in question are ‘in use or intended for use for commercial purposes’ (section 13(2)-(4)). These provisions apply in respect to states alone as defined in section 14 of the Act, and do not therefore extend to separate entities (see question 8).

    “See Hazel Fox and Philippa Webb, The Law of State Immunity (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015), pp. 504-5.

    “This provision is subject to sections 13(3) and 13(4) of the Act. Pursuant to section 13(3), a state may provide written consent to the grant of any relief against it. It follows that a state may consent to the grant of interim or injunctive relief against it; however, the mere submission to the jurisdiction of the UK courts does not constitute such consent.”

    A Presidency source who was part of the closed door meeting  said that the meeting was to receive an update from the Federal Government lawyers over the case, on what next steps needed to be taken.

    “We just invited our lawyers to update us on the matter and what next action needs to be taken,” the source said.

    Another source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “We were summoned in respect of the judgment.”

    Asked if there would be light at the end of the tunnel, the source said, “Sure! We are attacking it.”

    A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, yesterday  urged President Muhammadu Buhari to establish a National Arbitration Policy through the enactment of an Executive Order.

    Agbakoba made the plea in a September 2 letter to the President.

    He said the incident would have been avoided, if the advocacy for a National Arbitration Policy had been embraced by government over 20 years ago.

    In the  letter titled: “Need for an Executive Order on A National Arbitration Policy,” Agbakoba explained that a National Arbitration Policy, if put in place, will ensure that Nigeria’s interests are protected in its commercial relationship with foreign investors.

    The former NBA President said the monumental award secured by a foreign company against Nigeria has “grave and far-reaching implications for the country”, considering that it represents almost 20 per cent of the nation’s foreign reserves, and 25 per cent of  national budget.

    He said a National Arbitration Policy promotes national interest by ensuring that the resolution of disputes between Nigeria and foreign investors in relation to government contracts are determined by institutional arbitration mechanisms, which will have the seat of arbitration in Nigeria as existed at present in some other countries.

    He urged the government to commence an immediate and urgent audit as he claimed to be  aware that there are a significant number of arbitral awards made against Nigeria.

    “Going forward, I suggest that we establish a National Arbitration policy, represented by an enactment of an Executive Order that will commence the process and procedure of creating the policy. This will ensure that Nigeria’s interests are protected in its commercial relationships with foreign investors”, he advised.

     

     

  • Minister promises to reduce oil production cost

    THE Minister of State for Petroleum Resources,  Chief Timipre Sylva on Tuesday promised to reduce oil production cost in the country.

    A statement explained that it was part of what he aspired to achieve in the industry.

    “We have to bring down our cost of production of crude, as we are presently a laughing stock in the way we do our business. I don’t see how we can sustain the losses,” he said.

    Read Also: INTERPOL best agency to track criminal activities – Minister

    He was speaking when the Country Chair and Managing Director of Total E & P (Nigeria), Mr. Mike Sangster led a  delegation of the oil major on a courtesy call to his office in Abuja.

    Sylva also frowned at the practice by some International Oil Companies (IOCs) and expressed the hope that Total E & P is not among the OICs “selling our assets”, declaring that “those assets are amortised assets; you can’t sell what you don’t have!”

    He said he expected the country to be producing no less than four million barrels of crude per day (bpd) but decried the situation where the country is hovering between 2 million and 2.2 million!

     

  • LKJ’s other side

    The roll call of attendees at Lateef Jakande’s birthday party was an apparition of the Yoruba elite. Weak, wizened but worthy, the first civilian governor of Lagos looked fairer in the 90th. No past governor, or political bigwig who attended the event spoke without awe. He is a man of legacy.

    Perhaps the person who captured his acts with dramatic presence is his present successor, the BOS of Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Microphone in hand and almost leaning over the sitting grandee like a grandson, Governor Sanwo-Olu said “I was 14 years old when you became governor of Lagos.” He presented himself as a model beneficiary of Jakande’s genius.

    Few people live to see their legacy as superfine as that of the Lagos chief executive who mounted the chair he left behind. Governor Sanwo-Olu is the democratic bloodline to the throne just as a monarch swims the natural bloodline of the biological fathers. He is gradually coming into his own as he repairs the brokenness of the past few years: roads restoration, discipline, traffic, et al. Governor Sanwo-Olu must be contemplating Jakande as one of his exemplary ancestors.

    So are many today looking at the man of modest lifestyle, infrastructural disruption, educational beacon and welfarist populism.  But Jakande was not only about his transformational doings as governor. Before he was governor, he was a journalist. No mean one at that. He was, however, an Awoist, a man who exemplified the Yoruba sage and soldiered with him in crypts and sunlight. He wrote and edited and was even custodian of his ideals as the steward of The Nigerian Tribune. When Awo was jailed, Jakande suffered with him in his temptation behind bars.

    So, today, it is that aspect of Jakande that fascinates this essayist.  It is a narrative subsumed in the avalanche of accolades on his nonagenarian birth mark. What is the quality of Jakande’s courage? We saw it as he soldiered as a young man beside and behind Awo. He recorded with flair and perspicacity the toils and agonies of Awo’s trials. We saw him as governor fight for programmes mocked by his adversaries. His cancellation of the school shift system was revolutionary in the city. Yours truly attended an afternoon school.

    He mushroomed the city with schools to bring every ward to learn in the morning. His NPN critics called them cowsheds. He soldiered on. He built the largest number of housing units ever in Nigerian history by any government, whether federal or state, within four years. He opened what we know as the Lekki Corridor today. He was a seer as an environmentalist, pioneering a day off to clean the city. We cannot forget another act of prescience: he began the Metroline Project, to plumb the city with rail transport to ease a metropolis of bourgeoning population. Buhari scuppered it but later apologised.

    His profile overspread the nation. He was called the action governor. In Yorubaland, and among the progressives, he was called Baba kekere. He was austere in manners. He abhorred the magnificence of office. He lived in his modest home, rode his Toyota Crown, was not drawn to the vanity of travels abroad, or the extravagancies of official boasts or swagger, was never a fop even for ceremonies. He loved his confectionary, Tom Tom, as if he needed something sweet that also reminded him of the bitterness of human suffering.  Baba kekere means literally the little father. It, in earnest, meant the heir to Awo, the father of Yorubaland and politics.

    How was it that Jakande never rose to take the crown as the leader of the Yoruba? One, it was a question of charisma. He was a doer, not a charmer. He was no orator, not an absorbing conversationalist, though a deep thinker and practical man. He was not an impresario in political gatherings. He was an organiser, but not a broker. Hence when he pushed the candidacy of Femi Agbalajobi, his name made Agbalajobi a top contender but he was eventually toppled. However, the big challenge came after Abiola’s June 12 mandate tested the Yoruba mettle. Jakande joined the Abacha regime, just as Olu Onagoruwa and Ebenezer Babatope. They joined not arbitrarily, but as a way of putting the June 12 men in government as a transition ploy until the dream was realised. Whether it was an act of hopeless gamble or naivety by Abiola and his men has become a question for historians and political scientists. In his autobiography of reportorial rigour and voyage in Nigerian history, Chief Olusegun Osoba recalled in his book: Battlelines, that even Abiola saw the June 12 struggle as already a financial pressure and thought it necessary as a respite that his followers joined the junta.

    But Abacha did not flinch. Abiola eventually mobilised and the sweep of Yorubaland and other progressive redoubts in the country decided on a battle-to-the-death against Abacha. When Jakande and others in government were asked to leave the junta, they refused. Here lies the question? How could a man called the heir stand on the other side instead of in the vanguard? Was it an act of discretion or a sellout?

    Read Also: Buhari greets Lateef Jakande at 90

    The issue then was that Jakande, Babatope and Onagoruwa thought they were under watch, and if they tried to show any sign of disloyalty, they would be razed to death. The story of Ibru, who almost died from the Junta’s attack, was a case in point. But the counter story was that quite a few others who were not in government were being chased all over the country, including Enahoro, Soyinka, Tinubu, Osoba, et al. Some appointees escaped out of the country.

    So, was it because they thought they were under special watch, more acute than the others? The late Gani Fawehinmi fumed often that his bosom friend Onagoruwa was cohabiting with the goggled despot.  Together they had asun (special delicacy) and pounded yam and travelled out of town on many weekends.

    Some said suicide was the option. But not so for others who risked all and slipped through the famous NADECO route? Was it because they lacked cunning? Courage without cunning is futile. Maybe they had too much cunning and so couldn’t dare. Jakande has paid since for his choice or dilemma. He has never been embraced in the inner sanctum of the Yoruba. His echo may have been heard. His name was hardly invoked, and when he was invoked, he was never beckoned. He never once was a steersman of the southwest breezes. He has remained in the quiescent fringes of the rumble of Yoruba politics since 1999.

    In Yorubaland, politicians always pray not to commit what the Bible designates as sin unto death. In other parts of Nigeria, Jakande would have risen into a myth-like status. In the Southwest, however, his clay feet loom large. It is because the Yoruba are an ideological race. Onagoruwa in death was not washed of the sin. Neither is Babatope, whose voice once had the virility of a town crier. Jakande seems to enjoy some grace. Maybe a part of the Yoruba heart heard Mahatma Ghandi’s words: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Part of this is his work in Lagos. But it is a genius of development, not of character. Today people see him the way historian Thucydides writes of the great Pericles: “We have not left our power without witness, but have shown it with mighty proofs.”

    But it is because his genius did not translate to courage in the tough hour of his people that he did not soar from Baba kekere to baba. That is the flipside of the great LKJ.

     

    Sylva for oil man

    As the President contemplates his cabinet, a few sensitive positions call for scrutiny. One of them is minister of petroleum. Since Kachukwu is not in the reckoning, a name that pops into mind is that of the former governor of Bayelsa State, the spry and lanky fellow, Chief Timipre Sylva.

    His politics as a Buhari partisan and his resume with oil and politics qualify him aplenty. He has been in the epicentre of the oil producing region. He is also the most senior Buharist from the Ijaw nation. He was a Buharist before the word was coined when the former general was in the doldrums of presidential ambition, and few looked his way. Sylva gambled with him then.

    His appointment will show Buhari as one who rewards loyalty, a point some critics are apt to point out. As special assistant to former oil minister Daukoru, he was a go-to man in planning and conducting the most transparent oil bid-round adjudged to be the best ever in Nigeria, generating over a billion dollars in revenue for the government.

    During his time, they ended the chaos in the supply and imports of products by establishing the PPPRA. As governor, he conceptualised the Amnesty Programme, the signature achievement of the Yar’adua administration. He is the oil man of the cabinet. So let the man who has successfully patrolled the terrain be made petrol man.

  • ‘Sylva should declare his intention now’

    A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Mr. Festus Daumebi, has called on former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, to declare his aspiration to contest the November 16 governorship election.

    Daumebi, a senatorial candidate for Bayelsa Central in the February 23 election, spoke Yenagoa yesterday. According to him, the people were yearning for Sylva to rescue them from poverty and underdevelopment.

    He said: “Chief Timipre Sylva is the only man with the requisite political structure to win elections for the party and salvage the state from the shackles of misgovernance.

    “Sylva was forcefully removed from office in 2012; he was a victim of political circumstances. But I am sure those who orchestrated his removal to bring the current government are even more disappointed than Sylva himself.

    “So, the only way to re-write our past wrongs is to support him to complete his remaining four years. Under his leadership, we experienced near 24-hour power supply in Bayelsa. Residents were able to close their eyes and sleep.”

    Read Also: Sylva mocks Dickson’s airport in Bayelsa

    Daumebi noted that there was no crisis in the Bayelsa APC, and called on members to support Sylva’s emergence as the APC flag bearer for the November 16 election. He also acknowledged the constitutional rights of other members to contest the election, but appealed to them to shelve their ambitions and work for Sylva’s victory in the interest of party unity and cohesion.

    He warned that any attempt to ignore Sylva in the election would spell doom for the APC.

    “In APC, even if any other person in Bayelsa is going to win an election, that candidate, inclusive of myself, needs the support of Chief Sylva. You can’t win an election in Bayelsa without the support of Sylva.

    “Anyone coming to govern Bayelsa should not centre his attention on his party alone because you are not coming to govern a party. Bayelsans in the last seven and half years have experienced misrule. Our economy as a state is completely crumbled. Nothing is happening in the state. The truth is that our leader, Timipre Sylva, is the only man that can win an election. Our national party should be mindful how they go about this election. Any other person with this party’s ticket without Sylva or his support is an exercise in futility,” he added.

  • We’ll complete N50bn bond repayment in June, says Bayelsa

    The Bayelsa State Government has said it would complete repayment of the N50bn bond facility obtained by the former administration of Chief Timipre Sylva by June this year.

    The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said in Yenagoa that it was part of the major resolutions reached at the State Executive Council meeting.

    In a statement by the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, the Commissioner noted that, when completed, funds currently being used to service the bond would be channelled towards finishing key ongoing projects in the state.

    Iworiso-Markson, who listed the priority projects to include the Sagbama-Ekeremor Road, Yenagoa-Oporoma Road and Ayama/Ogbia-Okodi Road, said government had already worked out funding modalities in its bid to expedite work on the projects.

    According to the commissioner, the council reaffirmed the present administration’s resolve to bequeath legacies for successive governments to build on, for sustainable development of the state.

    He said: “We are determined as a government to finish well and strong. Going by the resolutions reached in Council, it is clear that this government will leave no stone unturned to ensure that we deliver optimally to Bayelsans.

    READ ALSO: Why youths confronted police boss in Brass, by Sylva

    “Our resolve is that Bayelsans at the end of the day will judge this government by the footprint we’ve been able to establish. Everything we’ve done from day one to this moment is a testament to our resolve to leave lasting legacy that even successive governments will follow.”

    Expatiating on the funding modalities, the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Maxwell Ebibai, noted the state government was expanding the “Contractor Infrastructure Development Finance Scheme,” a model which was used in financing other critical infrastructural projects in the state.

    Under the scheme, he said contractors were empowered to borrow funds from financial institutions to execute projects and present their certificates of work done for government to pay.

    Ebibai pointed out the model helped to check the issue of slow pace or outright abandonment in the execution of government projects.

    He said: “The Contractor Infrastructure Development Scheme is essentially to ensure that contractors have unhindered access to funds. Under the scheme, the state does not borrow but the contractors may borrow to execute government jobs so that the projects will not slow down or stop.

    “The state government only guarantees for payment for jobs already done.

    “It is some kind of public private partnership arrangement between the state, contractors and banks. In this scheme, we are considering projects that we cannot manage from our monthly cash flow.”

  • Lokpobiri, Sylva protest killings of APC members in Bayelsa

    The Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, on Monday marched the streets of Yenagoa, the state capital, to protest killings of APC members in Bayelsa.

    Sylva and Lokpobiri led other party leaders including members of the state working committee of APC and candidates of the party on a six-kilometre march to the office of the state Commissioner of Police, Aminu Saleh.

    They were joined by hundreds of APC supporters, who carried placards of various inscriptions chanting solidarity songs.

    The aggrieved party leaders and their supporters, who commenced the protest at their party secretariat in Kpansia, caused traffic gridlock along the Yenagoa-Mbiama road.

    The angry politicians lamented unresolved killings of their party members in Brass, Yenagoa and the latest incident in Tungbobiri, Sagbama, where an APC member was killed in a rally organised by the party.

    Hoodlums numbering 16 invaded an APC rally in Tungbobiri community killing a 32-year-old youth identified as Braye Embikorobiri and injuring 16 others.

    Speaking at the police command, Sylva accused the new Police Commissioner, Mr Aminu Saleh of partisanship in his handling of security matters in the state and urged him to give equal treatments to all parties.

    He specifically said the commissioner was mainly protecting the interests of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the detriment of APC members in the state.

    Sylva alleged that the APC strongly felt that the police boss was also working for the Presidential Candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, against the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari.

    For instance, he claimed that the police supervised the pulling down of Buhari’s billboard and its replacement with the campaign poster of Atiku.

    He said: “In Brass, APC members were killed. A team of investigators came here to arrest someone, who participated in that killing, but he was not arrested. And that is the end of that story. Our people have been killed. You remember we were doing a rally and they came with a vehicle and shot into our rally and killed two people.

    Read Also: Sylva to Dickson: you have no fear of God

    “Nothing has happened. Now they have taken the law into their hands. They have killed again in Sagbama. Every day, our people are being killed and the police are not doing enough.

    “We came to tell the commissioner of police and send a strong message to the Inspector-General that something should be done about all these killings immediately. If not we will resort to protecting ourselves if the police cannot protect us.

    “Let the police protect because that is their role. Last week, I was here to complain about our president’s billboard being brought down in Bayelsa and today that same place where the president’s billboard was removed, an Atiku billboard had been erected and the people that escorted them to that place were the police. Let the police prove to us beyond reasonable doubt that the police is not a PDP police. Our people must be protected”.

    Also speaking, Lokpobiri asked the police commissioner to prove the party wrong by arresting persons involved in the Brass, Yenagoa and Sagbama killings.

    Addressing Saleh, he said: “To prove that the police are not PDP police, you have to effect immediate arrest of those responsible for the killings in Sagbama and in Brass and Yenagoa. I was in the Senate for eight years.

    “Even as a senator, frivolous allegations were made against me and I was arrested within 24 hours. Police did there preliminary investigations before I was released. Those, who were involved have no immunity.

    “Prove us wrong and provide security for all political parties. APC is very lawful while PDP is unlawful. Our campaign has been based on issues and let the PDP base their campaigns on issues without resorting to violence.

    “We want you to do your job. When a complaint is made, effect arrest and after preliminary investigations and nothing is found, you release them on bail. But we cannot continue to allow our members to be harassed and killed. In fact, we should be enjoying protection. We can to request that you should act now”.

    In his reaction, Saleh dismissed the allegations that the Police in the State were biased, insisting that the force had been fair to all parties.

    He said: “We are already working on all the complains. We are investigating. The Nigerian police remain a federal institution and it acts as one. In policing Bayelsa State, we don’t select APC or PDP.

    “We provide security to everyone that comes to us. There are many things about investigations especially if they are not conclusive, we don’t say anything about it. The commissioner of police cannot provide security to only one segment of the community.

    “We shall look into the cases even the ones reported before my arrival, the problem we have is that while a case is being investigated it is not strategic to keep in public domain, but it does not mean that we are not working.

    “On the killing of Saturday, we are already working on it and arrests have been made and I hereby assure you that once we conclude our investigations, we shall brief the general public about it”.

  • Breaking: Sylva protests killings of APC members in Bayelsa

    Accuse police of working for PDP

     

    The Minister of State for Agriculture and a former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva on Tuesday led a protest against the killings of All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the state.

    Read Also; Sylva leads protest against intimidation of APC

    Sylva, Lokpobiri and other party leaders shut down the popular Mbiama-Yenagoa Road as they marched about six kilometers to the state command of the Nigeria Police.

     

    Details later…

  • Sylva leads protest against intimidation of APC

    A former Bayelsa State Governor and leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, on Friday, led a protest to the state police command against alleged intimidation of his party members in the state.

    Sylva, who spoke at the police command headquarters in Yenagoa after meeting with the Commissioner of Police, Aminu Saleh, behind closed doors, said he was concerned about attacks on members of the APC in the state.

    The former governor, who was accompanied by a former Deputy Governor, Werinipre Seibarugu, a former Commissioner for Youths, Ibarakumo Otobo, said he was also worried at the destruction of President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign materials by thugs suspected to be members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    He said the police in the state had been unable to conclusively investigate the killings of APC members especially in Brass Local Government Area of the state.

    He said attempts by the police to arrest the Caretaker Chairman of Brass, Victor Isaiah, for interrogation following the recent killings of APC members in the council, was frustrated by agents of the state government.

    Sylva said: “A lot has been happening in Bayelsa State. A lot of unexplained murders. Remember that in Brass Local Government Area, people were killed. The acting local government chairman was directly implicated in the murders of those people. That matter had not been conclusively investigated, unfortunately.

    “When the police came here to arrest the acting chairman, they were obstructed directly by the head of the state security outfit. We believe that the government of Bayelsa state has a direct hand in the murders of those people. Unfortunately, something has not been done.

    “You are all aware that two years ago, people shot into our APC rally and killed two people. Nobody has been arrested. The bus that was arrested at the scene has been released to a known ex-militant. Nothing has happened since then.

    “We came here because recently, the billboard that was erected for our presidential candidate, President Buhari, was brought down by unknown men. We know that these are the kind of things that precipitate problems.

    “If our members begin to react to our billboards being brought down it can lead to crisis. We came to report the incidents to the commissioner of police. What the PDP is trying to do to the APC, our billboards are being brought down illegally”.

    The former governor said the APC leaders were also worried that Governor Seriake Dickson, who hitherto shouted about frequent change of police commissioners in the state, kept quiet despite a new redeployment in the state.

    He said: “There has been a hullabaloo in Bayelsa State about commissioners of police coming and going. Suddenly Governor Seriake Dickson who was always complaining about the change of commissioners of police has not complained again about this new change again. This time he was very quiet.

    The CP has given us assurances. We are going home with those assurances and we will wait to see if those assurances will be carried out”.

    Sylva boasted that the APC was a dominant party with great chances in the forthcoming general elections adding that the candidates of the party were very popular.

    Read Also: Sylva to Dickson: you have no fear of God

    He, however, said his party would not allow any collusion between the police, the state’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP.

    “Our candidates were very carefully selected and we are expecting great results. Above all, we have the best presidential candidate in Nigeria and I know that he has done so much for us and Bayelsa people will vote for him.

    “We are very hopeful that this time without the police joining with the PDP, without INEC joining the PDP like it happened before., we will come out victorious. We ran the last election against INEC, the CP in Bayelsa and that is why we had those issues. But this time, we won’t allow those things to happen again”, he said.

    Sylva further called on INEC to fish out all the bad eggs working in its Bayelsa office and promised to take some of his worries to the Yenagoa office of the commission.

     

  • Dickson to Sylva: verdict of history will be hard on you

    The Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has said the verdict of history would be hard on a former Governor of the state, Timipre Sylva.

    Dickson said that politicians, who desecrated the opportunities to serve and abuse state resources to lure Bayelsa youths to violence would face condemnation in the courts of posterity.

    The governor, in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, stressed that politicians buying guns for Bayelsa youths and fanning the embers of violence would have their place of rejection on history’s pages of villainy.

    Dickson was reacting to a publication in which Sylva alleged of media plot by the governor to pitch him against the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari.

    The Governor said that it was rather unfortunate that Sylva descended to level of scavenging for imagined information from the gutters.

    He said that while genuine and responsible political leaders responded to real issues, Sylva continually showed that he was yet to extricate himself from the agony of excruciating rejection by Bayelsa people at the polls.

    Soriwei said that Dickson was too occupied with execution of his responsibilities as Governor of Bayelsa to devote attention to trivialities especially imagined media reports.

    He said that it was the determination of Dickson to finish his administration well and strong insisting the Sylva was one distraction which serious leaders should avoid.

    Soriwei said that Sylva’s statement was a product of blackmail inspired by the feared and anticipated consequences of hidden guilt.

    He said it was rather sad that Sylva in his desperation to prove his political relevance to his political overlords saw casting aspersions on Dickson as the only route to political relevance.

    He said: “Again, we are constrained to react to spurious claims and distractions from Sylva and his cohorts who are bent on misinforming the Nigerian public.

    “It is indeed unfortunate that Sylva has descended to the level of scavenging for imagined information in the gutters for the purpose of attacking the Governor.

    “While it is the standard for genuine leaders and serious members need politicians to respond to real issues, Sylva is yet to recover from bitterness occasion by his excruciating rejection by his own people.

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    “Now that Sylva knows that a leaked audio is not emanating from Bayelsa, he may try to catch some sleep. Dickson has great plans for bayelsa and Sylva is a costly distraction no leader would want to afford.

    “The recent invectives from Sylva are a product of Blackmail inspired by consequences of some tormenting sense of guilt. When Sylva talks about conscience, Bayelsans shiver! There couldn’t have been better way to advertise hypocrisy.

    “While Sylva is worrying over the imagined consequences of a badly buried corpse, we are mindful to remind him once again that the only thing in hot pursuit of him is his shadow.

    “When he looks back, he shall find no Dickson. The Governor is miles ahead of him”

  • Sylva to Dickson: you have no fear of God

    A former Governor of Bayelsa State Chief Timipre Sylva on Thursday described the incumbent Seriake Dickson as a man without the fear of God.

    Sylva, in a statement by his Media Assistant, Julius Bokoru, also described as feeble Dickson’s denial of a plot to create an artificial war between him (Sylva) and the Presidency.

    Bokoru said Dickson was shocked because the good people of Bayelsa State alerted Sylva of the plot.

    He said: “Our Wednesday statement was clear and direct: Dickson seeks to create a wedge between Sylva and the Presidency through a fake news campaign.

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    “Dickson has no fear of God. He, therefore, thinks it is man rather than God that determines another man’s fate.

    “Hence he speaks of someone’s ‘lifeline in politics’ and ‘the state of mood of his political masters’.

    “If he does not know, Dickson needs to be reminded that the prevailing national mood, today, is the presidential elections scheduled for the next few weeks.

    “Dickson speaks of conscience but conscience is when you pay civil servants their salaries promptly, conscience is when you don’t attack a courthouse like a thug, conscience is when you don’t elevate violence to the status of a government policy.

    “Conscience is when you don’t impoverish a once thriving people and state, conscience is when you don’t fail abysmally at even basic levels of governance, conscience is when you don’t become a nightmare for those you are supposed to govern and conscience is when you don’t tell low level lies”.

    Sylva added: “Dickson has no conscience, and that obvious absence of conscience, sadly, comes very naturally to him.

    “He has ruled Bayelsa State for almost eight years and he is still obsessing over Sylva, he is still blaming Sylva for his many monumental failures, he is still blaming Sylva for his inability to comprehend the mathematics of good governance after all these years

    “We are glad Dickson has denied he is not going to be involved in this mischief. This is good for the people of Bayelsa State, the polity and the country.

    “Dickson survives on the politics of blackmail, petty mudslinging, propaganda and fake news. The bright news for the people of Bayelsa State, and Nigeria, is that he has exposed how alien he is to credibility”.