Sylva leads protest against intimidation of APC in Bayelsa

A former Bayelsa State Governor and leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, on Saturday 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 and unauthorized”.

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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 change of commissioners of police has not complained again with this new change again. This time he was very quiet.

“That means it is not about change of commissioners of police. Because if it was a case of too many changes, then another change would have called for uproar but suddenly governor Dickson has become very quiet because apparently this commissioner of police is here to do his own bidding.

“So we felt that we need to come and get assurance from the commissioner of police.

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.

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.

He said: “There are bad eggs in INEC. It is not everybody in INEC that is bad and unless such bad eggs leave INEC Bayelsa, we will have problem in INEC.

“We are hoping that everybody will give peace a chance. Bayelsans are naturally peaceful people and I believe that Bayelsans are willing to give peace a chance.

“Unfortunately, we understand that a lot of people in the PDP have been amassing arms and we hope that they will not have the opportunity to use those arms. This is an election and not war. Let there be peace in Bayelsa and there will be peace”.