APC stalwart to Sylva, others: support younger aspirants

A founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Preye Aganaba has advised former Governor Timipre Sylva to shelve his second term governorship ambition and support any of the younger APC aspirants.

Speaking in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, Aganaba said Sylva and others that had been within the political corridor in the state for 20 years should give way for fresher aspirants ahead of the November 2nd governorship election in the state.

He, however, said if Sylva emerged in a free and fair APC primary election, the party would support him to win the state adding that the party would ensure credible internal poll.

Aganaba said: “Well, Sylva has a right to contest but if you ask me what I think, I think that we should  give chances to another  generation of Bayelsans to rule the state.

“Twenty years of the same political actors, you can’t do the same thing every time and expect a different result. We have seen the result of twenty years of the same person’s ruling the state.

“Yenagoa is a slum. You can’t compare Yenagoa to other states that were created at the same time with Bayelsa state. So they should give way to new actors.

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“There are new actors in all the political parties. He has the right to contest, if he wins in a free and fair primaries, I am sure the party is going to support him and i know we are going to have free and fair primaries this time around.”

Analyzing the just-concluded general elections, Aganaba expressed satisfaction with the performance of the APC.

“In Bayelsa, in 2015, we got less than five percent of the votes. In 2015 it was a very poor outing.

“This time around we did very well, securing almost 40 percent of the votes.

“We were able to produce a Senator, two Reps members and some House of Assembly members. Some of our people are in court and we hope they win at the tribunal,” he said.

He asked the people of Bayelsa to thank the APC for giving them an alternative platform to unseat the old political order.

He debunked the allegations that the APC stole mandates of the PDP in the last elections and accused the PDP of committing electoral malpractices in the state.