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Power brokers in Bayelsa State are unhappy with the performance of Timipre Sylva as governor and are determined to scuttle his second term bid

With just a few months to the February 11, 2012, governorship election in Bayelsa State, the race for ‘Creek Heaven,’ the seat of power is becoming fierce by the day. Although Timipre Sylva, governor of the state, is fighting hard to secure this second term mandate, the odds against him are enormous.

In the past few weeks, there has been a groundswell of opposition to his candidature even within the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP. Indeed, there appears to be a consensus among the power brokers in Bayelsa State that Sylva should be voted out of office in  the 2012 election based on his administration’s financial recklessness, mindless profligacy, and non-performance.

 Many Bayelsans are very angry with the infrastructural deficit in the state. Their frustration is palpable on their faces but most of them are afraid to say anything critical of the state government in public. Most Bayelsans seem to be in agreement on one issue; that Sylva has bungled the goodwill Bayelsans had for him and must leave the stage. Their common prayer is “let the Sylva Cup also pass over us and let new beginnings sprout forthwith.”

A clear signal that the people were disappointed with Sylva’s non-performance manifested in October 2010, during the maiden official visit of President Goodluck Jonathan to the state. A mild drama played out at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex in Yenagoa, when some people vent their anger on him by throwing sachet water at the governor while he was delivering his address. A group led by Joe Ambakederemo and Mariie Ebikake even wrote a letter to the president advising him not to commission “projects fraudulently repackaged” by Sylva and presented as newly completed ones. To them, Sylva has failed the people of Bayelsa State.

At the inception of his administration in 2007, Sylva had promised  to complete the projects initiated by his predecessors which they  executed half way before they left office. He also promised to transform the state with people-oriented projects and run a transparent government. But after more than four and half  years in the saddle as the state chief executive, Yenagoa, the state capital, has literally become a theatre of abandoned projects and Sylva is yet to excute people-oriented projects despite the huge monthly allocation the administration has been receiving from the federation accounts. Bayelsa State is the smallest of the 36 states in Nigeria, with a population of 1.7 million people but the state has very impressive revenue allocation from the centre because it is an oil producing state. It was gathered that between 2007 when Sylva assumed office and now, the state has received about N400 billion from the federation account.   Many indigenes of the state are not happy that what is on ground in the state cannot justify that huge amount that had accrued to the state within this period.

For instance, the General Hospital in Yenegoa, which he renamed Melford Okilo Memorial Hospital which was started by Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and brought to 80 percent completion by Jonathan when he was governor of the state has not been completed by Sylva. Yet  he had on assumption of office in May 2007, allegedly awarded a contract of N17.8 billion for the renovation of the hospital and supply of medical equipment to Sinaco Nigeria Limited.

The Sylva administration allegedly released between N150 million and N300 million monthly to the contractors even though the hospital has remained the way it was before the contract was awarded. When Newswatch visited the hospital last week, it was overgrown with weeds and the people of the state were still yearning for a good medical centre that would offer them quality healthcare service.

Similarly, the five-star Tower Hotel initiated by Jonathan’s administration when he was governor of the state to boost tourism has been in a deplorable state. The people of the state are angry that despite the fact that the governor first collected N75 billion loans from a consortium of banks and another N50 billion bond from the capital market to complete the projects, he had allegedly frittered the monies away through bogus contracts and consultancies. Indeed, he secured a N75 billion loan from a consortium of banks allegedly without the approval of either the state executive council or the state House of Assembly.

Ambakederemo, a concerned indigene of the state, wrote petitions to the anti-corruption agencies alleging all forms of petty and grand corruption. He had alleged that Sylva brazenly plundered the Bayelsa State treasury. The  petitions led to a crackdown on some top officials of the government who allegedly collaborated with the governor to loot Bayelsa State treasury through money laundering and other acts of misconduct to the tune of about N117.3 billion.

One of such acts of financial impropriety allegedly committed by Sylva and his collaborators early in his administration was the transfer of $40 million of Bayelsa State funds for offshore savings using a dummy company called Bayelsa Oil and Gas Company. The governor had allegedly used the company as a conduit pipe for the diversion of funds running into billions of Naira to corruptly enrich himself.

Between May 2007 and March 2008, the governor allegedly released N1.8 billion from the state treasury as consultancy fee for the setting up of a microfinance bank without it being appropriated by the state government. The contract was never executed.

After the EFCC had subjected the financial transactions of Sylva’s administration to scrutiny and established that top officials of Bayelsa State ministry of finance collaborated with the governor to defraud the state, they were arrested, detained and charged to court in March 2010. The case is still going on at a Federal High Court, Abuja.

The officials allegedly involved in the sleaze are Charles Sylva Opuala, the commissioner for finance, who is the governor’s cousin, Francis Okokuro, accountant general of the state, Abbot Clinton, director of treasury, and Ikobho Anthony Howells, director of finance. Sources at the EFCC told Newswatch that although these four officials are currently standing trial for financial impropriety and money laundering, the state governor is the target. “The whole thing is targeted at the governor. All other officials are just collaborators,” the source said.

When the case came up at a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, fresh facts emerged about how  the four officials who are being prosecuted by the EFCC, over a N2 billion scam, shared the money which was meant  to augment the payment  of the state’s workers’ salary

The accused were arraigned on a six-count charge of criminal conspiracy and money laundering among others by the EFCC. During one of the sittings, Adeniyi Adebayo, prosecution witness,  tendered the statement he obtained from the accused persons during investigation before Justice Donatus Okorowa.

He said that the accused admitted sharing the money among themselves under various guises. Adebayo told the court that the accused persons between October 2009 and February 2010, at various places in Nigeria, induced the Union Bank PLC, with the intent to defraud, to grant an overdraft facility of the sum of N2 billion to the Bayelsa State government under the false pretence of using the amount to augment salaries of the state workers.

Count one of the six-count charge reads: “That you, Francis Okokuro, Abot K. Clinton, Ikobho Anthony Howells and Dr. Charles /Sylva Osuala on or about the 22nd of January 2010, at Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court converted the sum of N380,000.00 (three hundred and eight million Naira, property of the Bayelsa State Government  through the account of one Habibu Sani Maigida, a Bureau De Change Operator with Account No 22143378108, in Fin Bank PLC, which sum you knew represented the proceeds of the said illegal act with the aim of concealing the nature of the proceeds of the said illegal act and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 14(1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition Act) 2004 and also punishable under Section 14(1) of the same Act.”

When the case came up on May 10, this year,   Festus Keyamo, counsel to the EFCC, had insisted that the N380 million funds allegedly laundered through Maigida, a Bureau de Change operator, by the Bayelsa State officials was the state government fund. But Chris Uche, SAN, counsel to the first and second accused persons, argued that the said amount was a security vote whose usage the commission cannot question. 

Last week, when Newswatch spoke to Ambakederemo whose petitions led to the crackdown on Sylva’s aides, he alleged that Sylva’s scorecard in the past four and half years has been dismal and so Bayelsa people cannot condone the kind of sleaze he has been involved in for another four years. “He should quietly forget about securing his second term mandate because the people of Bayelsa State will not allow that,” he said.

Fred Agbedi, former chairman of the PDP in Bayelsa State, said that Sylva had in the past four and half years oppressed the development-hungry people of Bayelsa and made them poverty-stricken.  In an open letter he wrote to the governor, he described him as a visionless leader who has failed to learn from history. “When you left DSP Alamieyeseigha’s administration some years back, it was because you disagreed with him on principles. We thought you would learn from history. Today, you cannot in all honesty, compare yourself to Alamieyeseigha. You have become a burden rather than a solution to Bayelsa State,”  he said.

The former PDP chairman explained that his criticism of Sylva’s administration has been based principally on his inability to give account of his stewardship to the people of the state. “You have laid claims to projects you simply managed to white-wash on assumption of office. One example is the 500-bed capacity hospital; you have taken massive bank loans which would in the nearest future, further impoverish the Bayelsa people beyond redemption. You have invested more on frivolities than in infrastructure,”Agbedi stated.

Apart from financial impropriety, another grouse the people of the state have against the governor is the setting up of state’s security outfit, Operation Famou Tangbei, OFT, which was meant to contain violence in the state. The recently proscribed security outfit was enmeshed in allegations of harassment, intimidation, mass arrests and extortion. Officials of the Amnesty International, who investigated the activities of the OFT, found out that the outfit was used by the government as a weapon of political oppression. The report which was signed by Charles Mopho, the group’s representative in Nigeria, said operatives of the disbanded squad were overzealous and were primarily used to protect the estates of government officials. The report further observed that the outfit was used to drain public funds. It stated that N150 million was used monthly by the government to maintain the outfit.

Apart from the disbandment of the OFT, the security heads in the state are being changed ahead of the election. Already, Musa Aliyu, the state commissioner of Police, has been redeployed and a new CP, Hillary Okpara, is now in charge of the command.  Aliyu was removed by the Force Headquarters and immediately replaced by Okpara, a commissioner formerly in charge of the Nigeria Police Sea Port in Lagos. Pundits believe that all these are part of the plot to whittle down the power of the governor, who has been fighting a last-minute political battle to retain the candidacy of the party for the election.

Even some of the erstwhile members of Sylva’s cabinet who could not tolerate the rot in Bayelsa any longer had to either resign their appointment or refuse to be re-appointed. They are not happy with his style of governance.

Asara Asara, former commissioner of information, resigned his appointment early in 2010, claiming that the governor had become an executive bully and the civilian equivalent of a dictator. “Sylva was supposed to be the servant of the people. I regret that we all worked to bring the governor to power, but he has refused to listen to wise counsel. I can no longer defend the indefensible. I have to take a bow and that is what I have done,” Asara said after tendering his resignation. 

On his part, Azibapu Eruani, his erstwhile commissioner for health, declined being reappointed by Sylva and relocated to Abuja, where he is now working with the president. But Sylva who is not comfortable with the ongoing grand design to truncate his second term ambition accused Eruani and President Jonathan as those behind it.  Newswatch learnt that recently when Eruani   travelled to Paris, France; Sylva allegedly called him on phone and allegedly threatened him and the president. He was alleged to have said that he would deal with them in a manner that would make the activities of Boko Haram a child’s play.

Newswatch learnt that his utterances in the telephone conversation had caused panic within the presidency and Nigerian security circles. President Jonathan was said to have been highly disturbed by Sylva‘s conduct that he hurriedly summoned a meeting of security chiefs in Nigeria, with Governor Sylva in attendance to defend himself.

Irked by Sylva’s alleged non-performance and maladministration, leading members of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, of Ijaw extraction have vowed to make his interest in the 2012 governorship race an exercise in futility. Already, they have begun shopping for a consensus candidate who would secure the PDP governorship ticket on November 19, when the primary would hold. There were indications last week that the favoured candidate would come from Bayelsa West which has not produced governor since the state was created 15 years ago.

The plan to deny Sylva the PDP governorship ticket to contest election for a second term is said to have received the backing of close associates of President Jonathan who hails from the state. Sources indicated that the president’s loyalists, most of whom operate from the nation’s capital, are working hard to perfect  their grand design to neutralise Sylva’s plans to retain the party’s ticket by a set of strategies, which include lining up a number of alternative candidates believed to be friendly to both President Jonathan and his wife, Patience. Nocturnal meetings, consultations, alignment and realignment of various interests are some of the activities defining the political landscape in the state even though some of the meetings were held in Abuja.

Already, many top politicians in the state who left the party in the wake of last April botched governorship election are lining up for the fight in next month’s primaries. They include Timi Alaibe, former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC; and Peremobowei Ebebi, former deputy governor. Indeed, the political atmosphere in Bayelsa State is tension-soaked as  prominent politicians in the state have thrown their hats into the ring. Those  who look poised to contest for the PDP governorship ticket against Sylva   include Henry Seriake Dickson, a member of the House of Representatives representing Sagbama/Ekeremor constituency who is said to be favoured by the president; Alaibe, former NDDC boss, Francis Doukpola, Boloubo Orufa, Godknows Igali, Fredrick Ekiyegha, John Idumange and Ben Bruce, chairman of Silverbird Television.

The plot to oust Sylva is thickening by the day. There was a dramatic twist to the political intrigues and power play last Tuesday when the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP named Dugo James as the new chairman of the party in Bayelsa State. James takes over from Darius Obiene, a cousin of Sylva, who has been acting as state party chairman. The appointment followed a meeting of the committee at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja, presided over by Abubakar Kawu Baraje, its national chairman. Professor Rufa’i Ahmed Alkali, national publicity secretary of the party, said after careful deliberations and consultations with stakeholders from Bayelsa State and in line with article 14.5 of the constitution of the party, the NWC approved the immediate appointment of Dugo James, as the substantive Bayelsa State chairman of the party.

The removal of Obiene as party chairman spells doom for Sylva as it is now clear that the PDP will not hand him its governorship ticket for the February election. Newswatch gathered that Sylva had pre-empted the removal of Obiene and had gone to a Bayelsa High Court to secure an injunction stopping the PDP from conducting its governorship primary as scheduled. It was, however, unclear as at press time if he succeeded in getting the order.

There are strong indications that Sylva might consider decamping from the ruling PDP to another party if he fails to clinch the party’s ticket for next year’s governorship election in the state.

At a reception organised by the state chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, a few days ago in Yenagoa, to welcome the governor from a trip to consult various stakeholders in Abuja, Timipa Tiwe Orunimighe, the state chairman of ALGON and chairman, Southern Ijaw council, advised PDP to give the ticket to Sylva or be ready to lose the state. “We are the custodians of democracy at the grassroots. We are the party. The human being is the party; the party is not human. Every other variables will change. It is either our party gives us our choice or the Glasshouse would be destroyed. That is what we have decided,” he said.

But Nathan Egba, Bayelsa State commissioner of information told Newswatch that the governor was not considering the option of leaving the party. “No, that scenario will not arise and we don’t have a Plan B. Sylva does not have a plan B.  Our plan A is to win the primary and ultimately win the election, that’s all,” he said.

He dismissed the allegation of non-performance against the governor and said the governor has executed many projects in Yenagoa, and other parts of the state. “I don’t know of anybody who lives in Bayelsa State who will say that the governor has not performed in office. But I can excuse those critics, especially other governorship aspirants and their loyalists who say this because if they don’t say so, what else would they have as a reason to contest with the governor. They are making this kind of allegation to justify their grand plan to contest against the governor,” Egba said.

Sylva himself has equally  dismissed the allegations of fraud and non-performance against him as false and unfounded. He said that he felt sad when he heard stories about how he looted Bayelsa government treasury. He claimed that when he assumed office, he stopped the government from sharing money and his critics wanted that scenario to continue. “It is the kind of politics that people play around here. If you have an animal that has tasted blood, you either kill it or it will actually look for blood again. In this state, they were able to successfully bring down Alamiyeseigha and benefited from bringing him down...Suddenly, somebody got an idea that if we did it, we can do it again. So, the best thing is to create this problem so that before election, I will be out of office. That is why they started this whole frenzy of rumours,” Sylva said.

However, Harrow Zuokumor, the governorship candidate of the All Nigerian Peoples Party, ANPP, in Bayelsa in the 2011 poll  who was a former national boxing coach,  told Newswatch that Sylva has not performed at all because he lacks focus. He accused the embattled governor of squandering billions of Naira that accrued to the state without tangible results. He urged Bayelsa people to take their destiny in their hands by voting him out.

Johnny A Turner, chairman, Nigerian Inland Waterways and member of the Bayelsa Green Movement, said they want change of guard in the state because Sylva has not done well in the past four and half years that he has been in the saddle. He believes that this is the chance the people have to  vote into office somebody who will do better than the present governor. “The strength of our drive is the fact that the man is not doing well. For those working with him they will always say things that will please him because they are part of the unwanted system, a system that has done terribly bad and nobody will want to have again.”

Kime Engozu, a civil rights activist, and one of the prominent Bayelsa State indigenes who fought for the creation of the state, said that Sylva has performed woefully in governance and so the power brokers in the state have resolved to ensure he does not secure his second term mandate.  He explained that they would choose a consensus candidate from among all the aspirants and mobilise Bayelsa people to vote Sylva out if he decides to go ahead and vie for the 2012 governorship election. “We are holding meetings and mapping out strategies to ensure he is voted out in the 2012 election. We are enlightening Bayelsa people to realise that we all have an opportunity to stop the madness that people call governance in Bayelsa State under Sylva. We are poised to join hands to form a formidable mass movement irrespective of our political leanings to chase Sylva out of Government House so that sanity could be restored to Bayelsa. Enough is enough,” Engozu told Newswatch.