Posted by By BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
In addition to losing his gubernatorial seat last Tuesday, immediate past Bayelsa State chief executive, Timipre Sylva, has received another hard kick from the National Assembly caucus of lawmakers from that state asking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to immediately nullify his candidature for the governorship re-run.
In addition to losing his gubernatorial seat last Tuesday, immediate past Bayelsa State chief executive, Timipre Sylva, has received another hard kick from the National Assembly caucus of lawmakers from that state asking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to immediately nullify his candidature for the governorship re-run.
Addressing a press conference yesterday in the National Assembly, the lawmakers alleged that Sylva had abused the confidence reposed in him by the people of Bayelsa State by indulging in alleged acts of financial impropriety and indiscipline.
Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who led the lawmakers to the press conference, said the former governor in addition to securing a loan of N75 billion without the knowledge of the State House of Assembly just last month, also misappropriated the sum of N80 billion received as Federal Allocation.
According to him, Sylva had also displayed gross disrespect for the party (PDP) that brought him into power by taking arbitrary decisions.
'The ruling of the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt on Tuesday is a welcome development. But it is a challenge to our party because we need to make a change immediately because if the PDP goes into that election with Sylva, it will definitely lose. We need a new candidate for PDP to win that election. He has factionalized the party to the extent that we are now terribly disunited in Bayelsa PDP.
'As things stand at the moment, majority of the stakeholders in Bayelsa PDP have lost confidence in Sylva and will not be committed to his candidature. We need a consensus building candidate because Sylva is no longer marketable."
The lawmakers, however, denied insinuations that they were acting a script prepared by the Vice President, Dr, Goodluck Jonathan against Sylva.
'We are not spokesmen of the Vice President, but I am sure the PDP national leadership will not act in a way that negated the interest of majority of the PDP members in Bayelsa State, especially as it concerned the nomination of candidate for the fresh elections ordered by the Appeal Court."