Concern In Bayelsa As Minister, APC Leaders Shun Sylva Campaign

This is not the best of times for the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Bayelsa State ahead of the November 11 governorship election with prominent leaders of the party staying away from the party’s governorship candidate, Timipire Sylva.

Although about 10 political parties are contesting the poll, the election is panning out as two-horse race between Governor Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and former Minister of State for Petroleum and former Governor of the state, Chief Timpreye Sylva, who is running on the platform of the APC.

To retain the governorship, Diri, apart from relying on his achievements in the last three and half years, is said to be reaching out to some leaders of the APC for support and the move, sources said, is yielding dividends to the discomfort of Sylva.

A source said Diri has reached out to prominent APC leaders, particularly those who have an axe to grind with Sylva, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and 2019 governorship candidate, David Lyon.

Lokpobiri and Lyon are allegedly backing Diri’s re-election, which some political observers finger for their absence from the campaigns and political activities of Sylva in the countdown to the election.

The gulf between Lokpobiri and Sylva widened, following Sylva’s refusal to back his ministerial bid after APC won the presidential poll.

Lyon, who was defeated at the APC primary in controversial circumstances.

Lyon, who was sacked as Bayelsa state governor-elect by the Supreme Court in February 2020, had thought that he would be given the right of first refusal in the consideration of the |APC governorship candidate but that was not done.

Efforts to reconcile the warring APC camps have not yielded positive results. Pleas by the National Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, and other top leaders to the warring chieftains have fallen on deaf ears.

“Diri is capitalising on the polarisation to further divide the opposition ranks by giving a lot of concessions ahead of the poll. The governor has promised to hand over to Lokpobiri, as governor, with Lyon as deputy governor, if the duo can fully abandon Sylva and team up with him to consolidate his hold on Bayelsa,” a source said, adding that Lokpobiri and Lyon may accept the offer.

According to the source, Diri has conceded 50 slots of Senior Special Assistants (SSAs) each to Lokpobiri and Lyon, and has promised them some measures of influence in his government, if re-elected.

He stressed: “This alliance between the governor and APC top chieftains implies that the two may have to defect to the PDP after Lokpobiri has served his term as minister in the Tinubu administration ahead of the battle to succeed Diri in 2026.”

PDP insiders confided that the governor is threatened by the aloofness of his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson, who has distanced himself from the Diri administration.

In Bayelsa, the former governor and his camp nurse a feeling of alienation and marginalisation and efforts by the PDP national leadership to broker truce has not succeeded.

Dickson was said to be disenchanted that Diri was running the show especially with the opposition elements without his input.

However, Diri has not limited his plans against Sylva to Lokpobiri and Lyon and APC leaders alone; he has extended it to other big wigs in his party.

A source claimed that Senator Benson Agadaga (Bayelsa East); Mitema Obodor, the Director General of his campaign council, a member of the House of Representatives representing Ogbia Constituency; and Robert Enogha, a former Commissioner and two-time member of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, who also hails from Ogbia, are in the succession plan of the governor.

Ogbia is the base of former President Goodluck Jonathan. The move is said to be calculated to secure Jonathan’s blessing and support in the November election.

Currently, the former president is considered to be favourably disposed to Diri.

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