The former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, Saturday, said he (Sylva) performed far more than Jonathan’s tenure given the challenges he faced in office as the governor of the Niger Delta state.
Reacting to President Goodluck Jonathan’s comment at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign rally Saturday in Yenagoa in which he (Jonathan) cited the stoning of the former governor and the Five Star Tower Hotel project as monument of disgrace, Chief Sylva said it was the same President Jonathan that came back and spoke glowingly of his achievement at the January primaries of the party.
Chief Sylva in a statement issued by his media aide, Doifie Ola, described as barefaced lie and a misrepresentation of open facts the President claim that the Five Star Hotel had been the way he (Jonathan) left it.
He challenged the President “to tell the world how much he (Jonathan) paid the contractor and how much Sylva has paid the contractor.”
The statement reads, “Timipre Sylva has read with utter dismay some statements credited to the President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign rally on Friday, 03 February in Yenagoa.
“Two things stand out in the President’s speech. He talked about a stoning incident in Yenagoa that he watched with pleasure and the Tower Hotel project in Yenagoa that was conceptualised by the Government of Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, which Jonathan took over as Governor of Bayelsa State and passed on to Sylva as Governor.
“The stoning in Yenagoa happened during the president’s visit and it was widely believed to have been arranged by a few misguided elements, which with the backing of Mr. President, had used the presidential security to subvert the security of the state on purpose to embarrass Governor Sylva. Sponsors of the incident had tried to deny their involvement and present the event as indicative of the governor’s non-performance.
The world now knows better, of course. Everyone is now perfectly well aware of the mastermind of that insult on the Ijaw nation.
“But let us state that it was not the governor who was disgraced by the stoning. Instead, it was the president himself. Now, if stoning is a yardstick for non-performance, are we also right to say that the burning down of Mr. President’s house in 2007, in the run-up to that year’s general elections, was also an act of rejection by the people of the state? A lot of people believed that the burning of his house and the action of militants in 2007 were an expression of rejection. Is Mr. President now confirming that wide belief?
“In addition, can we also say that the stoning of President Jonathan in May last year in Uganda was a global act of rejection? Besides, it was after the stoning incident in Yenagoa in late 2010 that Mr. President came back to Yenagoa, raised the hand of Sylva, and spoke glowingly about his achievements, saying he has performed excellently well and that the people of Bayelsa should vote him into office.
“It was after the stoning that he came back and voted in the January 2011 PDP governorship primaries and gave a glowing report of Sylva’s performance. So what suddenly changed from January 2011 to later that year when President Jonathan manipulated all the institutions of state, including the armed and security forces, the judiciary and critical organs of democracy like the political parties, in full cry, leaving the security and economic challenges which he faced, to embark on OPERATION REMOVE SYLVA as the sole mandate which the people of Nigeria gave to him?“Didn’t Jonathan know there was a stoning incident when he came to say Governor Sylva should be voted in January?”
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