Bayelsa 2023: Be Objective In Assessment Of Diri, Group Counsels Sylva

By Bukar Bolori

The Bayelsa Mandate Group (BMG) has advised a former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, to be objective in his assessment of the administration of Governor Douye Diri, advising him not to allow partisan politics to becloud his sense of judgment.

The group, in a statement signed by its leader, Chief Nazuan Godfrey, asked Sylva, who is also the immediate past Minister of State, Petroleum, to act as a true statesman by acknowledging the giant strides of the Diri administration in the last four years instead of the baseless criticisms he has embarked upon.

According to Nazuan, what interests the people of Bayelsa, the only homogenous state in the country, is its development and the ability of the leaders to make life better for the citizens, this the group insisted is what Diri has been doing.

Taking a swipe at the performance of Sylva when he was the governor of the state and when he served as a minister, BMG noted that it was nothing to write home about when compared with the tenure of Governor Diri.

The group lamented that Sylva left Bayelsa underdeveloped and littered with abandoned projects.

“We are all witnesses to what happened in the recent past, during the Sylva era. The Glory Drive Road for which over N9 billion was earmarked, what came out of it? The Kolo Creek Electric Power Station switch gears project which was varied from an initial sum of N486 million to over N1 billion, only has an abandoned control room to show for it. What about the revocation of our prized jewel, OML46, otherwise called Atala Oil Field, who stole it through the back doors?

“For the records, we gathered that Sylva is talking about some gas turbines, when we all know who sold as scraps, the turbines bought by the late Melford Okilo. The Olympus Rolls Royce Gas Turbines were bought and installed by Okilo, while the other turbines were the Russian made Salut bought by the late Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha and the Rolls Royce RB211 bought by former President Goodluck Jonathan during his brief stay as governor of Bayelsa State. What happened to them?

“Let Sylva mention the year, model and capacity of the turbine he claimed to have bought that was sold by his successors,” the group stated.

They berated Sylva for obliterating a major legacy of Okilo by selling the power turbines for peanuts.

BMG also accused Sylva of inaugurating projects that were not completed and recalled how the late President Umaru Musa Yar’dua was invited to inaugurate an uncompleted plant with a stand by generator, adding that it was in fact the last official engagement of the late President.

Godfrey stated that Sylvia’s desperation and obsession to get back to Creek Haven with claims that Bayelsa is owing him four years of governance is misplaced and provocative.

“Goodluck Jonathan as a Governor of Bayelsa State procured the RB211 Rolls Royce Gas Turbine which was haphazardly installed under the Sylva’s administration. Due to lack of proper project management, that project suffered serious structural defects that was extremely difficult to salvage. Professional technical evaluation indicates that the contractors engaged had little or no background to execute such a project,” he said.

The group stated that the 500-bed hospital started by Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha at Imgbi Road was turned into a cash cow by officials of the Sylva administration under the guise of remodeling and Public, Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

“After wasting so much money, the project was abandoned with the excuse that it was too bogus to manage, so nothing was done.”

Godfrey said the group would dust its file and would make public its findings on some other misadventures of the Sylva administration.

“Under his watch as the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum, over N750 billion was allocated for road construction nationwide for the NNPC, yet he couldn’t attract a single kilometre of road to Bayelsa, but wants to return as governor. Four years after initiating COVID-19 referral hospital with fanfare, the project remains an eyesore.

“All Sylva knows in politics is violence, bribing of security and electoral umpires which we are keenly watching. If anybody or group attempt to subvert the will of the people through intimidation, harassment and declaration of fake results as the Sylva group is planning like the Adamawa case they will know the true resilience of the Bayelsa people.”