The Bayelsa Mandate Group (BMG) has advised the former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, to shun partisan politics and be objective in his assessment of the administration of Governor Douye Diri.
The group gave this position on Thursday in a statement signed by its leader, Chief Nazuan Godfrey, urging 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 the group, what interests the people of Bayelsa, the only homogenous Ijaw state in the country, is the development of the state and the ability of the leaders to make life better for the citizens, declaring that this was what Diri had been doing.
The group berated the performance of Sylva when he was the governor of the state and later as a minister, noting that it was nothing to write home about when compared with the tenure of Governor Diri.
BMG lamented that Sylva left the state underdeveloped and littered it with abandoned projects, including Glory Drive Road, the Kolo Creek Electric Power Station, Atala Oil Field, the 500-bed hospital started by Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha at Imgbi Road, among others.
“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.
BMG further berated Sylva for obliterating a major legacy of Okilo by selling the power turbines for peanuts as well as inaugurating projects that were not completed, as it quickly recalled how the late President Umaru Musa Yar’dua was invited to inaugurate an uncompleted plant with a stand by generator, which was the last official engagement of the late president.
“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 the road to Bayelsa, but wants to return as governor. Four years after initiating COVID-19 referral hospital with fanfare, the project remains an eyesore,”
Speaking further, BMG stated that Sylvia’s desperation and obsession to get back to Creek Haven with claims that Bayelsa was owing him four years of governance was misplaced and provocative.
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