Bayelsa Guber: APC, PDP bicker over alleged plot to frame Sylva with corrupt charges

The All Progressives Congress,APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Bayelsa State on Monday traded words over an alleged plot by Governor Douye Diri to frame Chief Timipre Sylva with corrupt charges using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Sylva was the candidate of the APC in the just concluded governorship poll in Bayelsa State.

The APC, in a statement sent to newsmen through its State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, said Diri intend to make Sylva look guilty of crimes he did not commit in order to distract him from effectively pursuing his petition at the state governorship election tribunal.

Parts of the statement said, “We are aware of Senator Diri’s devious activities at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC, aimed at sponsoring invented petitions against Sylva, and the pressure he is mounting on officials of the Commission to initiate arrest and prosecution against him on trumped up charges, particularly, bordering on his tour of duty as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.

“We have it on good authority that Governor Diri has instigated officials of EFCC on a fishing expedition to try to cobble some flimsy and imaginary charges together against Sylva in order to arrest him. This is all in a bid to distract the APC candidate, and hinder effective pursuit of his petition at the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

“Senator Diri knows full well that he did not win the November 11 governorship poll; he knows without a doubt that he is holding a stolen mandate that would soon revert to the rightful owner. That is why despite his alleged victory, there is hardly any celebration. Diri and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are simply jittery, knowing there is nothing to celebrate.

“APC would like to use this medium to warn Diri and PDP to desist from their conspiratorial activities against Sylva at the EFCC.

“We also wish to advise the EFCC to resist any temptation to get entangled in the political chicanery of the sinking governor and his party.”

But the PDP, in a reaction through the State Publicity Secretary, Ebiye Ogoli, called on the APC to leave Diri out of Sylva’s travails.

According to the PDP, the allegation by the APC was an attempt to hoodwink gullible Bayelsans.

“The attention of the Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, has been drawn to a malicious publication to the effect that the State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, and our party were engaging in a clandestine plot to frame up corruption allegations against the defeated All Progressives Congress,APC, governorship candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,EFCC.

“Chief Timpre Sylva, as a bad loser, has refused to acknowledge and accept the outcome of the November 11 governorship election for what it is – a free, fair and transparent poll.

“The election was widely adjudged by various local and international observers as one of the cleanest in recent times conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, in which incumbent Governor Douye Diri was re-elected via a landslide,” parts of the PDP statement said.