Sylva’s kinsmen give tough conditions to support him
Felix Okoye
Some influential chiefs in Nembe kingdom and kinsmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, have given tough conditions for their support ahead of the December 5 governorship election.
Sylva was said to have enlisted his surrogates to meet with the chiefs and others in Brass during the week to sound them out on how they would support him at the forthcoming polls.
NigerianEcho learnt from a reliable source that both the chiefs and Sylva’s kinsmen in Brass were not too disposed to the advances by Sylva as they gave a three-point condition that would make them support him.
The chiefs, our source disclosed met with Sylva’s men on the aegis of Nembe Patriots and he was said to have been told in unequivocal terms that he would have to apologize for failing to develop Brass and Nembe while he held sway as governor of the state for five years, apologise for the many youths who lost their lives as operatives in the state-sponsored security outfit, Famuo-Tangbe as well as account for the billions of naira allegedly stolen from state coffers.
NE source who was privy to one of the meetings between Sylva’s men and the chiefs in Nembe, said the chiefs expressed their disappointment that for five years that Sylva served as governor, he never thought it important to construct the road leading to Nembe which he claimed to be “economically unviable, whereas, the same road has now been constructed by the incumbent governor Seriake Dickson.
“That it took Governor Dickson who is not a son of Nembe to construct this critical road is baffling to say the least”, the chiefs were said to have told Sylva’s men at the meeting.
Besides their disappointment over lack of development in their areas, the chiefs also raised posers on the many deaths among Nembe youths under Sylva’s regime with insinuations that youths who served in Famuo-Tangbe were allegedly lured into service to unleash terror on the APC candidate’s political enemies` with consequent reprisals.
“These young men are our sons and they died needless deaths because Sylva, under the guise of providing employment in Famou-Tangbe, used them as killer squads to fight perceived political enemies. Some of them lost their lives through reprisal attacks from some political enemies”, the chiefs stated.
They were also said to have noted that except for Sylva’s inordinate ambition to hold on to power at all cost, the youths would not have died in such a callous manner.
Sylva was said to have been confronted with allegation of misappropriation of funds in billions of naira, which include routine diversion of money meant for payment of civil servants’ salaries and benefits, the N300 billion Agric loans from the World Bank, the N3 billion MDG funds.
In a manner suggesting difficult times ahead for the APC candidate in Nembe and Brass areas of the state, the chiefs were said to have been ashamed of Sylva that for five years in the saddle, no meaningful development took place.