The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Bayelsa State has dismissed claims by for the former governor of the state, Timiprieye Sylva that the party betrayed him during the governorship poll in the state.
According to the party, the claim was a ploy to save his face and launder his image, adding that it is uncharitable and unacceptable for the former governor to describe leaders of the party as betrayals and rats when he did not physically contribute to building the party from the foundation in the state, but has benefited immensely from it.
The Joseph Fafi-led faction of the party under the leadership of former acting governor of Bayelsa state, Hon. Nestor Binabo, said it view with utmost disappointment the comments credited to Sylva where he described APC state exco and the people as “rats.”
In a statement signed by the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party in the state Christopher Abarowei, and made available to newsmen in Abuja, the party said the former governor’s naivety exposed “him to recurrent and avoidable catastrophic defeats” in the governorship election in the state.”
The party said: “It is on record that these people Sylva ignominiously referred to as rats facilitated his victory in 2015 governorship primary when it became clear to the blind and audible to the deaf that he has lost consensus of the party.
“We want to also point out that Sylva withdrew in his quest to be the National Chairman of our party when it became clear to him that he has lost to party consensus. His naivety exposes him to recurrent and avoidable catastrophic defeats in the polls.
“Who betrayed Sylva when he lost to Senator Ben Bruce in 2015? The fact is that he lost woefully to Bruce polling only 16,924 votes as against his opponent’s 88,454 votes. Furthermore, it became a management of shame when Sylva withdrew his case against Bruce from the tribunal without a cogent reason, with records showing that Sylva did not even cast his own vote in his polling station.
“We therefore see Sylva’s claim of betrayal as ploy to save face, launder his image and to hold-on to any available straw in trying to deny the fact that he is a serial loser.
“Let us remind Sylva that he did not physically attend any of our congresses in the state in 2014 and never knew the source of the funding of the processes. It is therefore childish and unacceptable, when leaders of our great party in Bayelsa State who laboured to build a solid foundation from the modest 43,000 membership to what we have now, to be accorded undeserving and derogatory terms like ‘betrayals and rats.”
While asking the former governor to show good qualities as one of the leaders of the APC and be abreast with the fact, the party said: “one of the hallmarks of a good leader is to accommodate different shades of opinion so as to win the ultimate prize of occupying Creek Haven in 2019 and stop dishing out despicable languages in trying to score very cheap political points which should be reserved for the opponents as we work assiduously for the success of our great party in the 2019 elections, both at the state and federal levels of governance.”
