Sylva describes as 'Hoax' APC drive to conduct fresh primaries in Bayelsa state

FORMER Bayelsa State Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva yesterday, described as a ‘hoax’ the order for rescheduled governorship primary election by the national leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC).

In a statement issued in Yenagoa by the Timipre Sylva Campaign for the Bayelsa State 2015 gubernatorial election and signed by his aide, Doifie Buokoribo, Sylva dismissed media reports that two other governors will be joining their Edo State counterpart, Adams Oshiomhole, to organise a fresh APC governorship primary election in Yenagoa on Tuesday.

It would be recalled that Sylva laid claim to the APC governorship ticket after the party’s primary election was disrupted when armed hoodlums stormed the venue and disrupted proceedings causing Oshiomole, who was to supervise the polls, to allegedly abandon the exercise.

Sylva said the reports of a rescheduled election is a “cruel hoax,” stressing that there was no way a fresh primary could be organised, as it would amount to “an act of illegality.”

The statement reads in part: “As at yesterday, Governor Aminu Tambuwal is in far away New York, attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), while his counterpart in Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, is attending Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Are they going to conduct a virtual election? Despite the orchestrated lies and disinformation, the Sylva Campaign will again urge our teeming supporters to be law-abiding, peaceful but resolute. Victory is sure.”

Meanwhile, senator representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Paulker Emmanuel, yesterday broke his silence on the reason for his disqualification from race for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship ticket, alleging that the party lacked internal democracy.

Paulker said, though the Screening Committee of the PDP at the Zone has not officially informed him of the outcome of the screening, he was disqualified because some members of the APC in the state attended his recent Thanksgiving Service.

Paulker, who was disqualified alongside a former Commissioner for Sports, told a forum of members of his campaign organisation that the earlier claim of non-availability of tax clearance by the screening committee as a reason for disqualification was a dummy.