At Thanksgiving Event, Diri Opens Up On Sylva’s Desperation To Win Election
4 min read
In what appeared to be a post mortem on the November 11 gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State, the governor, Senator Douye Diri on Tuesday night made public disclosures on the various desperate efforts by Chief Timipre Sylva to win the election.
Diri had trounced Sylva in the election that was seen as a testament to the will of the people of Bayelsa to reject the APC candidate.
At the last monthly state thanksgiving service, the last during his first term, Diri spoke of how Sylva’s plans to use security operatives to win the election were thwarted.
According to Diri, Sylva’s desperation made him to influence the posting of security agents to the state in an effort to intimidate the people, but praised the operatives for standing on the side of truth and fairness.
In praising them for their resilience, Diri said “you proved your mettle during the elections, to the point that our opponents who thought they would use the army to gag and to intimidate voters, that didn’t happen; you became very professional.
“And even when they(an apparent reference to Sylva) called Abuja to say ah, ‘why are you abandoning me, security is against us’ and they said (to him), ‘ah ah, how can security be against you, you are the one in the ruling party? We have asked the security to allow for a free, fair election.”
“That’s what happened in Bayelsa State and I keep saying if Bayelsa State is replicated across Nigeria, we will have a better democracy, a democracy that we will be proud of, a democracy that will be of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
He expressed appreciation to the Christian community for also standing by and mobilising massively for his victory.
According to him, getting the endorsement and support of the Catholic community in the state was another indication that his government was on the right track and therefore heading for victory.
“For catholic bishops to also endorse us, we are humbled. It just tells us that we are to continue in this trajectory and even do better than what we have done. So, we want to thank all of you; in fact the church as a whole.
“Your endorsement during the campaigns was something that was done all over the state and all over the country.
And people (our opponents) said oh, he is coming to lie down to God, he is talking about God and God and God, let’s see whether God will deliver him. God has truly delivered us.”
He recalled that some christian leaders in the state were threatened for standing by him. “Our chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria was threatened. A lot of us politicians were threatened; we will kill you, we will do that.”
He said with their votes, the people made a clear statement against gangsterism in the politics of Bayelsa State.
“Because there were those who knew that these people were not on ground but they felt that they were gangsters and that they called telling them that whether you people like it or not, we will win this election, so whether they vote or they don’t vote oh, we will announce results. That is what they were using to convince some very gullible people.
“While they were bragging and all that, God was laughing at them and God was sending us, say this is what they are bragging but go there and we will go, we will succeed. He will send us go there, we will go, we will succeed.
“They brought SWAT to Nembe-Bassambiri, took over the whole of Nembe-Bassambiri and were threatening to take over Ogbolomabiri, but we worked round the clock to remove the SWAT from Nembe-Bassambiri; it didn’t work out.
“We did our political calculations, and we said assuming they even take the whole of Nembe-Bassambiri and then we are able to collect Ogbolomabiri, then we have divided Nembe into two. So, we looked at the votes from Nembe-Bassanbiri and the Oluasiri axis, vis a vis the votes in Ogbolomabiri, we made our simple calculations and we knew that assuming we even leave that Nembe- Bassambiri for them and let them take it, we will still defeat them.”
He said whereas the IG’s special police squad were still occupying Nembe Bassambiri, doing nothing, “because the whole idea for which they were brought has failed, because we have brothers that are dying in other areas in the North; in Plateau there have been a lot of killings, massive killings, my appeal is that they should send the SWAT there, so that they can stop the killings of our brothers and our sisters, innocent souls that are being killed on daily basis.”
Diri said he was aware of efforts to import what he called Sylva’s voodoo votes in an effort to try to convince the tribunal to rule in his favour, but added that the effort would be futile because the deed had already been done.
He thanked members of the outgoing state executive council, the judiciary and members of the legislature for standing by his government and making sure he succeeded during his first terms.
The governor said his second and final term would witness the completion of ongoing projects and the commencement of new ones.