After days of tension, terror, panic, horse-trading, setbacks, disappointments, strategic planning, consultations and political arithmetic, it is now over for Chief Timipre Sylva, candidate of the APC for the Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, while Douye Diri, candidate of the PDP, is celebrating his acceptability by Bayelsa people.
At the end of the keenly contested election, Diri trounced Sylva, scoring a total of 175,196 votes, as against Sylva’s 110,108 votes. With this, Diri has effectively retired the former minister who preferred to present himself for the election on his party’s platform, rather than allow others to pick the party’s ticket.
From the results announced by INEC, Diri won in eight local government areas of Ogbia, Sagbama, Ekeremor, Yenagoa, Kolokuma/Opokuma and Southern Ijaw, while Sylva won in Nembe and Brass.
Signals of APC’s loss came from the day Sylva picked the party’s ticket. The expectation had been that Sylva would support David Lyon, the 2019 candidate of the APC that was sacked by the Supreme Court on the eve of his inauguration.
But Sylva insisted on taking the ticket. He was even his partyEven his party members revolted against him and vowed to work against his victory. And they did.
His loss was despite all the funds he injected into the campaigns and planning. While a lot of APC chieftains had left him before the election, those who remained were said to have stayed behind to destroy him from inside. And they did.
On their part, most Bayelsa people, including elders, very top political leaders from the state who have held very high offices in the country mobilised against him, largely because of what they called Sylva’s penchant for violence.
One top politician even told TNN that Sylva did not enter the race because of money, but had contested to enable him go after all his perceived enemies from the state. Some of his followers had even boasted that they would chase away their opponents from the state once Sylva won.
Only recently, Sylva’s running mate, Great Joshua Maciver gave a very inciting order while on their campaign at Twon Brass, when he said opponents of Sylva and the APC should be killed and thrown into the river.
That comment has continued to hunt him and his party. Even at the collation centre, one party agent reminded the APC agent of how they threatened to kill Bayelsa people. The agent nearly went for the jugular of the APC state chairman and collation agent, Dennis Otiotio, before security agents intervened.
The Diri victory is believed to be clearing the road for the emergency of the next governor from Ogbia Local Government, in the Bayelsa East Senatorial District. Going by the zoning arrangement in the state, Ogbia is expected to produce the next governor of the state.
Ogbia people themselves were said to have worked hard to frustrate Sylva so that the zoning arrangement would not be truncated as consultations and discreet preparations begin begin from now, ahead of the next election in 2027.
When TNN called Sylva for his comments as soon as the results were announced, he rejected the call, even as his media aide, Julius Bokoru who did not take the call at all.
