APC alleges plot to frame up Sylva at EFCC

The All Progressives Congress (APC), Bayelsa State chapter, yesterday said it had uncovered a plot by Governor Douye Diri to frame up corruption allegations against the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the last governorship election , Chief Timipre Sylva, at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The APC claimed that Diri and his cohorts intended to make Sylva look guilty of crimes he had not committed on purpose to distract and dissuade him from effectively pursuing his petition at the governorship election tribunal against Diri’s declaration as governor-elect.

APC State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo, said: “We are aware of Senator Diri’s activities at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) aimed at sponsoring invented petitions against Sylva, and the pressure he is mounting on officials of the commission to initiate arrest and prosecution against him on trumped up charges, particularly, bordering on his tour of duty as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.

“We have it on good authority that Diri has instigated officials of EFCC on a fishing expedition to try to cobble some flimsy and imaginary charges together against Sylva in order to arrest him. This is all in a bid to distract the APC candidate, and hinder effective pursuit of his petition at the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.

“Senator Diri knows full well that he did not win the November 11 governorship poll; he knows without a doubt that he is holding a stolen mandate that would soon revert to the rightful owner. That is why despite his alleged victory, there is hardly any celebration. Diri and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are simply jittery, knowing there is nothing to celebrate.

“Chief Timipre Sylva and APC trust the capacity of the judiciary to do justice in the Bayelsa State governorship election litigation. We have filed our petition, and we are pursuing it diligently, hoping that there would be justice at the end of the day.

“But Diri and PDP, knowing their weak standing before the law, are doing all they can to hinder Sylva’s ability to pursue his petition. They simply distrust the judiciary and are trying sundry self-help tactics – the same strategy they employed before the governorship election.

“APC would like to use this medium to warn Diri and PDP to desist from their conspiratorial activities against Sylva at the EFCC. We also wish to advise the EFCC to resist any temptation to get entangled in the political chicanery of the sinking governor and his party.”

But, the PDP, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Ebiye Ogoli, urged Sylva to leave Governor Diri out of his travails.

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Ogoli said: “It is clear from the APC’s spurious allegations that the party was suffering from the November 11 post-election traumatic disorder and that its key leaders and officials deserve to be medically examined.”

The PDP spokesman said that Sylva and the APC, having lost badly in the election, were engaging in another round of misleading and vexatious propaganda designed to hoodwink gullible Bayelsans.

He noted: “Chief Timpre Sylva, as a bad loser, has refused to acknowledge and accept the outcome of the November 11 governorship election for what it is — a free, fair and transparent poll.

“The election was widely adjudged by various local and international observers as one of the cleanest in recent times, in which incumbent Governor Diri was re-elected via a landslide.

“We are at a loss as to the reasons for this latest senile vituperation thrown at our dear Governor. May we remind Chief Sylva and his deceptive cohorts in his party that the EFCC is a federal anti-corruption organ that is not within the remit or under the control of Governor Diri.

“We maintain that the PDP or Senator Diri was never involved in the running of the office of the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and if there are issues arising therefrom, it is not the business of the State Governor or our party. So, we advise Sylva to face his travail (if any) and leave Governor Diri out of it.”