By Ebere Levi
With Bayelsa now firmly in its kitty, the All Progressives Congress, APC, has finally made a big catch in the South South. Its burning quest to have a foothold in the oil rich South south states has, finally, come to fruition with its governorship victory in Bayelsa.
David Lyon of the APC, unbelievably, polled 352,557 to defeat his PDP challenger, Senator Duoye Diri who scored 143,172.
A party top notch told The Source that APC’s ascendancy in Bayelsa is a spring board to the eventual takeover of the entire region in subsequent elections.
The fate that befell Bayelsa state last Saturday was designed for the neighbouring Rivers state during the March 9, 2019 gubernatorial elections but internecine wrangling in the state chapter of the party, and the back and forth legal spat between the main actors- Transport Minister, Chibike Amaechi and former ally, Senator Abe, were to ensure that the Supreme Court stopped the APC from fielding a candidate in the gubernatorial election thus, Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, survived.
Essentially, APC’s triumph in Bayelsa clinically validates The Source’s story, a few days before the election, which made a detailed exposure of how the party, backed by federal might, and aided by rampaging militias, would over-run Bayelsa, engage in an unprecedented electoral heist, dethrone the PDP, and declare as winner, its candidate, David Lyon – while compromised elements of the security forces and the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, would look the other way.
Having failed to capture Rivers, Delta and Akwa Ibom in March in its quest for a foothold in the oil producing Niger Delta states, Bayelsa became APC’s only hope. According to party insiders, it was agreed that every effort must be made to wrestle Bayelsa from the PDP in the November 16 2019 gubernatorial election.
The party chiefs feared that failure to get the state into APC’s fold with last Saturday’s election meant another trial in November 2023 by which time the party would have undergone debilitating metamorphosis leading to the weakening of its structures, and therefore, no longer in a position to spring any major electoral thievery.
To ensure that nothing stood on its way to uprooting the PDP in Bayelsa on November 16th, APC, it has been revealed, started plotting the take over “operation”, shortly after the 2019 general elections.
The magazine learnt that just as it allegedly happened last Saturday, heavily armed militants, according to the plan, were to ring the many creeks of Bayelsa, ballot papers and boxes were to be made available to the militants and APC agents for thumb- printing and stuffing, while INEC and security agents watched.
This magazine was not able to confirm that, but reports were awash that there was no voting in some areas of the state.
PDP and governor Henry Seriake Dickson took things for granted, and were oblivious of this deadly eviction plots.
Though the APC had federal might, militants and INEC on its side, it was nonetheless agreed by party egg-heads that the PDP and Governor Dickson were no pushover in Bayelsa. This Magazine was informed that it was for this reason that the APC top hierarchy searched for a Bayelsan with a strong character, one who knows the PDP and the political temperature of the state inside out, as well as possesses a fighting spirit and deep war chest to lead the onslaught.
The description fitted former Governor Timipre Slyva, a PDP governor till 2012, and now Minister of State for Petroleum.
“We wasted no time in contacting him to lead the push to get us Bayelsa. But then, a lot of placating and trade offs had to be made to him. Before now, Slyva was not happy with the party.He felt betrayed and abandoned during, and after the November 2015 guber election which he lost to Dickson”, a top APC chief told the magazine.
Sylva, now as the leader of APC in Bayelsa, eventually agreed to lead the battle. He was to trade off his governorship ambition for a juicy Federal Ministry as Minister.
The former governor was not only compensated with the lucrative Petroleum Ministry, but was conceded the right to produce the APC governorship candidate of his choice. Sylva, The Source was told, wasted no time in settling for Lyon, his loyalist.
Following the victory of his godson, Lyon, in Saturday’s governorship election, the popular opinion on the streets of Yenogoa, the Bayelsa state capital, is that Sylva has returned to the Government House, known as Creek Haven, as governor by proxy.
Many in the state insist the former governor’s image will loom large in Lyon’s governorship as a result of the governor-elect’s lack of political experience and administrative and leadership competence.
Describing Lyon as ” fish out of water”, a political analyst,Goodhead Stephen, posited that Slyva plucked Lyon from the known, his comfort zone, and foisted him on the unknown, an uncharted terrain- the exalted office of governor.
Said Stephen: “Obviously, the gentleman was not expecting to be governor.That was, at least, not his modest political ambition. I’m sure Lyon was at home with his pipeline survelliance contract and oil business. But, now, he has suddenly found himself in an uncharted terrain. It is going to be Slyva’s show. Sylva is simply back to power.He will be the unseen hand and the oxygen behind Lyon governorship.Yes, Sylva is back. Lyon is just a proxy.
Following the defeat suffered by his anointed candidate, Senator Diri, in the governorship election, many blame the out going governor for hugely contributing to APC’s victory through his actions.
Keen followers of Bayelsa politics aver that Dickson’s insistence on Diri succeeding him went against the tenets of the agreement allegedly brokered by PDP leaders to present former NDDC boss, Timi Alaibe, as the consensus candidate of the party for the election.
It was alleged that when it became clear that the popular choice of the PDP in Bayelsa and its leaders, including Jonathan, was Alaibe, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in the presence of the governor and Jonathan and other party leaders prevailed on Dickson to stand down his preference for Diri and settle for the popular choice.
Dickson was said to have left the meeting venue, allegedly, with a pledge to present Alaibe as the consensus candidate as agreed, only for him to return to Yenogoa and ran Diri down the throat of everyone, using his advantageous position as governor. This magazine could not confirm this story, but a reliable source close to the governor said he never made any such promise to present Alaibe.
A source claiming to be privy to the said arrangement said: “For those who didn’t follow the build-up to the Bayelsa elections this is the reason Dickson’s candidate was beaten.
“Dickson disrespected the elders. They had settled for Alaibe as a consensus candidate.
He also imposed a running mate against everybody’s advice ”
In fact, this magazine was told that many political office holders who resigned from his cabinet did so to protest the choices he made, especially, that of the Deputy Governorship candidate.
Having succeeded in imposing Diri on the party, Dickson also reportedly spurned entreaties to embark on reconciliation and fence mending exercise, insisting he alone possesed what it takes to enthrone his candidate as governor.
Also, the outgoing governor refused, despite several pleas from party elders to ameliorate the bad blood Diri’s choice had generated in the party by allowing the Deputy governorship slot go to another Senatorial zone rather than his, Bayelsa West Senatorial zone, but Dickson stuck to his choice of a serving Senator, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpor on the party as Diri’s running mate, allegedly with a view of replacing him ( Senator Ewhrudjakpor) in the Senate.
However, this magazine can confirm that Dickson made efforts at reconciliation, and visited a number of aggrieved persons to make peace, and carry everybody along.
Very dependable sources have debunked as lies, insinuations that the former president openly worked for the APC and Lyon.
One of the sources: “Don’t forget that President Jonathan is now a statesman.He is also a committed party man.Yes, his relationship with Dickson may have been untidy, but he never worked against his party.
“Of course, you dont expect him to be on the field campaigning for Diri but he stood with the party. However, he is a democrat and therefore, could not force, even his family members, to vote for a particular candidate.
Also, that his local government, Ogbia, voted massively for Lyon and the APC was also not his making. His kinsmen may have done that as a protest against Dickson’s alleged spat with Jonathan.”
In the coming days, according multiple party source, the PDP will bleed to dead in Bayelsa as virtually all members of the state House of Assembly are on their way to the APC.
Almost all the House of Reps members from the state are also said to be headed to the party.
Massive resignation from Dickson’s cabinet is also said to be looming.
“Commissioners and other political appointees who secretly worked for Lyon and the APC- and they are many- are leaving soon preparatory to taking up new political appointments in the Lyon government”, one of the sources revealed.
But there is hope. Two Federal courts had earlier disqualified both Lyon and his running mate from the contest. But the PAC quickly secured an injunction which allowed them to run. The cases are still in court. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?
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