…Flays Minister Over Attack On Gov Diri
By John Ugo
The Bayelsa State Government has warned the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, to avoid “throwing stones from a glass house.”
The State commissioner for Information, Mr. Ayibaina Duba, described Sylvia’s attack on Diri as shocking and indeed misguided in a statement on Sunday.
Sylva was said that have attached the Governor when he featured as a guest on a Yenagoa-based radio station on Saturday.
The State Commissioner for Information noted that Chief Sylva’s comments were unbefitting of the position of an exalted citizen of the state occupying a high national office.
He lamented that the comments by the Minister were coming at a time the state and its citizens are in a mood to celebrate the second anniversary of Governor Douye Diri’s Prosperity Administration.
Hon. Ayibaina said the state government was surprised that having previously been the number one citizen of the state, Sylva displayed crass ignorance about ongoing projects of the Prosperity Government.
“Interestingly, Bayelsans know better and cannot be swayed by the baseless sentiments and the shenanigans of political conflict mongers.
“While we acknowledge his praises for some of the policies of the Governor Diri Administration, we, however, listened to him and saw how he trivialized some of the newly inaugurated projects of this administration.
“For instance, the former governor described the newly inaugurated Igbedi Community Road as a mere 4.5km road project that did not deserve the invitation of another governor to inaugurate. He said that it led to the governor’s wife’s hometown.
“Pray, is Igbedi not a community in Bayelsa State that deserves the benefits of government projects like any other community?
“In his attempt to pour ice on the historic significance of the road, Chief Sylva chose to ignore the fact that this was the only community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of the state that hitherto was not accessible by road for about 500 years before the Senator Diri administration wiped off their tears. We do not want to believe that the Minister is a kill-joy!”
“Chief Sylva was also economical with the truth and engaging in the usual deceitful politics of the All Progressives Congress by saying that Bayelsa was dark at night when he arrived the state. And we ask: which Bayelsa did he visit? Is it the Bayelsa that the Prosperity Administration has installed functional solar-powered lights on all the major roads in the state capital and still lighting up more areas of the city or another state?
“If Chief Sylva was referring to darkness arising from power outage, we expect him to know better than to point accusing fingers at the state government for that. We do not think he deserved to be educated on this as someone we expect should know about the privatisation of power in the country.”
The commissioner dismissed Sylva’s claim that the Diri Administration
revisited the Judges Quarters, Yenagoa, an inaugurated project in order to re-inaugurate it.
He said that Sylva’s negative remarks on the ongoing work on the second phase of the Isaac Boro Road project was not different from the APC’s attack on the Bayelsa Airport which every citizen of the state uses now.
He said that records at the disposal of the state Government shows that monies were released for project execution under Sylva as Governor with nothing in the ground.
He said that “People living in glass houses should be careful how they throw stones.”
