This is election, not war – Gov Sylva

Akam James, Yenagoa

Leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, and former Governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, has appealed to politicians and candidates of the various parties in forthcoming elections in the state, to play by the rules and not hit-up the polity, noting that this is election and not war. Sylva, who also called for safe and peaceful conduct throughout the electioneering period, said he was hopeful of greater chances of victory for his party in the State because of the credible and we’ll grounded filled but the APC. He stated this yesterday while addressing newsmen at the police headquarters in Yenagoa, briefly after his visit to the state commissioner of police. Sylva, who accused the members of the PDP in the state of stockpiling arms for the elections, added that he hoped and pray that they’ll not have opportunity to use those arms throughout this period. “Campaigns are going on everywhere in the state and the country, as you all know APC is the dominant party in the State and we have better chances in this election, we are hoping everybody will give peace a chance, Bayelsans are naturally peaceful people but the unfortunate things is that the PDP have been stockpiling arms and we hope that they’ll never have the opportunity to use them” Sylva, who disclosed that the main reason why he visited the police boss in the state was to get assurances because of the recent criminal activities, murders, attack on APC members and pulling down of Bill boards, adding that he believes that the government of Bayelsa State has a direct hand in the several killings. He also faulted Governor Dickson’s frequent complains about deployment and re-deployment of police commissioners in the state, noting that the reason why he didn’t shout about this recent change was because the current commissioner was in the state to do his bidding. “We are here to visit the commissioner to get assurances because they are several killings and nothing’s has been done about it, a day ago, our presidential candidate’s bill board was brought down by unknown men and we know this are the kind of things that precipitate problems, if our members begin to react then they’ll crisis” One of the strategies is to interact with the police and INEC, so that they’ll know that we are very serious this time and will not condone any form of connivance between the two agencies and politicians like in 2015 when we ran elections with police and INEC.