Ministerial appointment: Sylva, Lokpobiri fight over N200m balance, N1bn campaign fund

The suspension of a former governor of Bayelsa State, Timi Sylva, by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken a new twist as investigations reveal that he has fallen apart with the Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, over N600 million ministerial appointment deal
A political movement in Bayelsa APC, under the aegis of APC Bayelsa Good Governance Group, on Sunday, said it had it on good authority that Sylva was annoyed that Lokpobiri had refused to pay the remaining N200 million because he only got the position of a junior minister.
The group alleged that Sylva was busy selling federal appointments to his cronies, including the appointment of Lokpobiri at the cost of N600 million.
“During the bargain, Lokpobiri dropped an advance payment of N400 million for Sylva but declined payment of the balance of N200 million because he was given a junior minister position. He replied Lokpobiri to account for the N1 billion he got from campaign during the last Bayelsa State governorship election. This is the cause of their fighting. We are, therefore, calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct anti-graft agencies to investigate this matter and get Sylva arrested”, the coordinator of the group, Douye Alex Panebi, said in a statement in Yenagoa.
This, he said, explained why the organisation supported the decision to suspend Sylva as a corrective measure to bring back sanity into the party.
Sylva and four other members of the APC were on Saturday handed indefinite suspension by the party’s leadership citing alleged anti party activities and other forms of misbehaviour deemed to be inimical to the progress of APC in Bayelsa state.
The organisation which reflected on the loss of the APC in the last election and recent crisis within the party in the state said that but for the inordinate ambition of the Sylva during the last governorship election, APC could have posted a better result.
The group said “Sylva’s greed, deceit and terrible track record as a former governor caused APC’s defeat at the polls and his subsequent conduct had only worsened the situation in the party in Bayelsa state.”
Panebi also alleged that Sylva was already busy in Abuja selling federal appointments to cronies and thus causing disaffection within the party.
He said, “We must be honest and accept the fact that Sylva’s emergence as candidate was the reason for our misfortune at the last election. We were roundly beaten at the polls because Sylva was a bad product. That is why even the ongoing case at the tribunal is a clear waste of time and resources, another conduit for Sylva to further scam people of their money as he goes about assuring people that the presidency has directed the judiciary to return him as governor.
“That was how he went about deceiving everybody that he was not going to contest the governorship election and then collecting money from all the aspirants promising each of them the ticket, he turned around to eventually contest. He didn’t stop there, he we went ahead to hoodwink everyone of us into believing that he has the backing of the president, boasting that he had federal might and that INEC had been instructed to return him as governor.
“For that reason, many of us sold properties to contribute to his campaign with the promise of a juicy appointment in return as reward. Little did we realize that it was all a scam. Sylva deceived so many people who worked hard and spent hard earned money on his election. Rather than reward those people who worked hard for his campaign, he is busy in Abuja selling appointments to his cronies to raise money to bribe the judiciary to grant him victory at the tribunal while using the office of the secretary to the federation and the presidency to intimidate the judiciary”.
Members of the group who were said to be loyal to the Tiwe Oruminighe-led leadership in Bayelsa state said they fully back the suspension of the former governor given what they described as his “penchant for deceit, violence and corrupt tendencies” which led to the party’s humiliating defeat at the just concluded polls.
While calling on President Muhammadu Buhari and the graft bodies to investigate the allegation, the group insisted that the right thing to do was for the president to direct the relevant agencies to immediately arrest Sylva for corruption.
The group also called on the national leadership of the APC to prevail on the president to stop Sylva from parading himself as leader of the party in the state.