The Timipre Sylva Campaign Organisation, on Sunday, accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Seriake Dickson of plotting to cause mayhem by sponsoring demonstrations in Yenagoa, the State capital, against the All Progressives Congress (APC).
A statement by Doifie Buokoribo alleged of a reported threat by a “shadowy group of thugs” under the aegis of “Mangrove Boys of Bayelsa” to mobilise a 10,000-man march against its principal, ahead of the December 5 governorship election.
It said the sponsored protest was another manifestation of fear and frustration, which Dickson and the PDP had displayed since Sylva emerged as APC candidate.
Buokoribo called on security agencies to hold Dickson and his party responsible for any breakdown of law and order arising from instigated protest.
Continuing, the statement called the attention of the public to “the frenzy of sponsored media activity by Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson and the PDP against the candidacy of Timipre Sylva.”
“This campaign began before Sylva’s emergence as the APC governorship candidate, and it was clearly purposed to ensure that APC presented a candidate that would give Dickson an easy victory.
“Having failed in the bid to manipulate the emergence of an APC candidate that can be defeated, and realising the fact of Dickson’s imminent loss at the 5 December poll, the embattled governor and his party have deployed everything at their disposal to try to denigrate Sylva’s candidacy.
“They have packaged a multi-billion naira media campaign, not to tell the world what Dickson has done and can do for Bayelsa, but to try to vilify Sylva,” the organisation said.
The Sylva campaign team recalled that this same ‘Mangrove Boys of Bayelsa’, had in the thick of the 2015 presidential campaign serially threatened the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, warning “her not to visit Bayelsa for the PDP presidential rally (besides) accusing her of using the state chapter of the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria to undermine Governor Dickson.
“Now that Mrs. Jonathan and Dickson claim to have settled, the Mangrove Boys of Bayelsa and their principal have found a new enemy in Sylva.
“In a way, we agree that the coming election is about Sylva. The election is about the birthing of a prosperous Bayelsa through Sylva, or the negation of progress through opposition to his candidacy,” it added. .
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