Date Published: 05/05/10

Bayelsa Patriotic Movement (BPM)

Ekeki-Epie, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State 

Bayelsa State under siege as Governor Timipre Sylva sponsored ex-militants subvert's the rule of law and administration of justice in Baylesa State

It is an understatement to say Bayelsa State is under siege of Governor Timipre Sylva sponsored ex-militants, indeed the entire Niger Delta is under siege and this is unbecoming and a dangerous trend, as the Nigerian State is being presented before us as weak and incapable of administering justices across board and susceptible to blackmail by black hands.

A forth night ago, reliable sources from the creeks informed us that the fugitive ex-governor of Delta State, James Ibori escape from arrest was facilitated by Governor Timpre Sylva. Governor Timipre Sylva’s multi billion naira Yacht, christened “Silver Spirit” stationed on the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brass, Bayelsa State was used to spirit James Ibori out of the Nigeria via the coast of Brass through the Bight of Biafra and on wards to a West African Nation.

In the recent past, Nigerians and Bayelsans in particular has been flooded with threats issued by the duo of General Eris Paul and General Africanus Ukparasia Tuwonwei, both militants sponsored by Governor Timipre Sylva to make the entire Niger Delta ungovernable by setting ablaze major oil infrastructures and kidnapping of foreign expatriates if Timipre Sylva and his cohorts are investigated by any arm of the law enforcement agencies.

This ugly trend manifested itself full blown of recent in Oghara, Delta State when paid gunmen labeled by the media as militant youths prevented security agents from effecting the arrest of James Ibori.

Over the weekend a press statement was issued in Yenagoa by one supposedly repentant militant Eris Paul, going by the street name Ogunboss, warning the acting president from carrying out the responsibilities of his oath of office. This strong-arm, a known Timipre Sylva sympathizer and confederate went further to subtly black mail Mr. Acting President by saying “they would not hesitate to root for a Northern Presidency in 2011, if Jonathan refuses to call his loyalists who are struggling to wrest power from Governor Timipre Sylva to order”.

The Bayelsa Patriotic Movement wishes to inform one and all, especially Governor Sylva and his band of blackmailers that the Bayelsa Patriotic Movement has no affiliation whatsoever with the person or interest of acting president Goodluck Jonathan, hence the acting president cannot call us to order.

The Bayelsa Patriotic Movement is motivated by the love and affiliation with our kith and kin in the only homogenous Ijaw State in Nigeria, to save our people from the perfidy, rape, looting, immorality, banditry, mis-governance, kleptomaniac and criminal tendencies of the Bayelsa State government under Timipre Sylva.

It is now glaring to all Nigerians and Bayelsans in particular that the government of Bayelsa State under Timipre Sylva has failed monumentally. Only renegades and the dregs of our society openly associates with Sylva’s government. The so called repentant militants that constitute Timipre Sylva’s idea of Bayelsa State society and public cannot influence, determine or predict the political future of the acting president Goodluck Jonathan, because they do not have the intelligence or political capital to play or operate in that high realm of politics.

We wish to inform Governor Timipre Sylva and his bosom Ogunboss, that ninety eight percent Bayelsans are not militants, neither are they gun carrying outlaws. The workers that booed the pro-Sylva group during the May Day celebration are Bayelsans and they constitute a well informed and critical sector of the populace.  The spontaneous expression of their disdain for the pro Sylva sycophants on May Day is a clear manifestation of their loath for Timipre Sylva.

First and foremost this set of renegade militants should ask themselves this posing question: have they gotten in touch with the parents of all the young men that died under their leadership in the guise of fighting for resource control?

With the mis-governance and thievery of Bayelsa State’s resources by Timipre Sylva’s, has he not desecrated the memory of all those young men that died in the struggle? Is it not safe to conclude that all the boys in your camp died in vain?

Generals Ogunboss and Africa are out of touch with reality and are blinded by greed and lack of consciousness of the prevailing mood in the Niger Delta. It is on record that patriotic and responsible ex-militants leaders that truly fought for the betterment of the Niger Delta have called for the Federal Government to probe the erstwhile Ministers of Niger Delta and Defense for mis managing funds meant for rehabilitation of repentant militants.

If the leadership of the ex-militants is in sync with the government of Goodluck Jonathan to enthrone probity and accountability, we wonder what Generals Ogunboss and Africa are fighting for or seeking to protect. Are they apostles of corruption and blatant stealing of their commonwealth by a few or are they really and truly freedom fighters?

We want Bayelsans to know and all the young men that fought in the camps of these two renegade militants to know that they are being quartered in tastefully furnished apartments inside Bayelsa State government house while their boys are sleeping in uncompleted classrooms in primitive and sub human conditions. 

Tubor Dudafagha         Monday Agari

National President      National Secretary