His Excellency Muhamadu Buhari GCFR
The President
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Aso Rock Villa, FCT Abuja
THRO’: CHIEF JOHN OYEGUN NATIONAL CHAIRMAN ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS
Dear Sir,
Forgive us but, given the nature and enormity of the subject matter, We have deemed it fit to save time by avoiding preliminaries and go straight into the reason for my letter, which is to inform you about the ignoble and shameful activities of Chief Timipre Sylva, who is supposed to be the leader of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State.
Mr President, you are very much aware of the tireless and brave efforts we at the Bayelsa APC put to realise your election as President of this great nation against great odds. It is common knowledge that chief Timipre Sylva only became a party member in NOVEMBER 2014, and made his first ever trip to bayelsa on the day you led the APC campaign team to yenagoa seeking for votes. He left immediately after you did and never came back. While he was away, other founding members and party faithful bore the brunt and financial cost of provision of a state secretariat to registration and membership drive and other party activities and events.
However today, Chief Sylva has hijacked the Party and has refused to consult any of the other party leaders in taking important decisions that concern and affect the party in the state. It is such behaviour that cost him his ill-advised gubernatorial ambition.
More worrisome among the ignoble actions and activities of Sylva is his growing enterprise of influence peddling and appointment slots selling. It is on record that last year, in order to fund his Governorship election, Sylva sold the Bayelsa State Ministerial slot in your cabinet to Senator Heineken Lokpobiri: a man who did not contribute anything to the development of our party and was still very much in the derelict PDP until our Change broom swept them out of power. This truth can be verified from notable legacy APC leaders in the state chapter.
Sen Heineken LOKPOBIRI only became a member of the APC after the general election of 2015, having lost in his bid to clinch the bayelsa west senatorial ticket under the platform of the PDP for a third time. The fact is, he was the presumed senatorial candidate of the PDP in last elections who ran against our own APC flag bearer in the bayelsa west senatorial zone. The federal high courts held otherwise in favour of the the current occupier of the office, senator Foster Ogola.
Indeed Mr Heineken couldn’t have been the favourite candidate to be nominated owing to his antecedent, which is well known in BAYELSA state. In 2014 November and also in December, Sen Heineken was even approached by the party exco twice to defect to our party and be the standard bearer for our party in the said elections after he had issues in the pdp primaries, that was widely reported. He completely turned us down, saying APC and buhari has no capacity to win elections in Nigeria and bayelsa, and that he cant fly the flag of “boko haram” party. If our ticket was not good enough for him when we were in opposition, then our ministerial slot can’t be good enough too. We call on him to resign immediately.
The open secret in informed political circles in Bayelsa State at the moment is that Chief Sylva is using his relationship with certain persons in your government to hawk appointment slots for Bayelsa State to the highest bidder. This is not only disgraceful but antithetical to the image of both our party, your personality and anti-corruption crusade and government. It is in order to save our party and your good government from the odium that Sylva’s dishonorable actions would attract and the hope that you shall call him to order that I have written this short letter.
Mr President, Sylva’s shenanigans are causing a lot of bad blood and disaffection within the party in the state. And if nothing is done to salvage this unfortunate situation by calling Sylva to order and check his excesses, before long, there would not be APC in Bayelsa State.
We are aware that 5 additional names were sent to your office recently for appointments into executive positions at the federal level. We implore you to put a hold on those names because they were sent without consultations with the state chapter of the party. We also ask that the name forwarded for Niger Delta Development Commission state representative for bayelsa should be dropped. The said person is not even a registered member of the party.
It is against this backdrop that we want to implore you to treat this matter with the utmost urgency it so richly deserves and to swiftly intervene to safe our Party in the State from its supposed leader before he ruins all the hard work and sacrifice that has been invested to build it, with his avarice.
Finally, allow us to use this medium to congratulate you on the great strides our government has recorded in the War against Terrorism in the North-East. It is our hope that with your intervention the Bayelsa State APC would remain strong enough to help stabilise the Niger Delta region by using our enormous influence and goodwill to prevail on all major trouble makers like Pipeline vandals and other criminal elements still posing as Militants to foment trouble for our economy and polity.
Mr President please stop Timipre Sylva from selling Bayelsa State Federal appointment slots.
We thank you in anticipation of your prompt response. Be assured of our utmost regards.
CHIEF TIMIPA ORUNIMIGHE . COMRADE DANIEL MARLIN
CHAIRMAN SECRETARY
