• Former minister accuses gov of fresh plot to destabilise community
The last is yet to be heard of the lingering leadership crisis rocking Opu-Nembe Community, in Nembe Local Council of Bayelsa State, as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timipre Sylva, and the Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, once again, engaged in fresh battle of words.
Sylva, yesterday, alerted security agencies and members of the public to a plot by Diri to stoke a fresh crisis in Opu-Nembe ahead of the November 11 governorship election.
Sylva, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Julius Bokoru, said Diri had been the brain behind the Opu-Nembe bloody crisis in the past two years.
But in a swift response, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Daniel Alabrah, condemned the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and former governor of the state, saying he appeared to be playing the ostrich in the Opu-Nembe (Bassambiri) Community crisis.
Alabrah, while reacting to a statement credited to Sylva, in which he accused the incumbent governor of stirring a crisis in Bassambiri, said the former governor was embarking on a futile mission to deflect attention from his disdainful role in the protracted conflict.
Sylva had insisted that the governor had shown nothing but absolute disdain to the people of the area, adding that Diri was only interested in keeping Opu-Nembe in crisis because it is the stronghold of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He noted that after returning from a trip abroad, Diri was angry to observe that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) heeded the outcries from the people and restored calm in Opu-Nembe.
Responding, however, Alabrah said it is a surprise that the former minister just found his voice one month after the current crisis broke in the community.
He said: “It is equally befuddling that Sylva was engaging in scape-goatism when virtually everyone in the state and beyond knew who the key instigator and agent- provocateur in the Bassambiri crisis was.”
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