* Sylva

 Following the abortive governorship primary for Bayelsa Governorship election, two stalwarts of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo and former governor, Timipre Sylva are now  trading words over the botched primary 


Sylva who announced himself the winner of the primary after it ended in confusion argues that  Oshiomhole,  the Chairman, APC Bayelsa governorship primary is working to frustrate his gubernatorial ambition, and maintains that the primary held and he was declared winner. 
* Oshiomhole
"Oshiomhole came to Bayelsa wth a clear agenda, which was to get me out of the race at all cost. We are aware that he had been lobbying the centre to get me out of the race in order to pave way for one of the aspirants. Indeed, one of the aspirants has boasted openly that Oshiohmole would cancel the primary

Oshiomhole however maintains  that he and the secretary of the committee did not announce any result neither did they issue any certificate of return. He further accused officials of the APC executive in Bayelsa of conducting parallel primary instead of  working with representatives of the party from the national headquarters sent to conduct the election.


The Edo governor went on to tongue-lash Sylva who whom he described as lacking faith  in the democratic  process, saying that ``whoever wins does not matter but the process that produced the winner.’’

He further accused the Bayelsa Police command of compromise  alleging  that from the action of the police, it was evident that officers and men of the command compromised the electoral  process.

He said in spite of the heavy presence of security personnel dispatched to the Samson Siasia Stadium, venue of the election, thugs still found their way into the stadium effortlessly and disrupted the exercise.

He explained that while some of the thugs were apprehended and handed over to the police, the state police authority saw  nothing wrong in their action as they were immediately released.

Oshiomhole told journalists in Benin City  that the election did not hold on Tuesday as thugs took over the electoral process and the police were helpless,  adding that it took the efforts of the JTF to control the situation at the stadium.

He said the chaos that characterised the primary does not conform to the guidelines issued by the party for the conduct of  governorship primary.

He said that the APC national secretariat adopted a standard guidelines used in the Kogi gubernatorial primary which produced a  winner without any problem in August.

The key issues in the guidelines, the governor explained, were identification of delegates with their Permanent Voter Card,  National ID or International Passport.

Oshiomhole said that while all the other aspirants agreed with the guidelines, former governor Timipre Silva disagreed and  accused the party of formulating a guideline to frustrate his ambition.

The APC on Wednesday re-scheduled the primary