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Sylva is not hiding John Togo
By Doifie Ola
Newsdiaryonline Wed May 18,2011
The attention of the Governor of Bayelsa State, His Excellency
Chief Timipre Sylva, has been drawn to an irresponsible report
in the Wednesday, 18 May 2011 edition of one national newspaper.
In the report, Mr. Ekpein Appah, Obubra Camp Administrator, for
the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme, accused Governor
Sylva of shielding fugitive militant leader, John Togo, in the
safe confines of Government House, Yenagoa. Mr. Appah, a
long-standing personal aide of former Presidential Adviser on
Amnesty, Mr. Ndutimi Alaibe, went further to insinuate, without
proof, that John Togo is being kept in Government House, Yenagoa,
so that he can be used to foment trouble, including attacking
political opponents of the governor.
That report is unfair, irresponsible and disturbing. It is false
in every material particular. Everyone who has followed the
history of the Amnesty Programme in the Niger Delta knows that
Bayelsa State represents the poster-child of its success. It was
Governor Sylva who sold the idea of the programme to late
President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. It is therefore unthinkable that
the governor would want to do anything to undermine a programme
he has invested inestimable institutional and personal
resources. Sylva has no reason whatsoever to shield John Togo or
any wanted person from the law. No. The idea that John Togo is
in Government House, Yenagoa, when he is not even from Bayelsa
State, is simply laughable.
But then, we understand the desperation of a few of our
politicians and their paid and unpaid agents. For us, this
report represents one in a series of coming reports by someone
who is neurotic about being Governor of Bayelsa State, working
covertly and overtly, to create disaffection between President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Governor Timipre Sylva. That way, he
thinks he can fool Bayelsa people to vote for him in the April
2012 Gubernatorial Election. With God and the Bayelsa people
solidly behind us, that satanic agenda will certainly come a
cropper.
DOIFIE OLA
Chief Press Secretary to the Governor
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