New Nigerian Newspapers Online Edition

The leadership of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly has said that its resistence of the incursion of “external forces” into the House is premised on the vision which the former governor Timipre Sylva has for the state.

Speaking to news men in Yenagoa while receiving members of the Integrated Supporters of Timipre Sylva led by Mr. Nengi James, the House Committee Chairman on Education, Hon. Jonathan Obuebite said many of the members used by external forces had shown genuine remorse.

According to him, the House members’ resistance during the crisis was to give the former governor confidence to carry out those developmental ideas for the benefit of the people of the State.

Obuebite, said though many of the members were threatened with death, that did not stop the 18 out of the 24 members from standing against oppressive tendencies of those involved in the grand plot to remove the then Speaker,Werinipre Seibarugu who is now the acting governor of the state.

He alleged that the plan of members who wanted to impeach the then speaker was to install their stooge in order to promote the swearing-in of their own as Speaker and later, acting governor of the state.

“We were asking why they would not allow the former Governor to work.Why wont they allow him suceed.We said ‘No’.First,they came to the House of Assembly to divide us because they felt he had nobody in the House.We resisted them and came together to give the man confidence and assurance to work.These forces had planned to remove the Speaker and make their own Acting Governor.In fact,they have pre-knowledge of the Court of Appeal judgement.”

“Because he has been standing on a solid rock founded by God and we have seen that his fight was true development, it went beyond all of us.Some few persons that worked for Sylva, betrayed him but because he is ordained to be a Leader,he excelled.Today,it is the will of God for him to lead Bayelsa State for the next eight years,” he said.

He called on the youths to support the re-election bid of the former governor against all what he called the “plans of the external forces,” even as he explained that the call for their support for the former governor was not borne out of news papers report, but due to what the former Governor had been able to achieve within the last ten years.

Earlier in his speech,the Chairman of the group, Mr. Nengi James said the youths,women and men in the state have decided to pitch their tent with the former Governor and have accepted to make necessary sacrifices that would see an end to political struggles in the State.

He enjoined all Bayelsans to allow peace to reign so that the state can achieve the desired development.