There is currently the craze for who becomes the running mate to Timipre Sylva, the former Bayelsa state governor and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the election slated for December 5.



This is coming after the Sylva’s victory at the re-scheduled APC governorship primary election in the state. Sylva will this weekend announce his running mate for the Bayelsa governorship election.

However, there is speculation that the former deputy governor to Sylva, Chief Werinipre Seibarugu, the former speaker of the state House of Assembly, Chief Nestor Binabo and the man who came second in the party’s primaries, Chief Godknows Powell are among those jostling seriously for the deputy governorship ticket, This Day reports.


There are indications that one of the state chairman of the party, Chief Tiwei Timipa Orunimighe and a former member of the House of Representatives, Warman Ogoriba, would clinch on the position of the running mate to the APC candidate. Tiwei, there is the belief that he could be the one on Sylva’s mind owing to his loyalty.

It was said that Tiwei has continuously had an unwavering devotion to Sylva ever since the former governor was evacuated from the Creek Haven by former president Goodluck Jonathan.

Subsequently, when Sylva moved out of the Peoples Democratic Party, the duo of Seibarugu and Binabo who were deputy governor and speaker of the House of Assembly respectively under Sylva, refused to move with him to the APC.



Later on, reports have it that they both had declared their unalloyed support for the former president. They also threw their weight behind the incumbent governor of the state, Seriake Dickson and the PDP promising to carry the party forward.

Eventually, when the former first lady, Patience Jonathan had the faction issue with Governor Dickson, Seibarugu and Binabo also had their relationship with the governor totally breached.

The duo were said to have also decamped from the Dickson faction as a result of the fallout to join the Patience Jonathan-lad PDP faction.

There is the speculation that since Seibarugu and Binabo did not fulfill their pact to stay with the former ruling party as they left to the APC when Jonathan lost presidential election, their loyalty in the party is in doubt, a source hinted.

For Powell, the man who came second in the APC primary poll and a new entrant into the Sylva cycle, the light of choice also beams on him to emerge the running mate owing to the fact that he is from Yenagoa area that has the highest vote in the state.



It is said also that he has a lot of followers and especially because he is also a close ally of Senator Emmanuel Paulker, the political leader of the Yenagoa people expected to also switch to the APC at the weekend.

Ogoriba on his own was in the House of Representatives with Dickson under Sylva but was rejected by Dickson because he refused to deny Sylva at the height of his travail under Jonathan.

Sylva has since kick-started his campaign with the appointment of Senator Heineken Lokpobri as the director general of his campaign organisation. The campaign team is expected to be inaugurated at the same time as Sylva will announce the name of his running mate.

Meanwhile, Governor Dickson’s second term bid might have suffered setback as the Progressive People Alliance (PPA) in Bayelsa state dissociated itself from a publication in some national newspapers stating that the party was among the 13 political parties that endorsed the governor.

http://www.nigeriannewspapers.today/bayelsa-governorship-anxiety-as-sylva-picks-running-mate-weekend/