A group within the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State under the auspices of APC For Truth, has criticised the immediate-past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, for celebrating a chieftaincy title conferred on him by a village chief in Ohafia, Abia State, amid the agony of a boat mishap that claimed lives of traders in his country home, Okpoama, Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The group, in a statement signed by Ndutimi Kuro and issued on Friday in Yenagoa, described Sylva’s decision to go ahead with the celebration despite the boat tragedy, as the height of insensitivity.
The group accused the former governor and APC governorship aspirant of placing little value on life.
The group, therefore, apologised on behalf of the party to the people of Okpoama and Okoroma communities and conveyed APC’s heartfelt condolences for the huge pain and loss of their loved ones.
“It is a sad commentary on the poor value Timipre Sylva places on the craze for Chieftaincy titles above the precious lives of his own kith and kin of Okpoama community who died in a boat capsize.
“We are much more pained that he celebrated the chieftaincy conferment just a day after the unfortunate death arising from the boat mishap. It is insensitivity taken too far and we seriously condemn it in its entirety. Rather than showing empathy, Sylva is busy dancing Owanbe while his community is mourning.
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“If he had constructed road to his community, this unfortunate boat mishap and death would have been averted and still, he went on such insensitive celebration of chieftaincy title in the midst of mourning,” Kuro said.
The APC group commended the state governor, Senator Douye Diri, for his intervention and bold initiative to rescue the people by commencing construction of a highway to connect the riverine communities in Brass LGA.
The group said the project when completed, “will not only open up the oil rich hinterland of Brass but will also avert the twin problems of frequent boat mishaps and sea piracy bedeviling the area over the years.”
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