Sylva, Maciver Faults Jonathan’s Comment On Bayelsa Poll

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has come under fire from Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress and Joshua Maciver, his running mate in the most recent Bayelsa State gubernatorial election, for their remarks regarding the election’s result.

Sylva noted this in a post on X, stressing that, “Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s statement is unfortunate.

“I sincerely hope he was misquoted. Let me just quote our respected Wole Soyinka: “You can take the hippopotamus out of the swamp but you cannot take the swamp out of the hippopotamus.”

In response to fellow PDP mainstay and current governor Douye Diri’s win, Jonathan said he would have moved his mother from his native Bayelsa state to Abuja if the APC had prevailed.

Meanwhile, Maciver has also blasted Jonathan for endorsing  Diri.

Jonathan should have been a nonpartisan father figure to all candidates and parties during the electoral season, according to the APC deputy governorship candidate, who called the former president’s move “unstatesmanlike” in a statement.

He maintained that Jonathan’s remarks, which publicly denigrate Bayelsa State as dangerous and unstable, were inappropriate coming from a former president.

He claims that all of Sylva’s genuine supporters no longer respect him because of what the previous president said.

Jonathan disclosed last Friday that, if the governor lost the November 11 governorship race, he intended to move his elderly mother out of Bayelsa State because she and other family members had been abducted in the locale.

He added that during Diri’s tenure, Bayelsa has experienced peace and fewer kidnap cases.