Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, has denied sponsoring thugs to disrupt traditional rulers meeting in the state.
In a statement which his spokesman, Chief Julius Bokoru, issued on his behalf, Sylva gave the medium which accused him of being behind the disruption of a meeting, 7 days to withdraw the report.
He said he has been working for peace in the state and Niger Delta region since he was governor.
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The statement said even persons trying to link the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa, know it is false.
The statement said: “Even those that are trying to connect this act to the former Governor knows that it is false. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a chief; former Governor of Bayelsa State and former Minister of State for Petroleum, Sylva has consistently eschewed violence in all its forms.
“As Governor, Sylva played a pivotal role in the Presidential Amnesty Programme, which successfully brought ex-militants out of the creeks and ushered in peace in the Niger Delta, thereby maintaining respectable oil revenue.
“His governorship remains the most peaceful in the state’s history. It is perplexing, therefore, that they would seek to portray Sylva as violent without any tangible evidence”.
The statement said there was no way the viral video could be linked to Sylva, who was in Abuja at the time the incident happened, adding that the culprits had no known affiliations with him or his supporters.