A former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, on Wednesday said he believed politicians defecting ‘impulsively’ from one party to another are mentally unstable and should be subjected to psychiatric test.
“Chief Timipre Sylva finds a correlation between impulsive defections and mental instability, and so, considers those flirting from party to party as people needing psychiatric evaluation,” the former governor said in a statement issued on his behalf by his media aide, Julius Bokoru.
Mr Sylva issued the statement to counter the information making the rounds, especially on the social media, that he has defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr Sylva, who was formerly of the PDP but defected to the APC years ago, described the latest “rumour” of his defection as “laughable.”
He said he remains “firmly” a member of the APC.
He said he believes that the APC was “steering the country out of the shackles of mediocrity and under-development”.
He accused the PDP-controlled government in Bayelsa of being behind the “rumour” of his defection.
“Spreading unfounded rumours about Sylva has become the unscrupulous pastime of the failed Dickson Government.
“Sylva is at loss what purpose this baseless rumour is meant to serve. But you cannot put anything past the demented PDP government in Bayelsa State.
“While this fabricated rumour may be evidence that some members of the PDP dream of having someone of his fine qualities, integrity and charisma within their ranks. Chief Timipre Sylva hopes that stating his unwavering commitment to the All Progressives Congress will cause those hallucinating about his imaginary defection to wake up,” the former governor said.
Mr Sylva was elected governor of Bayelsa in 2008 under the platform of the PDP.
He ran again in 2016, this time around as the APC candidate, for the governorship of the state but was defeated by the incumbent governor, Seriake Dickson.
As the 2019 general elections get closer, several politicians have been defecting from one political party to the other, the most controversial ones being those of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, from the APC to the PDP, and the former Senate minority leader, Godswill Akpabio, from the PDP to the APC.