Former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva has begun intense lobbying of his former top aides and leading members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to support the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, in the state.

While Sylva has won over a former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Venezuela, Felix Oboro, one of the founding fathers of the PDP in Bayelsa into the APC, he led a team of ranking party leaders to visit his then Special Adviser on Security, Chief Richard Kpodo, who is said to be a key mobilizer in the state.

Kpodo, a former Chairman of the defunct New PDP that metamorphosed into APC in the state, has dissociated himself from the APC after he had been denied the Chairman of APC in Bayelsa.

He was the Protem Chairman of the APC before he left the party over an undisclosed rift with Sylva. Sylva, it was learnt, led the APC Chairman, Chief Tiwei Orunimighe, and over 500 party loyalists to a meeting with Kpodo at his (Kpodo’s) De Rich Park Hotel in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital on Saturday.

Sources at the meeting said Sylva begged Kpodo to return to the APC and unite with others to ensure victory for Buhari at the presidential poll in February.

An executive member of the party, who pleaded anonymity, said the visit was to bring back the former aides of Sylva and build a solid support base for APC’s victory in Bayelsa.

Kpodo, who was a very close aide of Sylva when the latter was Governor of Bayelsa, is said to have no fewer than 1.5million supporters across the length and breadth of South-South.

When contacted for his reaction on the visit and his position, Kpodo said the visit of his former boss was a private one.

He said, “Yes, my former boss visited me with his supporters and party candidates. He wants me back to give support to his party. “And I have yet to give a reply. I have equally told my supporters all over the state and the region to be on standby.”

It was further learnt that Sylva was not resting on his oars to ensure that the APC took over Bayelsa from the PDP in all strata of elections in the state. He was said to be in consultations with aggrieved members of the PDP and other members to join the APC train in the state.

Excerpted from NATIONAL MIRROR