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Bayelsa State Government has slammed the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, over attacks on Governor Douye Diri and his administration’s performance two years after.

The government in a statement yesterday by the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayibaina Duba, expressed dismay about the “misguided comments” of Sylva while featuring as guest on a Yenagoa-based radio station at the weekend.

The government said Sylva’s comments not only lacked finesse, but were also indecorous of an exalted citizen of the state occupying a high office.

It said the comments coming at a time the state and its citizens were in a celebrating mood, as they marked the second anniversary of Diri’s administration, were intended to dampen morale and score cheap political points.

Duba said: “Interestingly, ‘Bayelsans’ know better and cannot be swayed by baseless sentiments and the shenanigans of political conflict mongers.

“The state government is surprised that having previously been the number one citizen of the state, Sylva displayed crass ignorance about ongoing projects of the Diri government.

“While we acknowledge his praises for some of the policies of the Diri administration, we, however, listened to him painfully trivialise some of the newly inaugurated projects of this administration.

“For instance, Sylva described the newly inaugurated Igbedi community road as a mere 4.5km road project that does not deserve the invitation of another governor to inaugurate it and that it led to the governor’s wife’s hometown.

“Pray, is Igbedi not a community in Bayelsa State that deserves the benefits of government projects like any other community? The minister might have forgotten that the first phase of the Glory Drive road he referenced and is taking credit for is not as long as the Igbedi road he condemned.”