Diri: You Can Not Take The Swamp Out Of The Hippopotamus – Sylva Replies Jonathan’s ‘Relocate My Mother’ Statement

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Bayelsa governorship election, Timipre Sylva has berated former president, Goodluck Jonathan over his comment on the poll.

He described the former president’s statement as unfortunate.

Naija News recalls that on November 13, the governor of Bayelsa and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared the winner of the November 11 election after he scored 175,196 votes to defeat his close challenger, Sylva.

Reacting to Diri’s victory while visiting the governor, Jonathan said he would have relocated his mother to Abuja if the governor had not been reelected.

The former president, who hails from Bayelsa, said cultism and kidnapping have reduced from the “suffocating level they used to be” during the administration of Diri.

“We should think about the development of the state starting from the issue of peace and security in the state which within this last period, three years plus, there are significant improvements in terms of cultism and kidnapping and so on and so forth.

“I was saying before this election that if Diri loses this election, I would have relocated my mother to Abuja,” Jonathan had said.

However, Sylva in an Instagram post said he hoped that Jonathan was misquoted.

According to him, “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.”