Embattled former Bayelsa State Governor Timipre Sylva yesterday resumed hostility with his successor, Seriake Dickson.
Sylva asked Dickson to throw in the towel accusing him of suffering "a severe governance deficit".
The former governor reacted to a statement credited to Dickson at the last transparency briefing, accusing him of non-payment of pensions amounting to N4billion to retirees for five years.
Dickson also threatened to establish a Judicial Commission of Enquiry to investigate the matter.
But Sylva in a statement by his Media Adviser, Doifie Buokoribo, said Dickson's habit of finding faults with the Sylva administration smacked of incompetence and failure.
"We call upon Dickson to resign now since he has shown that the job for which he was imposed on the people of Bayelsa State is bigger than him.
"Failing which the people of Bayelsa State should exercise their civic duty to remove him from office using all available constitutional options," Sylva said.
He said Dickson's claim on non-payment of pensioners from May 2007- January 2012 was scandalous, petty and irresponsible.
The statement said: "When Sylva took over as governor from Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, there were outstanding pension and gratuity arrears, and no noise was made about it.
"As a leader, Sylva took responsibility on the conviction that government is a continuum. Pensioners were paid along with people still in service, promptly and monthly.
"Those who retired from service at the time also received their gratuity once the appropriate documentations were done. Not even Sylva's opponents could accuse him of non-payment of salaries and pensions.
"By our records, the government paid an average of N216 million monthly and about N2.6 billion per annum on pensions.
"If nobody protested over non-payment of pension for five years, it means pensioners as well as labour in Bayelsa were satisfied with the Sylva administration.
"Why is Dickson restricting his pension probe to the period from 2007- 2012? Why not commence from the beginning of civilian rule in the state in 1999? Why the obsession with Sylva?
Dickson has been in office since February 2012. In April 2012, he set up a 11-person Financial Management Review Committee headed by Ndutimi Alaibe to probe Sylva.
"Yet, Dickson is only just realising – in July 2013 – that pension funds were mismanaged from 2007-2012.
"Dickson said it has come to his knowledge that the pension thieves in Bayelsa State used the stolen funds to build hotels and buy exotic cars. Meaning that he already knows who these criminals are? So, why set up a Judicial Commission of Enquiry?
"Dickson and his master at the top have run out of options in the schizoid attempt to ruin the political career of Sylva, hence the decision to set up this Judicial Commission of Enquiry.
"By working to the answer, they would like the Commission to indict Sylva having failed in their previous attempts with the Alaibe Committee and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)."
