Yenagoa—Some social media users in Bayelsa State have insinuated that the recently held stakeholder meeting of the State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is evidence that all is not well with the party.
Mangrovepen.ng recalls that the minister of state for petroleum resources and leader of the APC in Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva had on Saturday convened a stakeholder meeting to garner support for the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other APC candidates ahead of the 2023 elections.
The meeting which had top national, and zonal executives of the party, legislators and federal appointees, according to Sylva, was said to have been convened to strengthen the unity of the party and rally support for all APC candidates in the 2023 general elections.
Sylva was quoted by his spokesman, Julius Bokoru, to have said that “APC is a large family and it is our ability to accommodate all the shades and tendencies that will determine how far we can go.
“We have the muscle and capacity to deliver, that is why I term this campaign operation takeover.”
However, some social media users in the Bayelsa cyberspace have questioned the absence of APC stakeholders like Heineken Lokpobiri, David Lyon and Gabriel Jonah.
Bearing his thoughts on the issue via a phone conversation with our reporter, an APC stakeholder from Sagbama Local Government Area in the state, Douye Koroye, said the decision on who to attend and who should not attend remains the prerogative of the party leadership.
Koroye, a former special adviser to the immediate past governor of Bayelsa State and incumbent Chairman of the Otita Force Coordinators Forum, told our reporter that “my national leader has not briefed me on why he did not attend.”
When asked if the trio of Lokpobiri, Lyon and Jonah were not invited, the assistant publicity secretary of Bayelsa APC, Tamaratare Otis Zuokumor, insisted that “they were all invited. The story is untrue.”
Meanwhile, an APC stakeholder who does not want her name mentioned admitted that the wrangling in the Bayelsa APC is due to ongoing litigations and other disagreements between various party blocs in the party that had caused several defections of APC members to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
“Our party should unite to deliver Tinubu and other candidates in the state come 2023 and give the governorship ticket to David Lyon again.
“I’m afraid failure to do this will cause mass defections to the PDP that will destroy our dear party in the state.”
