Aggrieved members of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State have raised an alarm over an alleged plot by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) to use the unresolved crisis in some states, particularly Bayelsa, to scuttle the Febuary 26 national convention of the party.
The members, in a letter sent to the Yobe State Governor and National Caretaker Chairman of the APC, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, warned that the refusal of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva, to convene a stakeholder meeting to resolve the factional crisis may be bobby trap to truncate the convention.
They said the party leaders in the state have refused to convey a meeting as recommended by the reconciliation committee.
The Abubakar Adamu reconciliation committee after a meeting with leaders of the party in Bayelsa State resolved that the state leader of the party, Timipre Sylva, should convene a meeting of stakeholders of the APC in the state.
The meeting is expected to be hosted by Mr. David Lyon to resolve the issues raised in the petition within seven days but with few days to the national convention, the key actors in the crisis is yet to agree on a meeting.
The aggrieved members, under the aegis of the Grassroot Mobilisers Forum (GMF) of APC, Bayelsa State Chapter, said the purportedly elected officers of the party in the state should not be invited or allowed to come close to the forthcoming national convention in order to save the party’s fortune.
In a statement by the Chairman and Secretary General of the GMF, Mr. Idutimi Komonibo, the Secretary-General, Mr. Dallas Ebibi and Mr. Reuben Wilson, respectively, said that in order to put the records correctly, and to save the forthcoming national convention of APC, “we wish to further communicate to you in writing the ‘TRAP’ the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has set to fault the convention.
“With due respect, Sir, the ‘bait’ the PDP is using to set the ‘trap’ is the invalid delegates. That the Bayelsa State purported elected officers from Wards, LGA and State should not be accepted or inaugurated and that Bayelsa State purported elected officers should not be invited or allowed to come close to the forthcoming national convention in order to save the party’s fortune.
“That when an order of court injunction is issued and an appeal is filed to vacate that order, it has given life to that order until the Appeal Court makes a pronouncement. This area should be properly looked into by an independent team of lawyers. That the party at the national level should rather invite only statutory delegates in Bayelsa State to escape the legal issues that have been set or trapped by people’s Democratic Party (PDP).
“We plead with the National Caretaker Committee, national reconciliation committee and the progressives’ governors forum to prevail on Sylva, Heineken Lokpobiri and Mr. Lyon David to seek political solutions in Bayelsa State APC, to address the disunity and withdraw all pending cases in court”, the letter read.
According to the group, “the decision to unite the factions of APC in the State by the National Reconciliation Committee has been paid a deaf ear and the signals are clear that someone somewhere is planning evil against the party for disobeying the directive of the National Reconciliation Committee. This again is very worrisome indeed.”
