The Bayelsa State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has held a peaceful state congress on Saturday to elect its 36 state executive committee members in which Dennis Otiotio emerged state chairman.
But the faction of the party led by former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Heineken Lokpobiri boycotted the congress on grounds of the subsisting injunction before the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State and did not hold a parallel congress as earlier thought.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva who is the leader of the party in the state was absent at the event which held at the party secretariat as chairman of the seven-man State Congress Committee, Yusuf Aurelius Adejo, described the state congress as peaceful.
The member representing Southern Ijaw Federal Constituency, Preye Oseke said the emergence of Otiotio as state chairman will result in a new and rejuvenated APC in Bayelsa State.
His words: “As a seasoned lawyer, politician, and administrator, Barr. Otiotio will reach out to all stakeholders so they are carried along in the affairs of the party.
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“To those that are aggrieved in all states of the federation, I want to admonish them that APC is a grassroots, socialist and participatory party where the people matter most than those who lead them.”
Oseke assured that with the numbers behind the party, it will wrest power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State come to the 2023 governorship election.
State Chairman of the Lokpobiri led faction of the APC in Bayelsa State, Fala Itubo, told newsmen it did not conduct a state congress as a result of the subsisting court injunction saying, “You remember what happened in Rivers State? We don’t want to make that same mistake.
“As for the reconciliation committee set up by our party leadership at the national level, whatever they want to do must not be about the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, and Senator Lokpobiri alone but should involve all stakeholders of the party. I wish to appeal to all party faithful to remain calm.”
A chairmanship candidate in the Lokpobiri led faction, Peres Peretu, said “we met and thought it wise not to go ahead with the congress because of the subsisting injunction. For all I know, the other party is disobeying the court order.”
