Aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bayelsa State, have urged the Governor of Yobe State and National Caretaker Chairman of the party, Mai Mala Buni, to prevail on the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, to reconcile the warring factions in the state chaper.
The aggrieved members, under the auspices of the Grassroot Mobilisers Forum of the APC, said the alleged refusal by Sylva to resolve the factional crisis of the party as agreed with the national reconciliation committee was a trap set to truncate the party’s national convention.
They rationalised that the executives at the ward, local and state levels were invalid delegates since their elections allegedly lacked validity.
The GMF in a statement on Wednesday by its Chairman, Idutimi Komonibo, the Secretary-General, Barrister Dallas Ebibi and the Vice-Chairman, Reuben Wilson, said the purportedly elected officers of the party in the state should not be invited or allowed to come close to the forthcoming convention in order to save the fortune of the party.
They stated that in order to put the records correctly, and to save the forthcoming national convention of APC, “we wish to further communicate to you (Gov Mai Buni) in writing the ‘trap’ the opposition party in Bayelsa has set to fault the APC National Convention.
“With due respect sir, the bait the opposition 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 the 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 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 as a trap by the opposition.
“We plead with the National Caretaker Committee, National Reconciliation Committee and the Progressives Governors Forum to prevail on Chief Timipre Sylva, former Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and Chief David Lyon to seek political solutions to address the disunity in the party and withdraw all pending cases in court.”
They expressed concern that the agreement reached for Sylva to convene a stakeholders’ meeting to resolve all the crises rocking the party in the state had yet to be done.
The group said: “The decision to unite the factions of APC in the state by the National Reconciliation Committee has fallen on deaf ears. The signals are clear that someone somewhere is planning evil against the party by disobeying the directive of the National Reconciliation Committee. This again is very worrisome indeed.
“Also, the invalid status of the party executives purportedly elected during the contentious ward, local government and state congresses was procured due to a court order issued to stop the congresses in a State High Court in Yenagoa by some aggrieved members.
“Within the period the order was issued, the APC through its legal counsel filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt with Appeal No. CA/PH/246/2021 to vacate the order.
“Within the same period as the appeal was still pending in Court of Appeal, the APC State Secretary wrote a letter dated 2nd of September 2021 to INEC to witness the Ward and LGA Congresses which was scheduled by them for 3rd and 4th September, 2021 respectively.
“A two-day notice is a violation of the electoral law as the electoral law stipulates that 21 days’ notice must be given to INEC to witness congresses of any political party. Also their action was a contempt of court by conducting congresses while the court order was still subsisting in suit No. CA/PH/246/2021.”
