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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have clashed over the capacity of the APC, under the leadership of Governor Douye Diri, to deliver Bayelsa State to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, had, during an interview, listed Bayelsa among states where he wielded considerable influence through his Rainbow Coalition to secure victory for Tinubu in 2027.
However, the APC Chairman in Bayelsa State, Hon. Warman Weri Ogoriba, dismissed claims of the Rainbow Coalition’s influence in the state, insisting that the party, under Diri’s leadership, possessed the structure, numbers and grassroots spread to deliver Bayelsa to Tinubu.
Responding, the PDP Chairman, George Turnah, said the APC’s claims should be measured against Bayelsans’ voting records and the prevailing economic realities in the state.
Turnah, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Kelvin Loveday-Egbo, maintained that the 2027 election would not be won through empty promises.
He argued that without the support of the Rainbow Coalition, the APC lacked the structure required to deliver Bayelsa to Tinubu.
“The reality is that the Bayelsa APC, under Governor Douye Diri’s leadership, cannot afford to dismiss the significance of the Rainbow Coalition or the political value of the PDP without confronting the facts on the ground.
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“The attempt to project the APC as capable of delivering Bayelsa to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu without the contribution of the political forces assembled under the Rainbow Coalition is, at best, an overstatement of its present political reach.
“The 2027 contest will not be won by press statements, boasts about structures or claims of grassroots strength; it will be determined by the ability to build broad-based political support across communities, wards, local government areas and the wider electorate,” he said.
Turnah recalled that the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, nearly won Bayelsa despite the absence of a visible political structure, relying largely on mass appeal.
He argued that with Obi now the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), a party founded by former Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, he stood a better chance of winning the state if the APC continued to disregard the Rainbow Coalition’s support.
According to Turnah, Diri’s defection to the APC and subsequent takeover of the party’s structure in the state had left many founding members disenchanted and open to working against the party’s interests.
He said, “The fact on the ground is therefore obvious: the current APC in Bayelsa State under Governor Diri cannot deliver the state to President Tinubu except and unless the PDP and the Rainbow Coalition mobilise their structures in the state to support the APC and back the re-election of President Tinubu.
“This is why the support of the PDP and the Rainbow Coalition is not a peripheral matter; it is central and indispensable if President Tinubu is to win Bayelsa State.”
