The All Progressives Congress (APC) has suspended its campaigns over a boat mishap which occurred on Wednesday while on a campaign tour to Okoroma in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
According to eye-witness accounts, the boat was carrying the Director of Media and Publicity of the campaign council, Mr Perry Tukuwei, some journalists and the Medical Director of the campaign council, Dr Etionumeya Otiti .
Investigations revealed that immediately the boat capsized, the boat in which Sylva and other campaign officials were travelling arrived at the scene, one of his Police details rescued some of the journalists while Dr Otiti was able to swim to safety.
However, Tukuwei was not seen which prompted some members of the APC who are good in diving to lead a rescue mission.
Their search unfortunately failed to yield any positive result after an hour of search which made the party declare him missing.
The incident was said to have saddened Sylva and the top hierarchy of the party and the decision was taken to suspend campaign activities to appraise development as well as send a delegation to the Tukuwei family to brief them about the development.
The Chairman of the party, Dennis Otiotio who announced the suspension of campaigns in a statement said relevant authorities have been informed about the incident.
“The Bayelsa State APC Governorship Campaign Council wishes to announce the suspension of our campaigns billed to hold tomorrow, 26 October, 2023 at Nembe-Ogbolomabiri and Nembe-Bassambiri.
‘’This is due to an unfortunate boat mishap during our campaigns today. At the moment, a ranking member of staff of our Campaign Council is yet to be accounted for. We have informed relevant authorities and search parties are on top of the situation.
‘’We will take a day’s break to evaluate the situation before we resume our campaigns on Friday at Ogbolomabiri and Bassambiri before heading to Brass on Saturday and Sunday to conclude the Bayelsa East Campaigns.’’