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From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Grumblings and protests from stakeholders have riddled the ongoing ward congresses of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in some local government areas in Bayelsa State.
Some of the worst-hit local government areas are Southern Ijaw, Sagbama and Yenagoa, where some of the aides of the governor, Douye Diri, and government officials have allegedly hijacked the process.
Investigations revealed that ahead of the congresses, Diri had, during a meeting with leaders of the party, directed that the exercise should be inclusive and not discriminatory between old and new members.
He had also set up committees made up of leaders in the eight local government areas to coordinate the congresses.
However, findings indicated that, contrary to Diri’s directives, old members of the APC in the affected local government areas have been subjected to serial humiliations as they have been sidelined from the process.
The caretaker chairman of APC in Sagbama Local Government Area, Tariladei Jonah, condemned the process in the local government, which has excluded the majority of old APC members.
He allegedly said that the Chief of Staff, Government House, Hon Peter Akpe, called his loyalists to the Government House, where a stakeholders’ meeting on the ward congresses was held without other loyal members of the party, in defiance of the directive of the governor.
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“‘’We are the ones who voted for President Bola Tinubu, and now we have been excluded from the process. What is happening in Sagbama is not a ward congress but a selection that has excluded people who voted for President Tinubu. All of us have been excluded. What is happening is wrong, and we are not part of the process. We condemned what is happening. People who voted and suffered for the party are now being ostracized.’’
Also, Ogbotobo Innocent Kpenmovie from Yenagoa Local Government raised an alarm that there is a sinister plan foist defected members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) executive council from the ward level to the state on the APC as the new executive members.
Kpenmovie stressed that there is a plot by those defecting to the APC to sabotage the re-election of President Bola Tinubu.
‘’ The APC congress nationwide shall expose the real intent of the defected governors because, if anyone among them is genuine about their intentions in supporting the successful re-election of Mr. President in 2027, they would not stir up crisis and chaos in their various states by entirely chasing away old APC members who are longtime defenders of the party from emerging as substantive APC executive at the ward, local government and state levels’’.
In Southern Ijaw, Hon Joseph Maclver has called on Diri to probe the outcome of the ward congresses, which, according to him, has been hijacked and manipulated.
The caretaker chairman of the APC in Bayelsa State, Dr Dennis Otiotio-Odoni, has, however, downplayed the complaints about the process, noting that Diri is committed to an inclusive process.
He disclosed that all complaints would be addressed, as various political leaders are stepping up to intervene where necessary.
