All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Chief Izzi Yakiah, has appealed to the party’s national chairman, Dr Umar Ganduje, to ignore calls from certain quarters to dissolve the party’s executive committee in Bayelsa State.
He also backed the suspension of the minister of state for petroleum resources (oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and a former governorship candidate, Chief David Lyon, from the APC in Bayelsa State.
He said it was a decisive step to shelve those whom he alleged, sabotaged the strength of the party during the last governorship election in Bayelsa State.
Yakiah told LEADERSHIP Sunday that there had been pressure on the national leadership of the party from the minister’s camp to have the Bayelsa APC dissolved.
He revealed that the plan was to have the party structure weaned off the party’s 2023 governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, and handed over to Lokpobiri.
He added that it would be unfair and unjust to hand over the party in Bayelsa State to persons who worked against the party’s interest in the last governorship election.
Speaking on last Friday’s suspension of Lokpobiri, Lyon and erstwhile party chairman, Amos Jothan, Yakiah said it was based on a report of the party’s disciplinary committee set up in accordance to article 213 of the APC constitution 2022 as amended.
Izzi, who is the founder of Niger Delta Media Activists Group and Excellent Leadership Foundation, said Lokpobiri’s claim to the party leadership in Bayelsa State is an ignorant interpretation of the party provision which mandates a person with the highest political office holder as the leader of the party.
He added that Sylva, being a former governor, remained the substantive leader of the APC in the state.
Yakiah alleged that Lokpobiri’s nomination of a commissioner in Governor Douye Diri’s administration in Bayelsa State and his being absent from all APC engagements in Bayelsa since 2021 till date, affirmed his disloyalty and sabotage of the party.
The APC chieftain also alleged that the minister has failed to reposition the nation’s oil sector for optimal productivity as directed by President Bola Tinubu, adding that Lokpobiri has paid more attention to his attempts to make himself the party leader in Bayelsa in order to fulfil his yet to be announced governorship ambition.
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