Despite repeated denials by party officials and members, the All Progressives Congress, APC, is now divided into two factions. Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Timi Frank, disclosed this in an interview with journalists in Abuja, yesterday.
Frank, who was reacting to allegations that APC chieftain and former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva “sold” the state’s ministerial slot to Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, lamented the inability of the national leadership of the party to steer it from troubled waters.
He said: “I spoke in Bayelsa (about the impending crisis) but they did not take me seriously. Very soon, it (crisis) will happen at the national level too. If anyone tells you that there is no crisis in the national APC, it is a lie.
But the National Secretary of the party, Mai Mala Buni, has dismissed the claim about division in the party, saying: “The bogus and misleading allegations are unnecessary distractions to the party’s resolve to fully support the President Muhammadu Buhari administration deliver on the motley promises made by our great party to the electorate.”
Frank insisted “The party is now divided into two. The issue of the Senate president is still there and the party is not talking. So, there is crisis in the party. We have so much divisions and they are keeping quiet. If care is not taking, we are soon going to lose our popularity as a party.”
He said: “Today I am a very happy man because when I came out before the governorship election in Bayelsa to say that Timipre Sylva cannot do the job for the second time in Bayelsa because he was not liked by the people and was very unpopular at that time, nobody took me seriously, including the leadership of the party in Bayelsa State at that time. But today, I am happy and I am thanking God that he has shown Nigerians what I knew then.
“It is a total disgrace if our party cannot act or investigate this allegation and just allow it to go under the carpet without taking action on it. Nigerians and the opposition party are waiting to see what we are going to do.”