The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State
\ntook a dramatic twist on Wednesday with its governorship candidate,
\nTimipre Sylva, calling on the Inspector-General of Police, SOLOMON\u00a0 ARASE,
\nto order the immediate arrest of APC state chairman, Tiwe Oruminighe.<\/p>\n
Recurring protests at the party secretariat, it was gathered, is the basis
\nfor the call for the arrest.<\/p>\n
Oruminghe is believed to be the person behind the protests and Sylva has
\nmoved fast to put a stop to it.<\/p>\n
Since Sylva named an 80 year old retired educationist, Wilberforce Igiri,
\nas his\u00a0 running mate, there had been protests at the APC secretariat
\nallegedly sponsored by Oruminighe, causing faceoff between him and the
\ncandidate.<\/p>\n
The Bayelsa APC chairman was said to have been promised the slot of
\nrunning mate by Sylva but later reneged.<\/p>\n
According to a reliable source, Sylva\u2019s request for the arrest of
\nOruminighe was contained in a letter to the IG, stating the repeated
\nprotests, destruction of properties at the party secretariat and the
\ndanger to public peace.<\/p>\n
The party chairman was also accused of planning to further sponsor a mass
\nprotest against the candidature of Sylva, purportedly on the premise of
\nanti-corruption protest to call for the former governor to be dropped as
\ncandidate.<\/p>\n
Sylva has allegedly claimed in the letter that the planned protest was a
\nplot to disturb the peace in the state<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is playing out is normal in politics. Sylva is only engaging in
\npower show. You recall Sylva promised Tiwe the deputy slot but why not
\nfulfill his promise? So you can see that Tiwe is only protesting that
\naction and it will surely continue no matter the call for arrest. His
\ndeadly boys, about 1000 armed boys, are slated for the planned protest and
\nit will be difficult for anybody to stop it because of their leader,
\nTiwe,\u201d a source disclosed.<\/p>\n
However, supporters loyal to Tiwe have debunked Sylva\u2019s claim, saying that
\nthe planned protest would be peaceful and mainly to call on the EFCC and
\nPresident Buhari to stop the APC from fielding Sylva as candidate in the
\nDecember 5governorship election in Bayelsa State.<\/p>\n
They stated that their concern was in the interest of the party as
\nfielding Sylva in their estimation will spell doom for the party at the
\npolls.<\/p>\n
Another source among Tiwe\u2019s supporters, however, informed our reporter
\nthat the objective of the protest was also to checkmate Sylva as he was
\nsaid to be \u201cdesperate\u201d to rid Tiwe of his chairmanship of the party in the
\nstate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are prepared to resist every move to short-change our chairman after
\nall he (Tiwe) has done to support Sylva in clinching the governorship
\nticket\u201d, the source claimed.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, a faction of APC supporters loyal to the governorship aspirant,
\nTimI Alaibe, was said to have indicated interest in supporting the PDP
\ncandidate, the incumbent Seriake Dickson.<\/p>\n
Sources hinted the faction told party leaders at a recent meeting that its
\naction was necessitated by the emergence of Sylva as candidate which, it
\nclaimed, had effectively shut out other key interest groups in the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that the APC has succumbed to Sylva, Bayelsans have a right to wonder
\nwhether this is the kind of change the party promised Nigerians. And if
\nnot, whether the welfare of Bayelsans is of no consequence? Why must the
\nAPC now seek to restore Bayelsa to a state of anarchy where warlords now
\nhave full reign?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
While awaiting the worst, Oruminighe and his supporters are believed to be
\non top of the protest plan to hold in Yenagoa, the state capital early
\nnext week.<\/p>\n
Among inscriptions on their already prepared placards which our reporter
\nsaw were issues on Sylva as liability to the APC, bothering on lack of
\nperformance in his 5-year sojourn as governor, diversion of money for
\ncivil servants salaries, N300 billion World Bank Agric loan, N3 billion
\nMDG funds, N125 billion bond wastes and a legacy of high profile debt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State took a dramatic twist on Wednesday with its governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, calling on the Inspector-General of Police, SOLOMON\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n