The All Progressives Congress (APC) Bayelsa state chapter says it would impress on minister designate and former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, to contest the forthcoming governorship scheduled for November 16.
Sylva, who contested the 2015 election on the platform of the main opposition party in the state-APC, was only recently listed along with 42 others as ministerial nominee and was screened and approved by the Senate.
But a chieftain of the APC, Mr Festus Daumiebi, Wednesday said in a statement that notwithstanding Sylva’s present designation as minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the APC, as a party, would prevail on him to contest the party primaries and subsequently the main election on November 16.
Already, the duo of Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and Chief Preye Aganaba and others have indicated interest to contest the primaries with the hope of one of them eventually clinching the party’s ticket to contest the main governorship election.
The APC chieftain said that he would join other party stalwarts to call on former governor and minister designate Chief Timpre Sylva to pick the party nomination form.
According to him Bayelsa needs him more at this time than the president needs him in Abuja as minister.
“The resolve of the people in voting out the PDP is reflected in the results of the 2019 general elections where we won several seats at both the national and state assembly.
“I am calling on all residents of Bayelsa to pray to God, never to allow the affliction of misrule occasioned by accidental leaders to arise a second time.
“That is why I am adding my voice to those of thousands of people of Bayelsa to call on former governor and minister designate to come and wipe the tears off the eyes of Bayelsa residents without further delay,’’ he said.
Though the method of conducting the primaries has remain controversial as neither the Lokpobiri nor the Sylva camps have accepted the direct or indirect mode the party state executive committee adopted for the exercise, the party, in line with INEC guidelines has scheduled later this month for the conduct of the primaries.
Also, the chieftain has boasted that the Bayelsa electorate are ready to vote out the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state’s governorship election on November 16.
Daumiebi, who contested the Bayelsa Central senatorial district in the 2019 general elections, said this in Yenagoa Wednesday, alleging that the present administration neglected the development of the state.
Further, he alleged that the PDP government in the state had not provided basic social infrastructure within the state capital and all parts of the state in its seven and half years of ruling.
He, nonetheless, commended the present administration for opening up the hinterlands of the state but queried the sincerity and commitment of the administration towards the successful completion of the new Yenagoa city and other projects by the government.
