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By Amos Odeh, Yenagoa
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has inaugurated the state, LG and ward executives to pilot the affairs the party in the state as well as the elders’ council to reconcile aggrieved members.
Performing the ceremony at the party secretariat along Melford Okilo Road in Yenagoa, Barr Stanley Damabide, who is the state legal adviser, urged the officers to place the interest of the party above selfish considerations.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, tasked the new executives to work assiduously to ensure that the APC takes over government at the next election, noting that the PDP administration has failed the state.
He advised members of the party to shun rumours making the rounds that APC in Bayelsa State is factionalized, adding that the state chapter of the party is one big family and is waxing stronger. He described the inauguration as a new beginning for APC in the state describing the congress that brought in the new executives as a very peaceful one.
In his address, organising secretary of the APC in Bayelsa State, Dr Coronation Tokpo alleged that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party has failed with its policies that have increased hunger, unemployed, marginalisation and oppression, adding that it is high time Bayelsans put their heads together to wrest power from PDP come 2024.
State chairman, Chief Dennis Otiotio, said the new executives, whom he described as people of like minds, will hit the ground running and will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that APC will not only take over the Creek Haven but will sweep all the seats both at the state and national Assemblies.
He said his major task is to reconcile aggrieved members of the party, hence the setting up and inauguration of the elders’ advisory council of the party. He called on people of like minds to come over to APC and wrestle power from the PDP which he said has successfully impoverished and under-developed Bayelsa State for the past ten years, stressing that the Senator Douye Diri-led ‘Prosperity government’ “is rehearsing governance and not governing.”
He said the number of prominent Bayelsans who have voluntarily defected from the PDP to APC is a clear indication that Bayelsans are tired of the PDP government, adding that the PDP is using the state’s resources to woo members into the party by promising them political appointments, while noting that it is only in Bayelsa State that the government has over five hundred special advisers.
The chairman said his party will not participate in the forth-coming local government elections in the state, alleging that it will only be a scam as names of chairmen, vice-chairmen, secretaries and councillors will be written at Government House.
High point of the occasion was the reception of over two thousand defectors from the PDP by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva who received them on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari and the presentation of brooms and flags as symbols of the party. Prominent among the defectors were Dr. Rufus Abadi and Dr. Munemune from Southern Ijaw as well as a PDP chieftain from Ekeremor, Hon. Back-to-life.
Among the party faithful who witnessed the inauguration were the state pioneer chairman, Chief Orunimighe Tiwe, Senator John Brambaifagha, former deputy governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Werinipre Seibarugu, who is also the chairman of the elders’ advisory council among others.