Odahiekwu Ogunde, Yenagoa
The All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State says the party has registered over 180,500 members in the ongoing registration and revalidation of new and old members.
The acting State Secretary of the party, Mr Alabo Martins made this known on Friday in an interview with select journalists in his office in Yenagoa.
According to him, the APC is the new bride which everybody wants to be identified with, stressing that those leaving are doing so for their personal reasons.
He said: “Those who are leaving the party if you look at them, they are personal friends to the governor. Others are close relatives and those from his local government area.
“The insinuations that the leader of the party, Chief Timipre Sylva is running the party as a ‘one-man show’ is not correct. The leader of the party is sensitive to the plight and yearnings of the party faithful who have the general desire to move the party forward.
“If Sylva is running a one-man-show, he wouldn’t have produced David Lyon as a brand in the state. We won the governorship in the state in 2019 because the leader of the party gave the right direction.”
He emphasised that for the period the leader of the party who is the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources has stayed in office he has brought visible infrastructural development to the state for “everyone to see.”
He added: “As a Minister, he brought the COVID-19 referral hospital, the Brass Fertilizer Company, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tank farm, among others within this short period.
“You know Bayelsans are not gullible people, so it is good to develop their minds than to develop their capacities.”
Martins admonished APC faithful in the state to be steadfast and be committed to the ideals of the party and expressed confidence that the party would bounce back stronger in 2023.