ONYEDI GABRIEL, Port Harcourt
The crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has deepened following the refusal of the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva and his camp to honour the recommendations of the National Reconciliation Committee.
First News gathered that the committee met with the two factions of the party and gave them seven days to convene a stakeholder meeting at the home of the Southsouth Caretaker Committee Chairman of APC, Chief David Lyon, in Bayelsa State, to harmonise their differences and report back to the committee.
While Sylva leads one of the factions, a former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, heads the rival bloc.
It was, however, learnt that the ultimatum expired on Thursday last week without the meeting as Sylva warned members of his faction not to attend the meeting.
It was further learnt that the continuous bickering may force the National Caretake Committee to exclude the Bayelsa exco from the planned inauguration of all state executive committees of the APC.
But Sylva was said to be mounting pressure on the NWC to recognise the state executive committee that emerged after the congresses despite the court injunction that stopped the exercise in the state.
Already, members of the party under the auspices of the Grassroot Mobilisers Forum of APC, have warned of ugly consequences that would result from any attempt to inaugurate the Bayelsa exco.
The stakeholders in their letter to the National Reconciliation Committee warned the APC would be playing into the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) if it recognised the Bayelsa exco and adopt members of the Committee as delegates for the forthcoming National Convention of the party.
The letter was signed by the group’s Chairman, Indutimi Komonibo; Secretary-General, Dallas Ebibi and Vice-Chairman, Pastor Reuben Wilson.
The stakeholders declared that by virtue of the court order that stopped the party congresses in Bayelsa, the exco that emerged against the directive of the court was invalid.
They further highlighted procedural flaws that rendered the exercise invalid including the two-day notice given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) instead of 21 days to monitor the congresses as a violation of the Electoral Act.
The stakeholders said the Appeal Court had also ruled that the appeal filed by the APC to vacate the court order against the congress was defective.
In their recommendations, they said: “The Bayelsa State purported elected officers from wards, local government areas and state should not be accepted or inaugurated.
“Bayelsa State purported elected officers should not be invited or allowed to come close to the forthcoming national convention in order to save the party’s fortune.
“The party at the national level should rather invite only statutory delegates in Bayelsa State to escape the legal issues that have been set or trap by the PDP.
“We plead with the National Caretaker Committee, National Reconciliation Committee and the progressive governors Forum to prevail on Sylva, Lokpobiri and Lyon to seek political solutions in APC Bayelsa to address the disunity and withdraw all pending cases in court”.