Some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State have petitioned the National Caretaker Committee Chairman of the Party, Governor Mai Mala Buni, against the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr. Timipre Sylva, imposition of candidates on the party without due consultations with stakeholders.

The APC’s leaders who belong to the APC Constitutional and Due Process Vanguard in Bayelsa State include Hon. Godwin Sidi, Hon. Dressman, Mr. Frank Oputu, (Bayelsa Central), Hon. Peter Ozobo, Mr. Ebide Brown and Mr. Moses Hitler from Bayelsa West.

The aggrieved members called on Buni to stop Sylva and his acolytes from imposing candidates on the party in order to avert what they described an impending disaster in the October 31 by-elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has scheduled the by-elections for October 3 to fill the vacant Bayelsa West and Bayelsa Central Senatorial seats. The vacant seats were vacated by the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri and his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo after they were inaugurated on February 14t this year.

The aggrieved party leaders alleged that Sylva, who is neither from Bayelsa Central nor West, was working to impose candidates who recently defected to the APC from the PDP and have not even spent the requisite number of days that would have qualified them for nomination for elective positions.

One of the candidates the aggrieved party members complained against is Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi, who was Sylva’s deputy when he was governor between 2007 and 2012.

They further alleged that Sylva, in concert with a few members of the State Executive Committee, had selected only his cronies from his senatorial district for the few slots of federal appointments from Bayelsa State.

The aggrieved APC members warned that the tendency to impose those who recently defected to the party to the exclusion of committed loyalists who had served the party with dedication would be counter-productive.

They said that those candidates are unpopular and would weaken the chances of the party in the by-elections.

The group also urged Buni to take urgent steps to intervene in the plot by Sylva to impose Ebebi, from Ekeremor Local Government Area as the party’s candidate for Bayelsa West in violation of an existing agreement on zoning in the district irrespective of party affiliation.

According to them, violation of the long standing agreement between Ekeremor and Sagbama to share the senatorial slot and the House of Representative seat would not be in the interest of the APC.

They stressed that fielding another candidate from Ekeremor for the Senatorial election when an Ekeremor man, Hon. Fred Agbedi, occupies the House of Reps seat would put the party in a difficult situation.

The group, which threatened legal action against the planned willful imposition of candidates, alleged that “the Sylva loyalists are bent on pushing this provocation through fraudulent primaries where figure will just be collated and allocated to people.” (THISDAY)

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