How Sylva's choice threatens APC's chances of wresting power from Bayelsa

• Membership ranking split after controversial primary election• 'Lyon remains the only figure who could overthrow the PDP'

Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, recently became the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate for the elections in November 11, 2023 in the controversial primaries that have just ended. But its emergence could be the straw that breaks the camel's back or spoils the party if we trust the antennae.

While many party members expected the primary election for November 11 Bayelsa State Governor's Ballot, held on April 14-15, would be used to calm raw nerves , the exercise and its result generate ripples and anger in the party.< /p>

Following the primaries, the state party was in crisis and split into two factions with two headquarters in Yenagoa, the state capital. While one faction is led by a former senator and former minister, Heineken Lokpobiri, the other faction, which appears to be recognized by the party headquarters in Abuja, is solely controlled by the new gubernatorial candidate, Sylva. /p>

The former governor not only installed all the party cadres and decided who runs for political office in the state, his actions left many party members disenchanted, including other bigwigs in the gone.

The recent primaries, which produced him as a candidate for governor of Bayelsa State, are no different from those that took place four years ago and produced leader David Lyon , and they tear the party apart. Again, the effect may cost the party the chance to produce the state's next governor.

Already, the party's candidates had all lost seats in the National Assembly, including that of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in the general elections that just ended in the state, while they could muster only five seats in the 24-state House of Assembly, with the DPP getting 17 seats.

Chief David Lyon, who won the majority of votes in the last state gubernatorial ballot by beating incumbent state governor Douye Diri by a wide margin before being arrested in the Supreme Court for questions of certificate of its Deputy, is among those aggrieved by the result of the primary.

[FILES] Diri. Photo/FACEBOOK/ DuoyeDiri

Lyon and another contender, Festus Daumiebi, rejected the outcome of the election in which former minister of state for oil resources, Timipre Sylva, emerged as the party's gubernatorial candidate. They claimed the exercise was predetermined to favor Sylva.

But other aspirants who also contested the party ticket, a former militant leader, Joshua Maciver and Professor Ongoebi Etebu, however applauded the result.

Lyon, while rejecting the exercise, described it as disgusting and resentful. He argued that the primary election was not held in all 105 wards in the state, insisting that reporting the result was fraudulent.

He said: "I want to say that people waited from morning till night on election day and there was no distribution of election materials, and no presence of election officials.

"In particular, I waited in my Olugbobiri neighborhood of Olodiama II Ward 4 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., to no avail. I am saddened to learn of a fraudulent statement of a result from this exercise. is both irresponsible and criminal and must be condemned in full.

"I call on the National Working Committee and indeed the National Executive Committee of our party to reject the results as declared by the Primary Election Committee and to sanction the promoters of such an evil and irresponsible act."< /p>

Daumiebi, a lawyer, in a statement he...