Resentment, anger, and protest are on the rise in Bayelsa APC ahead of the party’s gubernatorial primaries, which are set to take place in about two weeks.
The gubernatorial ambition of former Bayelsa State Governor and current Minister of State for Petroleum Resources ,Timipre Silva is at the heart of the rage that threatens to split the party apart.
Continue Reading…
By intentionally breaking section 84 sub-section 12 of the electoral act, the current minister of state is on a mission to truncate the APC victory in the Bayelsa Governorship election, as is evident from the tone of their cries in the Bayelsa APC.
The electoral act is very clear; section 84 sub-section 12 states that you cannot run for office or receive votes in an election if you are a political appointee. It also states that anyone holding a political office, such as a minister, commissioner, special adviser, or other official, must resign from that position before they are eligible to run for office or serve as a delegate in an election.
Now there are consequences for any political party that disobeys this straightforward rule by allowing its contenders to flout it. Section 84(13) further provides that “where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of this act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate for the election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in issue”.
This is where the game gets interesting, as Bayelsa APC members are furious that the Minister of State has refused to resign from the Federal Cabinet while still going through the back door to be screened for the governorship election and receiving a certificate to that effect from the party.
Why would Silva, who has nothing to show for his years in Abuja, want to deliberately bring Bayelsa APC to ruin by floating a rule that has the consequences of our party not fielding a candidate, defies our imagination?- An anonymous member of the party’s State Executive who spoke to our correspondent wondered why Slyva couldn’t do the right thing instead of breaking the rules on purpose.
If the accounts of disgruntled members are to be believed, the minister may be treacherous in regards to his backdoor entry into the governorship race. They assert that he denied purchasing the Governorship form by claiming it was purchased on his behalf by admirers, but he still showed up for screening and a certificate was duly issued.
They claim that such dishonest actions could mislead the APC’s sizable base of support in Bayelsa State, drawing comparisons to David Lyon’s election victory, which was later declared invalid because his running mate gave false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to support his eligibility for the state’s governorship election on November 16th.
This was in spite of the fact that David Lyon humiliated the PDP in the most recent elections by defeating the current Governor Mr. Duoye Diri the candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), by a margin of more than 180,000 votes, receiving a total of 352,552 votes.
A feat no APC member can ever boast of in the history of Bayelsa state, they are requesting that Silva drop out of the race immediately, so what are your thoughts on this trending issue.
Source-Nairaland Forum
Leave a Reply