Ahead of Thursday’s governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Bayelsa State, a chieftain of the party in the state has raised an alarm over what he sees as a plot to foist a candidate on the party.
In a terse press statement issued in Yenogoa on Saturday and made available to Straightnews, Chief Richard Kpodoh vowed to resist any attempt by some leaders of the party to impose an unpopular candidate on other partymen.
According to him, there were emerging signals by some leaders of the party to “smuggle a candidate into the race. This will be resisted.
“I have said on many occasions that it will be counter-productive to gamble with the issue of APC candidate for the November 16 election. How can our party leaders contemplate bringing somebody with NCE to lead us as a governor when we have more qualified people?
“Come to think of it, look at the way and manner things are happening. From the blues, somebody bought the party’s form the same day Chief Timipre Sylva was inaugurated as minister and returned his form same day to beat the deadline for submission of form.
“This is somebody we do not know. We do not know his pedigree. We cannot attest to his political sagacity and experience in political leadership and mentorship. How can we attempt to take this kind of risk at this time?”
Kpodoh said there were aspirants from the party who have shown leadership credentials and capacity that should be supported to pick the party’s ticket “instead of giving our ticket to a political neophyte as is being planned.
“Everything about this latest aspirant is suspicious. All of a sudden, some leaders of our party are rallying support for him. He has become the beautiful bride. Can he defend his NCE certificate when it comes to leadership?
“Or are we now saying that if someone has money, then we can oblige him our party’s ticket? Let me sound this note of warning that we will be playing with fire if we do not allow transparency in our choice of candidate for the election.
“Some of us who have the party at heart will like the party leadership at the national level to be involved in this and take more than a passing interest in what is happening in our state. This is the time for us to capture Bayelsa. I repeat, we cannot gamble with our choice of candidate.”
