ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
A leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bayelsa State, Pastor Reuben Wilson, has urged those who emerged candidates in their various primaries to shun enmity and segregation and woo co-contestants to improve the chances of the party in the 2023 polls.
Pastor Wilson, a former warlord, gave the advice in a statement on Tuesday, made available to reporters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital.
He called on those who participated in the party’s primaries but lost not to see themselves as losers or failures, but rather take it as a stepping stone to their political victories in subsequent contests.
Wilson, however, congratulated those who emerged winners at the party’s primaries for the state House of Assembly and National Assembly polls.
The chieftain, who is also the Founder of Pastor Reuben Initiative for Good Leadership and Accountability (PRIGLA), a pro-APC group campaigning for peace, love and unity of members of the party, urged party faithful to make sure that all hands are on deck to make the party win the forthcoming polls across board.
Wilson said: “In the process of selection, it is only one person that will always emerge as the party’s flagbearer. That doesn’t mean that the person was better than the rest, but time and chance happen to them all.
“So, there was no victor, no vanquished. Everyone should stay calm and remain faithful in the interest of the party. The party’s flagbearers should also work hard to break the cleavages of political sentiments and factions that have eaten deep into the fabrics of the strength of our dear party, APC in Bayelsa State.”
According to him, the only way the party can win all seats, ranging from the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate at the general elections in 2023, is for the APC to bring everyone together and dismantle the divisions and schisms that characterise the state chapter.
Wilson added: “We are facing an opposition in the state, so, there is the need for the candidates to go the extra mile to settle with the aggrieved persons in their respective constituencies and woo a massive support from within and outside our party to win at the general elections.
“The PRIGLA is primarily formed for this purpose; that is, to sue for unity which it has been doing and galvanizing members within and outside the APC from all nooks and crannies in the state to enable the APC in Bayelsa State to win all the seats at the general elections.”
He added that his organisation was open to all candidates of the party for synergy and to calm the frayed nerves in order for the APC to emerge strong in all elections.