ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
The conduct of October 16, 2021 congress of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has continued to elicit harsh reactions and condemnations from some aggrieved members, particularly the camp loyal to a former Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri.
The group, which has not hidden its rejection of the congress outcomes, has threatened to test the validity of the exercise at the court against the backdrop that a camp loyal to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, conducted the congress against a subsisting order of the State High Court forbidding the party from doing so.
The Lokpobiri’s faction has, therefore, threatened the leadership of the party with contempt charges if it failed to cancel the outcomes of the congress.
The faction claimed the APC disobeyed the court order restraining it from conducting the ward, local government and state congresses of the party.
It also claimed that contrary to the injunction of the Bayelsa State High Court, the party went ahead to conduct same and subsequently inaugurated Dennis Otiotio, a lawyer, as the state chairman.
Before the October 16, 2021 state congresses of the APC held across the country, a Bayelsa High Court had restrained the APC with an injunction against conducting the ward, local government and state congresses.
The restraining order was based on the suit filed by three aspirants of the party: Omadec Victor, O. Esuenifie and Seimiegha Agbozu in a suit number YHC/107/2021.
A chieftain of the party and state chairmanship aspirant, Sunday Frank-Oputu, in a statement threatened to file a suit before the Federal High Court seeking sanctions against the party.
He said he would only jettison the suit unless the APC Appeal Committee canceled the outcome of the exercise which threw up Dennis Otiotio as party chairman.
In a petition dated October 18, Frank-Oputu, who is a member of Lokpobiri’s faction of the party in Bayelsa, called on the party leadership to cancel the state congress purportedly conducted on October 16 and conduct a more credible, free and fair one.
In his petition to the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, he urged the party to cancel the state congress held by the Chief Timipre Sylva faction, describing the congress as devoid of foundation due to the subsisting order of the State High Court that restrained the party.
Frank-Oputu claimed Sylva’s faction displayed open disrespect for court order issued against the conduct of the ward, local government and state congresses.
He said: ”The ward and local government area congresses in Bayelsa were purportedly conducted on void footing.
“It, therefore, means that there was no delegate anywhere in the APC in Bayelsa to anticipate the conduct of the failed state congress of October 16 which ought not to have taken place at all. So, it was a nullity as the exercise was an infraction on the subsisting order of the court.”