Buhari warns Bayelsa APC against crisis...............

President Muhammadu Buhari has intervened in the factional crisis rocking the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa State.

The President gave a stern warning that all members of the party should uphold unity and peace ahead of the 2016 governorship election in the state.

 

Before the President’s intervention, the APC in the state had been factionalised, resulting in two executive committees, with Chief Tiwei Orunimighe leading the main party while Chief Perekeme Kpodo led a faction.

The decision by Buhari to intervene, state party sources claimed, was due to the reports received from some members of the National Working Committee of the APC on the petition filed by the faction, led by Kpodo.

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Attempts to get clarification on the development from Orunimighe were unsuccessful as his mobile phone failed to connect.

But a member of the group of elders, under the auspices of the Bayelsa Peoples Consultative Forum, Chief Alex Ekiotenne, said though he was not privy to the arrangement on the intervention by Buhari, the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, had denied any factional crisis in the party.

An APC source, who confirmed the President’s intervention, said that the national leadership of the party was mapping out ways of intervening in the crisis to avoid degeneration.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said, “The President has directed that something should be done about the reported crisis.

“The national chairman will make the position of President Muhammadu Buhari and other party leaders known soon.”

But Christopher Abarowei, who is the Publicity Secretary of the APC faction, noted that the President as a leader of the party had shown positive signs of intervening and resolving the crisis.

He said, “The crisis within the Bayelsa APC has been brought to the notice of the President. As a President and the leader of the APC, we are quite appreciative of his effort in running the affairs of this country for the past 35 days.

“We wish him success in fighting corruption in the country and the party in the states.”

Abarowei denied that the faction led by Chief Perekeme Kpodo had backed down on the allegations of fraud levelled against the Orunimighe-led State Executive Committee.