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All is not well with the APC in Bayelsa state, owing to recent happenings in the state chapter of the party. It is no more news that the All Progressive Congress is in disarray owing to the formation of factions by aggrieved members of the party. With governorship elections around the corner, political watchers are of the opinion that such division may spell doom for the APC in the governorship election and they may end up conceding defeat to the PDP.

One of the factions in the APC in Bayelsa state is headed by Richard Kpodo.  He had slammed the national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun concerning the comments made by the later regarding Bayelsa state crises. It would be recalled that John Oyegun had earlier made a statement that president Muhammadu Buhari can only be contacted by any state executive of the APC in Bayelsa State by linking with Timipre Sylva.

Kpodo made this statement while having a chat with newsmen in Yenagoa. He had termed this statement credited to John Oyegun, the APC national chairman as completely ‘misplaced’ statement.   He insisted that there is no criterion limiting them to a link with the president via Timipre Sylva. Kpodo insisted that the national chairman is making statements not personally approved by the president.

Kpodo referred back to the statement made by the president during his inauguration that he is for everyone and for nobody. He insisted that a president that made such open statement would not turn around and limit party members’ access through any particular party member. He insisted that such arrangement as described by John Oyegun is a sign of political enslavement by Sylva and John Oyegun. He went further by saying the change being preached by the ruling party would be fake if party members have to go through a particular individual before they could gain access to the president.

He faulted the national chairman for praising Sylva and calling him the only access to the president. He insisted that such utterance is completely opposite the tenets of the party and a direct misrepresentation of the president’s advocacy since assuming office till date.

Kpodo had likened Timipre Sylva to the Biblical Judas Iscariot and had asked why John Oyegun would say party members in Bayelsa state could only see Jesus Christ by going through Judas Iscariot. He said this is completely unacceptable and a direct misplacement of reason.

Kpodo claimed that Timipre Silva has corruption charges hanging around his neck and this completely disqualifies him from being a representative of the president or a mouthpiece for the party to the president, considering the fact that the president is on an all-out war against corruption and that Sylva should be one of the victims of that anti-corruption drive.

His words: “To our surprise the National Chairman came to Yenagoa and accepted the defectors. What are the political qualifications of the decampees? What are their electoral values? If they are coming into the party to avoid prosecution, would that not go against the posture of the president?”