There is a crack in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State ahead of the November 11 governorship election.
No fewer than 10 political parties are fielding candidates for the poll, but the battle is majorly between Governor Douye Diri, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former Minister of State for Petroleum and former Governor of the state, Chief Timpreye Sylva.
However, Diri is exploring the division in the APC to woo its members by dangling seemingly irresistible carrots to get their endorsement.
A source said Diri has reached out to and lured prominent APC leaders, particularly those who have scored to settle with Sylva, including the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and 2019 governorship candidate, David Lyon, into his camp.
Lokpobiri and Lyon are allegedly working for Diri’s re-election.
The duo have distanced themselves from the campaigns and political activities of Sylva in the countdown to the forthcoming governorship election in the oil-rich state.
The gulf between Lokpobiri and Sylva widened, following Sylva’s refusal to back his ministerial bid after APC won the presidential poll.
Lyon, who was defeated at the primary, has an axe to grind with the APC governorship candidate because he lost out at the shadow poll.
Lyon, who was sacked as Bayelsa state governor-elect by the Supreme Court in February 2020, had thought that he would be given the right of first refusal in the consideration of the gubernatorial candidate of the governing party in the November election.
Reconciliation in the divided Bayelsa APC has hit the rock as pleas by the National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, and other top leaders to the warring chieftains have fallen on deaf ears.
According to a source, Diri is capitalising on the polarisation to further divide the opposition ranks by giving a lot of concessions ahead of the poll.
The governor has promised to hand over to Lokpobiri as governor, with Lyon as deputy governor, if the duo can fully abandon Sylva and team up with him to consolidate his hold on the oil-producing, South-south state.
Lokpobiri and Lyon may have fallen for the bait.
Not only has Diri conceded 50 slots of Senior Special Assistants (SSAs) each to Lokpobiri and Lyon, but he has also promised them some measures of influence on decision-making, the source added.
He stressed: “This unholy alliance between the governor and APC top chieftains implies that the two may have to defect to the PDP after Lokpobiri has served his term as minister in the Tinubu administration ahead of the battle to succeed Diri in 2026.”
PDP insiders confided that the governor is threatened by the aloofness of his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson, who has distanced himself from the Diri administration.
In Bayelsa, the former governor and his camp nurse a feeling of alienation and marginalisation, and efforts by the PDP national leadership to broker a truce have not succeeded.
Dickson was said to be disenchanted that Diri was running the show, especially with the opposition elements without his input.
However, Diri has not limited its ‘succession promises’ to Lokpobiri and Lyon and the APC family alone; he has extended it to other bigwigs in his party.
A source hinted that the governor has also promised Senator Benson Agadaga (Bayelsa East) the succession opportunity.
Agadaga is from Ogbia, the base of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The source said: “Diri is promising succession across party lines by making overtures to APC and PDP. He also promised the Director General of his campaign council, Hon. Mitema Obodor, who is a member of the House of Representatives, to represent the Ogbia Constituency of succession.
“So, also is Robert Enogha, a former Commissioner and two-time member of Bayelsa State House of Assembly, who also hails from Ogbia.
“The three of them, Diri has made succession promises to – Obodor; Agadaga and Enogha, are all of Goodluck Jonathan’s stock in Ogbia. This succession promise for Ogbia guys was a deceitful plot to secure Dr. Jonathan’s blessing and support in the November poll.
“Surprisingly, former President Goodluck Jonathan may have also fallen for the bait. He is supporting Diri’s election because of the dummy the governor has sold to him that one of his kinsmen from Ogbia is going to succeed him after his second term in office.”
But, Diri’s media aide, Daniel Alabara, said the allegations are laughable and very speculative, adding: “Lokpobiri and Lyon are APC leaders. So will the governor at this time appoint 100 APC members into his government that is rounding off its first tenure or is it after his re-election? I don’t see any truth in that even though I’m not aware of any such discussion or deal.”
He stressed: “It is equally too early for anyone to speculate who Governor Douye Diri will handover to when he has not even rounded off his first tenure. But to be clear, Lokpobiri is from the same senatorial district as that of the immediate past governor, Senator Seriake Dickson.
“So, going by the generally acceptable rotational principle in the state, the governorship will not be the turn of Bayelsa West where Lokpobiri and Dickson are from.
“At the moment, the talk in the state is that it is most likely going to be the turn of Bayelsa East after Gov Diri’s eight years. That is the reason the people of that senatorial district are saying that they prefer eight years to Chief Timipre Sylva’s four years and that they would rather support Gov Diri to complete his two terms so they can also have theirs when power rotates to that district.
“Ogbia, Nembe and Brass LGAs are in Bayelsa East.
But the governor has not promised anyone to be his successor. Picking a successor is a product of various levels of consultation. For a man focused on winning his re-election, this is not the time for that.”