With reports that former Governor and Minister of State for petroleum Resources Timipre Silva has declared interest to contest the governorship election in Bayelsa state, friends of former member of the party’s National Caretaker and Extra Ordinary Convention Planning Committee, David Lyon, have demanded that he should be given the right of refusal ahead of the November 2023 polls
It would be recalled that Lyon who contested and won the Bayelsa state governorship election in 2021, could not be sworn in at last, following a Supreme Court ruling that declared his deputy illegible for the election over falsification of credentials
Speaking after purchasing the expression of interest and nomination form for the aspirant, leader of the friends of Lyon, Hon Marlin Danier, who was the pioneer State Secretary of the APC in Bayelsa States, declared that only David Lyon can win election on the ticket of APC in Bayelsa State.
Hon Danier urged the party to give the former APC Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee the right of first refusal having won the State governorship poll four years before losing through the court.
“Ordinarily, and under normal circumstances, he was supposed to be given the right of first refusal by the party. Sales of forms are not supposed to be made open, because he’s the only person that can win the election for APC in Bayelsa state, as it stands now.
“I’m taking this message to the national executive and whoever is concerned, that if they want APC to produce the next Governor of Bayelsa State, there is no doubt that it is picking Chief David Lyon as a candidate for the party
“Chief David Lyon has been tested, tried and trusted. As I talk to you, every day, the PDP-led administration is inviting pastors and Imams from different quarters to go and pray that David Lyon will not become the candidate for APC. He is their nightmare. They are comfortable with every other person, but with him, they know they are off. That has been their prayer.
The former Commissioner in the state assured that many PDP leaders and half of PDP stakeholders will return to APC as soon as David Lyon gets the party’s tixket dor the governorship election.
“If anybody thinks I’m lying, let them go and ask PDP members in Bayelsa, not even APC members, the PDP members will tell them that if David Lyon comes back as the candidate of APC, all of them will come and work for him. That is the true position of things in Bayelsa state today.
“I want to urge the national Secretariat to ensure that there is a level playing ground for everybody if there is going to be anybody that will contest.
“It should be a level playing ground. You can see what is happening in the States, the Congresses, the state Congress in local government, because things are not done right.
” Today you can hear the decision of the court in that state, we don’t want our primaries to be like that we want a level playing groud. Let only the APC members decide who picks the party’s ticket in Bayelsa, and I’m telling you I’m assuring you that a David Lyon will win that Goliath “.
Also speaking Hon. Dr Stella Dorgu, Member, House of Representatives 7th Assembly disclosed the APC stakeholders in the state have concluded plans to go from door to door to reawaken the consciousness of Bayelsans to support the still-born ex- governor.
“We will go from door to door, woman to woman, man to man, plain to plain as we used to say back home. And we know that victory is ours because it is a foregone conclusion that David Lyon is the next governor of Bayelsa State”
Presidency: Atiku, Kwankwaso battle for NEF endorsement
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) shocked the Northern political class last Wednesday during the marking of it’s 10th anniversay as it failed to announced the endorsement of either of the presidential candidates from the zone with barely five days to the February 25 presidential election
There were rumours that the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar would be endorsed by NEF as Northern candidate at the occasion
But a member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Alhaji Seidu Baba, who dismissed the insinuations, declared that the Presidential Candidate of the opposition PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is not and cannot be the candidate of the North.
The Northern elder stated this to some journalists at the occasion which took place last week in Abuja
The former Vice President was however said to have been scheming to be endorsed as the sole candidate of the North by NEF and other northern groups
Tension went high at the event with fears that the adoption of Atiku as North’s consensus canditate could happen there, as his seat at the function was number one. , a development that triggered objections from some stakeholders who accused NEF of trying to give Atiku a special treatment
The former Vice President who was however absent at the occasion, failed to send a representatives and feelers said it is believed Atiku got wind of his rejection, which informed his decision to shun the NEF occasion and could not send any representative.
Rejecting the former VP, the Northern elder argued that Atiku has no credentials to be a sole Northern presidential candidate, adding that he had not related with the North as someone who has respect or cares for the zone.
He said, “Atiku has not been seen as somebody who is close to the North because he has not been fair to us, he is somebody having his base outside the North.
“In 1999 during a book launch at Arewa House in Kaduna, Sa’adu Zungur written by Prof. M.A. Yakubu, the current Chairman of INEC, Atiku as the Vice President of Nigeria was supposed to be the most senior political office holder from the North in the Federal Government as at that time but he at the occasion condemn all Northerners leaders and elders. In his speech, he told his bewildered audience that the Northern leaders and elders were the people who failed the North and the nation. He said they were the ones that had caused the problems. That was the beginning of his problems in the North.
“Secondly, over the last two decades all the problems that have been happening in the North East (where he claims to have come from) especially Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and the rest, nobody has seen Atiku’s intervention visibly in solving the problems. Even General TY Danjuma had done much more better than him in this respect.
“All the crisis that used to happen in either Onitsha or other places in the South East or South West affecting Northerners, he has never gone there to show empathy or give succur to the people who lost their lives and properties.
“His only desperate objective is to become the President of Nigeria, that’s all. That is why in his obsession and carelessness as a Vice President he came out to challenge the candidature of his own Principal, a Military officer and a General who brought him into the Government from wilderness. That shows he has never been in fidelity with anybody and from that time he moved from one party to another. If people move from one party to another on principle, there is no problem but for Atiku the driving force is how to become a President of Nigeria anyhow.
“Over the years, he has contested against his juniors and against his seniors. It could be recalled Atiku contested against Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua a brother to his benefactor; he contested against General Ibrahim Babangida; he contested against General Muhammed Gusau; he contested against General Muhammadu Buhari (several times) and now he is contesting against Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. If truly he believes in the North and cares for the Northern people, why must he embark on the voyage of Political desperation”.
The NEF member declared that no presidential candidate from the zone can attempt to cajole and even force the NEF to adopt him, saying such may show how desperate such candidate is.
