APC Leadership Prepares For Violence….Moderate APC Members Sue For Defection To PDP
The rouse over Governor Dickson's visit to Aso Rock may not be unconnected with the fear of the APC’s gubernatorial candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva and the APC in Bayelsa state that he may have been dished by President Buhari for the more popular and acceptable PDP candidate, Governor Seriake Dickson.
It would be recalled that Dickson has flowed Sylva in 6 LGA’s out of 7 already declared by the Independent Electoral Commission – INEC. Gov. Dickson is firmly in the lead with over thirty three thousand (33,000) votes and many believe, he may be heading for a landslide victory come 9 January 2016 since Southern/Ijaw has the preponderant support of PDP.
Sources from the Villa indicate that the President is seeking for an understanding with Dickson as all indicators appears to be putting him ahead of Sylva. Some observers say the President, Haven failed in his one party agenda, may be muting a bipartisan agenda in Bayelsa. Bi-partisanship is a political situation, especially in the context of a two-party system, as is the case for countries such as the United States, in which opposing political parties find common ground through compromise, in theory. This is in contrast to partisanship, where an individual or political party only adheres to their interests without compromise.
It has been debated among political theorists however that in practice, each party advances their own political agenda at the expense of the other party because of the conflicting ideologies. Bipartisanship (in the context of a two-party system) is the opposite of partisanship which is characterized by a lack of cooperation between rival political parties. Framer James Madison argued in The Federalist Papers that a danger to democracies were factions, which he defined as a group that pushed its interests to the detriment of the national interest.
APC’S PLOT OF VIOLENCE
Because of the imminent failure, the Bayelsa APC Chairman Chief Tiwei Orunimegha and the governorship flag-bearer Mr. Timipre Marlin Sylva held a nocturnal meeting with militants at Olugbobiri one of the flashpoints in Southern Ijaw LGA to plan to unleash another orgy of violence in the rescheduled elections. My friend was at Olugbobiri.
He was close to a friend of the Southern Ijaw LGA Chairman's Oil Committee person….(Name withheld).
He said although he has joined the APC, he does not like the plan by Tiwei and Timipre Sylva to use General Africa, Ogunbos, and other militants from Rivers and Delta States to use violence to cancel the January 9th governorship elections in Bayelsa State. This was apparently the meeting they held last night at Olugbobiri in Southern/Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. He disclosed that a similar meeting may hold at Oporoma on Sunday.
According to the source, APC's plan is to use violence to destroy the credibility of the January 9th elections to force INEC to fix a date beyond February 14, when Governor Seriake Dickson's tenure might have expired. The goal is to press fake charges against Governor Seriake Dickson and to get the Federal Government to subvert the will of the electorate and the criminal silence of the Federal Government is also a source of worry because Buhari promised to conduct free and fair elections. In some climes, Governor Seriake Dickson would have since been declared winner of the election.
Bayelsans want the Electoral authorities to conduct a hitch-free election and maintain post electoral violence in the State. “An elder-- a Teacher who lives close to the venue of the nocturnal meeting said Tiwei and Sylva cannot stop the will of God. Bayelsans are enjoying peace and security under Governor Dickson, now they are bringing violence. God will fight them for us, the man added! Southern/Ijaw according to the man is 100% for PDP and except the electoral bodies still allow the APC to use violence, APC will never garner 10% of the votes.
Another desperate move to demonstrate the dwindling fortunes of the APC in recent times may have informed the President’s decision to rather fly the friendly kite in Bayelsa. Close associates of the President are of the view that the President fears a situation where he would out rightly loose Bayelsa.
According to the source, “The President is afraid he would lose Bayelsa because of Governor Dickson’s soaring popularity among his people” Buhari has thus instructed a faction of the APC in the state to make moves at reconciling with Dickson. The source reiterate that that is what have informed a large number of the APC to decamp to PDP in recent times, stressing that the state will soon witness an exodus of APC to PDP in the weeks to come. This may be a comfortable position because it is not in the character of PDP to engage in zero-sum politics.