The cracks within the ruling and opposition parties in Bayelsa State appear to be widening with the conspicuous absence of heavyweights of the parties at any of the rallies organised by the candidates of both parties for the November 11 gubernatorial election.
Since the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and the subsequent commencement of campaigns, some key figures in the parties have not been associating with their candidates publicly.
On the PDP’s side, the former governor and current Senator representing Bayelsa West, Henry Seriake Dickson, has not been seen in any of the political rallies of the PDP across the state while for APC, the Minister of Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri; the party’s candidate for the 2019 governorship election, Chief David Lyon and other prominent chieftains of the party including Israel Sony-Goli, the estranged political god-son of Chief Timipre Sylva and a former federal lawmaker have not been seen to identify with Sylva, the party’s candidate.
While Dickson, who is the political god-father of the incumbent Governor, Douye Diri, who is seeking a second term in office, has denied the existence of any rift between him and the governor, his continuous absence at the party’s rallies has continued to raise dust.
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Many political pundits in the state thus think the two political allies (Dickson and Diri) have fallen apart more than three years after Diri rode on Dickson’s influence to become the governor of the state despite Dickson promising to support Diri in his re-election bid when the governor visited him at the onset of the campaign period.
His presence during the 12th edition of the Bayelsa State thanksgiving on Thursday, where he rallied the support of Bayelsa people for the election of Governor Diri, has done little to douse the tension, according to observers.
But reliable sources in Dickson’s camp told Daily Trust that the former governor does not have any rift with Diri, and may attend the grand finale of the PDP campaign billed for today in Yenagoa.
Similarly, the APC and its candidate, Sylva are also facing an uphill challenge due to the fact that some of its prominent members are conspicuously absent from his campaigns.
Lokpobiri, who won his Ekeremor LGA for APC during the 2019 governorship election, reportedly fell out with Sylva when he contested for the governorship primary of APC in 2019 but Sylva opted to support David Lyon, who eventually won the general election but was stopped from assuming office by the court a day to his swearing-in.
Also, Lyon who was a close ally of Sylva before this election period, contested the APC primary that was won by Sylva and since he lost out from the primary, he has not been associating with the party in the state.
Recently, APC supporters in the state lamented that the current closeness of Lokpobiri and Governor Diri is hurting the chances of APC and its candidate ahead of the November 11 governorship election especially after the governor was also seen visiting President Bola Tinubu at the State House after the Supreme Court affirmed the election of the president.
The supporters group, APC Progressive Movement for Good Leadership and Governance, had also urged President Bola and the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, to call Lokpobiri to order.
They pointed out that the minister has not attended any party stakeholders meeting in the state, nor has he attended any of APC campaigns even when the campaign train went to Ekeremor, his Local Government Area.
But in his reaction, Lokpobiri dispelled the insinuation of alliance with the PDP government in the state.
Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and Communication, Nneamaka Okafor, he described it as the handiwork of unscrupulous elements and “individuals, groups who do not have Bayelsa State’s best interests at heart, especially as threatened by the strong and cordial relationship that exists between Senator Lokpobiri and his boss, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.
Commenting on the absence of key chieftains of both the PDP and APC from the ongoing campaigns, a public affairs analyst, David-West Bekinwariy, said it may not affect the right of one-man-one vote during the governorship election on November 11.
He said their absence, however, may create an impression of a rift between the governorship candidates and their prominent chieftains, which may affect the morale of the supporters.
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