NIGER DELTA PRESSURE GROUP REVEALS LOKPOBIRI RECORDS OF ANTI-PARTY
URGES STATE PARTY LEADERSHIP TO RATIFY HIS SUSPENSION.
A leading pressure group in the South South region of Nigeria “Niger Delta Media Activists Group and Excellent Leadership Foundation” has accused Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil) Heineken Lokpobiri of destabilizing the Bayelsa State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, an action culpable of reducing the votes President Bola Tinubu may garner in the homogenous Ijaw State in the next general election scheduled for 2027.
The group allegation was contained in a statement issued on Monday at Abuja by its national coordinator Chief Izzi Yakiah.
Chief Yakiah’s statement notes that since Senator Heineken Lokpobiri joined the party in 2015, his personal ambition has repeatedly altered the overall ideals and targets of the party.
The Group recalled that following the appointment of Senator Heineken Lokpobiri as Minister of State Agriculture barely a year after he joined the party, his only contribution to the party was inactive participation in the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019 and later set up a parallel State APC secretariat in Yenagoa in May, 2019 the same year to begins herald his illegal foundation for political gimmick to forcefully claim the leadership role of the party in the State.
Chief Izzi Yakiah notes that the Minister’s history of sponsoring the factionalization of the party dates back to 2019 when he purportedly announced the installation of a certain Hon. Ebierien Fala Itubor as a factional chairman and further steps to legitimise this unconstitutional act with a parallel State Congress was rejected by the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress headed by Senator Adams Oshiomhole.
The negative anti-party trajectory of the former representative, Bayelsa West Senatorial District in the red chamber continues when he instituted multiple legal cases first to stop Chief David Lyon candidature and secondly to upturn the victory of the 2019 APC Governorship candidate.
The National Coordinator of the Group reveals that the Minister’s poor commitment to the party was re-echoed at a stakeholders meeting in November 2019 when he made a solemn appearance at the party secretariat in Yenagoa but had stage manage some of his cronies to insult the leader of the party, His excellency Timipre Sylva an insensitive approach that was vehemently quarreled by party pioneer chairman, Chief Timipa Tiwei Orunimighe.
The release reads that since that meeting the Minister has stayed away from all party activities including the last November Governorship campaigns till date when President Bola Tinubu appointed him in August as Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil).
The Pressure group statement urges the Bayelsa APC leadership to ratify the recent suspension of the Minister and other notable members of the party adding that Senator Heineken Lokpobiri years of anti party records culminated to his suspension from the All Progressives Congress by Ekeremor Local Government APC executive wing.
