Tension yesterday gripped members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, following the alleged suspension of the state Chairman of the party, Tiwei Oruminighe, by the APC National Working Committee (NWC),
Oruminighe was allegedly suspended by the NWC on Thursday, 24 hours after attending a meeting of state chairmen of APC with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
Said to have been suspended with him were his deputy, Eddy Julius and the state Secretary of the party, Mr. Marlin Daniel.
Multiple sources said the NWC wielded the big stick after receiving petitions of anti-party activities against them.
The three of them fell out with the state leader of the party and former Governor of Bayelsa, Chief Timipre Sylva, shortly after the 2015 governorship election in the state.
The feud led to the division of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the APC into two factions with other members of the committee declaring their loyalty to Sylva.
The faction loyal to Sylva had earlier suspended Oruminighe, Marlin and Julius and appointed Mr. Joseph Fafi as an interim leader of the party. But Oruminighe’s faction took the party to court challenging the action.
A source, who spoke to the Nation said NWC met, reviewed the report of the South-South Zonal Chairman of the party, Mr, Hillard Ita and decided to punish Oruminighe,Julis and Daniel.
“The decision to suspend them was not because of their alleged romance with the state government but because they took the party to court. They are capitalizing on the fact that they went to court to suspend them”, he said.
The source added that the suspension was yet to be rectified by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.
It was, however, observed yesterday that the police and the Department of State Security (DSS) deployed a detachment to take over the secretariat of the party in the state.
The faction of the state executive loyal to Sylva and led by Fafi, the Youth Leader, Edison Sogwe and the Secretary, Alabo Martins were seen at the secretariat.
The presence of Sylva’s loyalists provoked an ex-militant leader and member of Oruminighe’s camp, Africa Ukpariasia, aka, General Africa, who was prevented from driving into the premises by security operatives.
The visibly angry Africa threatened to chase the Sylva’s loyalists out of the secretariat, saying, “we will know who owns the party.”
But security operatives asked the angry ex-militant leader to leave the secretariat.
The State Commissioner of Police, Asuquo Amba and the State Director of the DSS, Mr. Gideon Agbaje also visited the troubled secretariat.
They met with Martins and said they were at the secretariat to ensure there was no breach of the peace.
The only APC member in the state House of Assembly, Isreal Sunny Igoli, who arrived at the secretariat, met with security operatives and sued for peace.
Addressing party loyalists, he said: “The party has concluded the non-elective congress and the process is at appeal stage. The key stakeholders have met and affirm the authenticity of the decision of the party at the state level. Now, everybody should go home and allow security agents to do their job here.
“Nobody should come to the secretariat until the National Working Committee issues a letter to whoever is going to act pending a new congress to elect a substantive chairman.
“Everybody should go home and let us not make the secretariat a crisis venue. As they have pronounced the suspension of the chairman and others, the letter from NWC will name who will take charge and the person will give copy of the letter to the security agents.
” And the person will call for meetings and preside over the affairs of the party until a congress to elect new chairman. There should be no crisis.
“My appeal to everyone is that there should be peace. There is no reason to quarrel. One faction of the party cannot be inside while others areoutside. Because of the resistance and agitations by those suspended, we need to leave and not make the place a crisis zone”.
About five patrol vans of policemen and armed operatives were sighted surrounding the secretariat to forestall possible breakdown of law and order.
When contacted, Oruminighe said the NWC did not issue a direct order suspending him adding that the committee only scolded them for taking a faction loyal to Sylva to court.
He said following the reports of his suspension, his adversaries stormed his office and looted his furniture including refrigerators.
He said: “What I understand from the pronunciation they are banking on is not what the national said. They national was trying to say that nobody should take the party to court.
“On the other hand, as chairman of the party, some group of persons claimed that they suspended us, what we did was to take an injunction to stop the group of persons parading themselves.
“We stopped Fafi from parading himself and the court pronounced us the authentic leaders of the party. That is the misunderstanding you hear”.
Also, in his reaction, Eddy Julius said: “Our South-South zonal chairman raised the issue at the meeting of the National Working Committee. He was compromised.
“In our party, the NWC has no authority to suspend us. It is only the National Executive Committee that has such authority. We are on top of the situation”.