The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has said it is preparing to wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2016.
The party’s Publicity Secretary, Panebi Fortune, said the PDP was dead in the state.
He said the ruling party had also accepted defeat, following the exodus of prominent politicians ahead of the governorship election.
Fortune, who spoke yesterday in Yenagoa, the state capital, dismissed insinuations of internal crisis in the APC because of the suspension of some party members accused of anti-party activities.
He said: “What happened was that we discovered that some expelled APC members were recruited and paid huge by the PDP to cause problems in our midst.
“One of the expelled members deceived some APC members, by using them to create a crisis among us.
“We discovered on time and acted fast by suspending those known to have met with him.
“As expected, those people formed what they called ‘The Integrity Group’ to fight back. They embarked on a failed mission of issuing a statement that they have also suspended some members of the State Working Committee (SWC), including our Chairman, Tiwe Oruminighe.”
Fortune said the statement was laughable because no group or organisation has the power to suspend members of the party, apart from the SWC.
He said: “It is a huge joke. We really do not want to dignify these people with our response. But as an individual, after reading the statement, I laughed because the people sounded like comedians.”
The spokesman urged other party members and those willing to join it to disregard the activities of the group.
He said the people behind the group were sponsored by the PDP government.
Fortune said: “The APC is intact. We are one family and we are working with one purpose of seizing power from the clueless PDP to better the lots of Bayelsans. We are, however, bent on ensuring party discipline.”
The spokesman said a disciplinary committee had been set up to probe the activities of the suspended members and review their punishment.
He added that if the members were found unrepentant, their suspension could be converted to expulsion.
Fortune said APC would not allow anybody to sow seeds of discord within its fold.