The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that the incumbent minister of state for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobori, under President Muhammadu Buhari, bought the ministerial slot meant for Bayelsa state from the former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva.
But the former governor, in his response, told journalists on phone that the APC state chairman wanted to be Minister but he was not qualified to be because he lack experience.
Bayelsa state APC chairman, Chief Timipa Orunimighe, also alleged that Chief Sylva has also compiled and submitted names of some other non APC members a d submitted to the Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF) without state executives’ knowledge.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja at the APC national Secretariat on Wednesday, the state chairman, who led other state excos, called on the minister of state for Agriculture to honourably resign from the office.
“We also want to call on the Minister represent Bayelsa, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, the junior minister to resign his appointment reason been that he also paid for the slot of his ministerial position and I also believe and those of us standing here know very well that he is not a member of the party,” he alleged
He also said: “The issue here why we are standing here before you today is because of the appointments that we feel were supposed to be given to those of us of the APC in Bayelsa. Its a pity to say that for somebody like Timipre Sylva who was supposed to be the leader of the party, today turn against the party and sale our party slots for whatever he feels may be money or whatever he feels that our party slots can be sold.
“The other issue we want to tell you members of the press is that, if it comes to losing our right hands just as we have done. Some of us have been arrested before for what we believe in. We have being to cell for what we believed in and we will stand also to defend what we have believed in.”
The Bayelsa APC leaders, therefore, called on President Buhari and national leaders of the party to intervene in the matter.
“We want to call on Mr. President, the National leadership of our party APC, to be aware of this that as state leadership, we will not accept this, but we are not into war with anybody we want a very peaceful atmosphere where we can dialogue and bring quality and qualified Bayelsa APC members to serve in those places the government of Nigeria would deem fit for Bayelsa.”
In his response to the allegations, the former governor of Bayelsa, Timipre Sylva explained that: “When the Ministerial slot came, the chairman told me he wanted to be Minister and he is not qualified to be Minister, his only experience in Nigeria is that he has been a local government chairman and I made him local government chairman. He was local government chairman under me. That is his only experience in life and he said he wants to be Minister and I told him, you can’t be Minister because this is a serious government.”
