Lokpobiri, Lyon not working for Diri, says APC chieftain 

A chieftain of All Progressives Congress, Yekini Nabena, on Monday, debunked viral reports that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and former APC governorship candidate in Bayelsa State, David Lyon, are discreetly working for the re-election of Governor Douye Diri ahead of November 11 in the state.

Nabena’s rebuttal is coming in the wake of speculations that Diri may have taken advantage of the internal wrangling among top chieftains of the APC including a dalliance with Lyon and Lokpobiri in a bid to secure a second term in office.

Online media have also been awash with unconfirmed reports of how the state governor was willing to concede 50 slots of Senior Special Assistants to Lokpobiri and Lyon if they agreed to work for his re-election.

But the secretary of Media and Publicity Committee, Governorship Campaign Council for Bayelsa APC candidate, Timipre Sylva, said this is untrue.

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While accusing the Peoples Democratic Party of allegedly sponsoring the propaganda via social media and online platforms, Nabena disclosed that no crack or crisis was rocking the camp of Sylva.

To further debunk the claim, the former deputy national publicity secretary of APC attached recent photographs of the APC chieftains recommitting themselves before the party National Chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, in a statement released on Monday in Abuja.

The statement partly read, “Our attention has been drawn to a sponsored propaganda in some quarters suggesting cracks in the solid camp of the Bayelsa APC ahead of the November 11 governorship election in the State.

“We will not be distracted because we are fully aware how desperate the incumbent governor Douye Diri has become, therefore employing all manners of tactics including propaganda and lies just to cause confusion but sadly for the PDP, it is just too late because Bayelsans have made up their minds to sack under-developer of an oil-rich state.

“For the benefit of doubt, the attached pictures will tell doubters that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and the 2019 governorship candidate, David Lyon, most recently held a strategic meeting with our candidate in the presence of our National Chairman, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, where everyone recommitted themselves and massive mobilisation has since begun.

“We, however, sympathise with the restless Governor Diri and his camp for acting too late, bearing in mind that their days are numbered in the Bayelsa state government House. We urge all our party members, supporters, and Byelsans in general to remain calm, expectant of landslide victory and disregard lies suggesting cracks in our camp.”