A former Deputy Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Ogeibiri Enkumor, has strongly condemned the indefinite suspension of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and former APC governorship candidate, Chief David Lyon, alongside several others. The suspension, announced by the APC chapters in Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas (LGAs), was for alleged anti-party activities, but Enkumor has labeled it as baseless and legally untenable.<\/p>\n
In a statement released on Saturday, Enkumor declared the suspension “null and void,” attributing it to ignorance and overreach by the individuals behind the decision. He emphasized that the suspension has no legal standing, as the APC in Bayelsa State currently lacks a legitimate executive body at the state, local, and ward levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy attention has been drawn to the announcement regarding the indefinite suspension of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Former governorship candidate of our party, Chief David Lyon, along with several others, for alleged anti-party activities by the APC in Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw LGAs. To clarify, I emphatically and unequivocally state that this purported suspension is entirely null and void, and is an act borne out of sheer ignorance by the individuals behind it,\u201d Enkumor said.<\/p>\n
He further explained that the absence of an official party structure in Bayelsa stems from a court ruling issued on January 20, 2023, by Justice L.T. Cocodia of the Yenagoa High Court, which nullified all APC congresses held in the state in 2021. This ruling rendered all executive positions within the party vacant and issued a perpetual injunction preventing anyone from presenting themselves as executives.<\/p>\n
According to Enkumor, the court order has not been overturned, meaning no group has the authority to suspend any APC members in the state. \u201cIn light of the above, the purported suspension constitutes a contempt of court and should be completely disregarded, as one cannot place something on nothing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Enkumor reiterated that Senator Lokpobiri remains a respected and valuable member of the APC. \u201cThe Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) remains not only a bonafide member of our great party but also a well-respected leader within the party. The same can be said of Chief David Lyon, as well as other chieftains listed in the suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n
He praised Lokpobiri\u2019s leadership, crediting him with garnering broad support from significant party stakeholders, including former Senator Degi Eremienyo and former House of Representatives member HRH Israel Sunny-Goli. \u201cThe exceptional leadership exhibited by the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources for State, Lokpobiri, is the reason why all well-meaning stakeholders within the party are solidly behind him,\u201d Enkumor concluded.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another prominent APC member in Bayelsa, Alex Blackson, has urged the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to take action against the Southern Ijaw APC members responsible for the suspension announcement. In a separate statement on Saturday, Blackson accused these members of attempting to destabilize the party, calling their actions misguided and harmful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent press statement released by individuals claiming to represent the APC Exco from Southern Ijaw and Ekeremor LGA stems from a complete misunderstanding of the current situation within the Bayelsa chapter of the party,\u201d Blackson stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Deputy Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Ogeibiri Enkumor, has strongly condemned the indefinite suspension of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and former APC governorship candidate, Chief David Lyon, alongside several others. The suspension, announced by the APC chapters in Ekeremor and Southern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":51785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51786,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51778\/revisions\/51786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}