The Bayelsa State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for the resignation of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, for allegedly bribing the former state governor, Chief Timipre Silva so as to secure his appointment.
Chairman of the party in the state, Chief Timipa Orunimighe, during a press conference yesterday also accused Silva of sidelining the leadership and trying to corner federal appointments due to the state for only his cronies.
He said, “We also want to call on the Minister represent Bayelsa, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, the junior minister to resign his appointment reason being 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.”
Stating that Silva was single handedly attempting to pick appointment slots meant for the state, Orunimighe revealed that he had compiled and submitted names of some other non-APC members to the Secretary to the Government of Federation, SGF, for federal appointments without the knowledge of the state executives.
“As APC chairman in Bayelsa and very strong exco, we have spoken with him. We told him we will stand against that as a people, if we can stand against Jonathan as a President, if we can stand against the governor of Bayelsa state Sarieke Dickson to tell him we don’t like his antecedent as governor, we can also tell our leader that we don’t like his antecedents. We are not ready as a people to sell any slot of appointment to be given to Bayelsans,” Orunimighe stated.
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