BAYELSA: Police, DSS Now Occupy APC Secretariat Over Lingering Crisis

 The secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State has now been taken over by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Services (DSS).

The development followed the suspension of the state chairman of the party, Tiwei Orunimighe, and two others.

Orunimighe, his deputy, Eddy Julius, and the secretary, Marlin Danlin, were on Thursday suspended by the National Working Committee of the APC on the allegation of anti-party activities and gross misconduct.

Following their suspension, a number of the executives of the party loyal to a former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, and led by a factional chairman of the party in the state, Joseph Fafi, had gone to occupy the secretariat.

But their presence at the secretariat reportedly infuriated an ex-militant leader, Africanus Ukpariasa popularly known as ‘General Africa’, who is staunch supporter of the suspended chairman.

The development later led to an outburst between the two factions.

Scores of riot policemen and DSS officials, had therefore been stationed at the party’s secretariat on Yenagoa-Mbiama Road.

This is happening at a time when the party’s local congresses across the states had generated controversies, notably in places like Rivers and Kaduna States, and even led to violence as was witnessed in Kaduna, when a mob descended on the Shenu Sani-led aggrieved members of the party holding a press briefing at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) office in the state.