Confusion has rocked the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State following the publication of the names of candidates for the governorship poll without a PDP candidate.
The list, which was made public in Abuja on Thursday by the INEC, indicated the party’s candidate would be named subject to litigation.
The position of the commission has however led to claims by the incumbent governor, Chief Timipre Sylva and Mr. Seriake Dickson, who won controversial primary last November, that they were the party’s candidates.
LEADERSHIP WEEKEND gathered yesterday from loyalists of Sylva and Dickson that the party was afraid of losing the state to one of the opposition parties as a result of the confusion created by the two men.
Sources hinted that national leadership of the PDP yesterday contacted Chief Edwin Clark to assist in dousin the tension between the two men.
While some party supporters claimed the meeting was summoned by the National Leadership of the Party based on the need to save the party from losing the home state of the President, others claimed the meeting was expected to have both forces in the crisis to make sacrifices and allow the incumbent Governor to be fielded.
A former Speaker of the State House of Assembly told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND on the phone that the PDP National Secretariat also informed the members of the party that the party’s national leaders was already reaching out to Sylva “to work out an acceptable solutions to the issue of who flies the party’s flag in Bayelsa”.
“In the next coming days, you will see more of coming together and realignment, just wait and see PDP will bounce back in Bayelsa,” the politician said.
Meanwhile, the State Chairman of the Party, Deacon James Dugo, has denied media reports that the state chapter of the Party castigated the INEC over the release of the list and said the reported briefing as contained in the statement circulated among journalists in Yenagoa was false.
A close aide to the Party Chairman, Comrade Tarila Owei, told Leadership on telephone that the reported media briefing by the Chairman on the list of candidates was false and misleading.