A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State, Pastor Reuben Wilson, has said that the ongoing reconciliatory efforts will return the party to winning ways in the 2023 general elections in the state.
Wilson, the Founder of Pastor Reuben Initiative for Good Leadership and Accountability (PRIFGLA), an APC support group, made the assertion at a news conference in Yenagoa on Wednesday.
He noted that the Supreme Court verdict which nullified the victory of the party on the eve of the inauguration of APC candidate Chief David Lyon on February 13, 2020 affected the party adversely.
He explained that following the setback, the leaders and followers of the party lost the enthusiasm to push ahead, adding that he was inspired to rise above the setback and rediscovered the party’s winning strategies.
According to him, the APC will leverage the massive goodwill which it enjoyed that resulted in a landslide victory in the last general election to woo the electorate to cast their votes to enable the APC to win again.
The former Niger Delta freedom fighter, said the reconciliatory efforts to settle the rift between the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and former Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, was achieving great success.
He expressed optimism that in no distant time the divisions in the party created by the camps of Sylva and Lokpobiri would no longer exist and the APC would bounce back as a party of choice in Bayelsa.
He stated: “There were speculations that this support group was started to promote my political aspirations but I have said emphatically that I have no ambition to go in for elective office. I did not pick nomination form for any position.
“My aim of initiating PRIFGLA is out of my love for the APC to keep the ideals of the party and rejuvenate hope amongst the followers who felt abandoned following the misfortune we suffered at the verge of forming a government.
“We are glad that there is a lot of progress on the efforts to reunite all levels of leaders in our party who held divergent views and their differences are being resolved and the party is coming together again.
“Once we get this reconciliation effort concluded, we shall bounce back to our winning streak and regain the mandate of Bayelsa people because in APC, we have the people to drive the holistic development of Bayelsa,” Wilson said.
