By Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
A former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, has predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would lose the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa State.
Frank, in a statement issued on Friday, said that the APC’s candidate is better placed to win the election in view of the fact that the PDP has curiously chosen to field a ‘weak candidate’ against the APC’s standard-bearer
David Lyon emerged as the standard-bearer of the APC in the recently conducted primary election.
He stated: “It is not my wish for the APC to win the forthcoming Bayelsa governorship election in November as I am not a member of the APC neither am I a supporter of the party, but from the look of things, the choice made by Dickson and the PDP is not inspiring. Actually, it’s disappointing.
“APC will win the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa State seeing the weak candidate Governor Seriake Dickson and the PDP have chosen as their flag-bearer.”
Frank recalled that this was the same position he took against his former party, the APC in 2015 when the former governor and now the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, was nominated, he said he would lose the election.
He added that history is about to repeat itself albeit in PDP because it is making the same mistake that the APC made in 2015.
According to him, “The handpicked PDP’s candidate will lose the forth coming governorship election in Bayelsa State. To prove my point, it could be recalled there was neither excitement nor jubilation from Bayelsans after the ‘arrangee’ primary that produced the PDP’s candidate.”
Frank stressed that Bayelsans had looked forward to a formidable candidate in the person of Timi Alaibe, but some powerful forces from the PDP’s NWC and Dickson traded Alaibe for a weak candidate for selfish reasons to enable the APC take over the governorship of Bayelsa State.
He said: “The ad hoc congress already programmed him to win, Bayelsans and PDP know that there was no congress in Bayelsa as it was programmed in a way to favour him. PDP will regret its action as it will soon boomerang against them.
“I am pained to see that Bayelsans will have no choice than to vote for APC which has a better candidate. Bayelsans should hold Dickson and PDP’s NWC responsible for the imminent APC’s victory in the state.”
Frank noted that PDP knows very well that the APC is desperate to win any of the South-south states, yet they decided to field a weak candidate, thereby giving APC the victory through the back-door, stressing that the result of the election would serve as a lesson for PDP to learn to present a stronger candidate the next time.
“Instead of PDP to prepare to win more states, they are going to lose more if they continue this way due to selfish reasons. I know that truth is bitter but I will always stand by the truth,” he added.
