The All Progressives Congress (APC) reversed course on Tuesday and renounced the campaign council lists it had previously made public ahead of the November 11, 2023 governorship elections in the states of Bayelsa, Kogi, and Imo.
“The lists are not official documents of the party,” said the party spokesman, Felix Morka, in a statement late Tuesday.
Prior to the off-season governorship elections in the three states, the APC earlier on Tuesday unveiled campaign council names.
Sulaimon Argungu, the party’s national organizing secretary, signed the lists.
Nyesom Wike, the former governor of Rivers State, was a key member of the Bayelsa campaign council. Wike, who is currently the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is a part of the G5, a dissident faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party.
It’s interesting to note that Wike was identified by the PDP earlier in August as being a part of the party’s campaign committee for the Bayelsa governorship election. Governor Douye Diri of the PDP is running for re-election while Timipre Sylva, the former minister of state for petroleum resources, is the APC’s candidate.
The intrigues surrounding the inclusion of Wike as a member of the Bayelsa campaign council may not be unrelated to the APC’s turnabout.