Dickson urges Bayelsans to reject ‘ticket, criminals’

Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa

 

BAYELSA State Governor Seriake Dickson has urged the people to reject the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 16 gubernatorial election.

He asked the leader of the All Progressives Congress and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, to apologise to Bayelsans for presenting an unelectable ticket of cultists and militants to the people.

A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Fidelis Soriwei, quoted the governor as having made the call at the official opening of the PDP Governorship Campaign Office/Secretariat in Yenagoa yesterday.

Commercial activities were brought to a halt along the busy Melford Okilo Road, with the capital city on a lockdown for hours, as the rally attracted a mammoth crowd from across the eight local governments.

Dickson said the coming poll was not only about Senator Douye Diri, the PDP standard-bearer, but about the future of the state and Ijaw nation as a whole.

He said the APC has nothing to offer the people and indeed the Ijaw nation as shown by the fact that the party, which controls the centre, has failed to attract any critical infrastructure to the state.

The governor said that the APC had only succeeded in promoting insecurity and instability in the communities of Bayelsa such as the sacking of Peremabiri in Southern Ijaw Local Government and Bassambiri in Nembe Local Government.

Said he: “The election is not about me, but about the future of the state. Senator Douye Diri is a symbol of what we have to do to keep our state within the boundaries of sanity.

“Now, five years after, we know they have nothing to offers us in Bayelsa. Have they built any school, road, hospital? Have they even built peace and security?

“The only thing to show is the invasion of our communities, which have been destabilised.

“In Peremabiri, they handed over the community to Ogun Boss, who is setting up a campaign team. Nembe Bassambiri is ransacked and destabilised; law-abiding citizens are sacked and converted to Internally Displaced Persons. In Okpoama, old men and women are brought out and flogged.

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“Nobody should be perturbed about party leaders defecting. They are leaving because of money and fake promises, but the people are not with them. The APC doesn’t mean well even for the leaders who are leaving. The defeat APC will suffer will shock them.

“The election is about us and the future of our children. APC is presenting a ticket of militancy, terrorism, cultism. It is going to be a government of militants, criminals and cultists, for militants,  criminals and cultists, by militants, criminals and cultists .

“Today we are launching ‘Operation wind up the APC in Bayelsa.’ A government by the APC has grave implications and it is better imagined.”

While urging members of the PDP to remain steadfast, he stressed the significance of protecting the party’s platform, which he said had produced countless state and national political appointees, including vice-president and president of the country.

Governor Dickson, who expressed confidence in Senator Diri as a worthy successor, said he would personally chair the PDP Campaign Council, just as Chief Timipre Sylva has emerged chairman of his party’s campaign organisation.