Dickson’s delicate political engineering

THE Bayelsa West Senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lawrence Ewruhjakpor is believed to have entered into a secret pact with the governor of the state, Seriake Dickson. Mr  Ewrujakpor hails from Sagbama, the local government area of the governor in the senatorial district.

Sentry learnt that Mr Ewrujakpor was contracted by the governor to run for the election on his behalf. Mr Dickson, who is thought to be nursing a senatorial ambition, was reportedly in dilemma following a difference in governorship election timetable between Bayelsa and some other states.

While governorship elections will hold in most states in February 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled Bayelsa election for December 2019. To enable him complete his tenure and still end up as a senator, Mr Dickson, it was gathered, entered into a political arrangement with Mr Erwrujakpor, his closest confident and political associate and a former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure.

If he wins,  Mr Ewrujakpor is expected to resign his seat in the Senate after the expiration of Mr Dickson’s tenure in February 2020 to force a bye-election and pave way for the governor to replace him at the upper chamber of the National Assembly. It was also learnt that Mr Dickson promised a mouth-watering reward as compensation.

While some analysts suggest that Mr Ewrujakpor would resign his senatorial seat in order to be fielded as the running mate for whoever might become Mr Dickson’s preferred successor,  others countered the claim on grounds of political permutations and calculations. According to them, the political reality in Bayelsa State and the long-standing principle of zoning do not favour such an argument. They add that it would be suicidal for Mr Dickson to pick a running mate from his local government area after serving from the same area as a governor of the state for eight years. Responding to the contention that the governor might have promised Mr Erwrujakpor other rewards such as overseas scholarship or a significant position of authority such as the Chief of Staff or SSG in the next administration, they deadpanned that the governor could not have made such a promise.