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Tag: Bayelsa State

  • Jonathan’s kinsmen loyal to Dickson, PDP

    Kinsmen of former President Goodluck Jonathan in Ayama Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have pledged their loyalty to Governor Seriake Dickson and his Restoration Government.

    The kinsmen reached the consensus when critical stakeholders from the community visited the governor yesterday at the Government House in Yenagoa.

    Leaders who spoke during the meeting were Ipigansi Graham (a former member of the House of Representatives); Chief Benson Agadaga (National Chairman, Ogbia Brotherhood Council); Prince Isiki (Commissioner for Federal Projects) and Etozataziba Owede (Coordinator Ogbia Constituency II Women Mobilisation).

    According to them, the governor earned their loyalty and love because of his commitment to developing their area in Ogbia constituency II.

    They added that Dickson also empowered their kinsmen with political positions, even as they lauded him for his purposeful leadership and governance style.

    The kinsmen vowed to mobilise support and deliver all candidates of the PDP in the elections, and assured the governor that Ayama was fully for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    They also called on Ayama indigenes to unite and work for the community’s good.

    Dickson, who thanked them for the visit, promised to support them more until the end of his administration.

    He urged them to ensure victory for the PDP in all the elections to justify the tremendous support base of the party in the constituency.

    Dickson has said PDP will secure not less than ninety per cent of the total votes in Saturday’s elections in the state.

    A statement by his media aide, Fidelis Soriwei, said the governor spoke yesterday at the Government House when he met with party stakeholders and candidates from Bayelsa East and Central.

    Dickson said the people’s support for the PDP during its campaigns further confirms the predominant position it occupies in Bayelsa polity. He noted that the postponed election was just a shift in the doomsday for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The governor thanked the people for their faith in the PDP, and for maintaining “an enviable sense of unity and singleness of purpose”.

    PDP Chairman Moses Cleopas noted that the campaign train was well received in all communities by their chiefs and people who have vowed to vote out the APC.

  • Two feared dead, others injured as community loots amnesty complex

    At least two persons were feared killed and many others injured at the weekend when community members broke into an office complex belonging to the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) in Kaiama, Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

    The invasion and raid were reportedly carried out by residents of Orubiri, a host community of the amnesty yard located in Boro town, which was named after the late Ijaw hero, Isaac Adaka Boro.

    One of the invaders, said to have asthmatic condition, was reportedly choked to death in one of the warehouses, while a baby brought into the complex by a woman was said to have died during the stampede.

    The Amnesty Office built the expansive yard comprising many blocks of storey buildings to act as a liaison office for coordination of amnesty issues in the Niger Delta, including storage and distribution of starter packs to beneficiaries.

    But investigations showed that over 1,000 members of the host community invaded the complex, broke into the offices and looted equipment and starter packs worth billions of naira.

    The invaders were said to have overpowered the soldiers stationed at the entrance, pushed down the gate and engaged in free-for-all stealing of items.

    Efforts by the security operatives to stop them by shooting into the air were said to have proved abortive because of the high number of the invaders.

    It was gathered that youths and women participated in the looting and ensured that equipment bought for persons trained for skills were carted away.

    The marauders were said to have stolen everything, including air-conditioners, furniture and fittings and attempted to remove electric wires.

    An employee of the Amnesty Office, who spoke in confidence, said the looting started last Tuesday, adding that the equipment carted away were meant for beneficiaries from impacted communities in other states.

    He said PAP Coordinator Prof. Charles Dokubo inaugurated the distribution of the items in Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Warri, Delta State and Orubiri, the host community in Bayelsa State.

    He said following the inauguration, about 500 beneficiaries of the host communities got their items without crisis.

    “But we were surprised that the next day, youths and women from the same host communities, numbering over 1,000, assembled at the entrance of the complex and demanded their share of the items.

    “We explained to them that the items were meant for impacted communities in various states. They didn’t listen. They rather insisted that the items must be given to them. Most of them started calling people from other communities and before we knew it, the entrance was filled up. The person in charge of the place tried to call for security reinforcement.

    “Even when they came, there was nothing the security operatives could do. The people pulled down the gate and started looting the items in the warehouses. They engaged in the looting overnight till the next morning”, he said.

  • Nigeria heading for constitutional crisis, says Dickson

    •Governor urges Buhari to convene Council of State meeting

    BAYELSA State Governor Seriake Dickson has warned of a looming major constitutional crisis, if the elections failed to hold as rescheduled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Dickson, who briefed reporters in Government House, Yenagoa, said there was a need for stakeholders to work collectively to avert the crisis.

    Dickson suggested that President Muhammadu Buhari should immediately convene an expanded emergency meeting of the National Council of State.

    He said the meeting should have the service chiefs, INEC, political party leaders, their candidates and other major stakeholders in attendance.

    He said the stakeholders should resolve on the new date for the postponed elections, adding that INEC was wrong to have unilaterally chosen next Saturday for the rescheduled polls.

    He cautioned leaders against name-calling, appealing to them to work in the interest of the country to avoid plunging Nigeria into avoidable succession crisis.

    He said it was unpatriotic for anyone to be calling for the removal of the INEC chairman, adding that the country would be on a crossroad, if two critical institutions – INEC and the Supreme Court – were undergoing crisis at the same time.

    He said: “This postponement belittled our country. It doesn’t show us as a serious country. Unless all stakeholders drop the habit of name-calling and claiming to be rights, we are moving close to a major constitutional crisis.

    “If anything should go wrong, we will have a full-blown crisis; crisis of succession at a time the Supreme Court is also undergoing crisis. We should not call for the removal of the INEC Chairman. If INEC is in crisis and the Supreme Court is crisis, I don’t know where we are headed.

    “I call on President Muhammadu Buhari as the leader of the country to convene an emergency meeting of the National Council of states to enable service chiefs and the INEC brief stakeholders on their preparations.

    “The meeting should involve the political party chairmen and the presidential candidates to examine the developing scenario, which may plunge our country into crisis. I believe that if we all sit down and know the circumstances, we should agree on a new date.

    Read also: Will litigants get justice at election tribunals?

    “I disagree with INEC’s unilateral announcement of Saturday as a new date. I do not believe that all the challenges that INEC has can be resolved within six days. A more sensible approach is needed. Our nation cannot afford another postponement.”

    The governor noted that few hours to the postponed elections, Bayelsa did not have ballot papers for presidential elections and stamps to authenticate votes.

    “Even now, I am told there are issues of unserialised ballot papers”, he said.

    The governor hailed Buhari for calling on security agencies to deal ruthlessly with troublemakers during the election.

    He said by such presidential directive, security agencies should no longer be encumbered from doing their jobs without fear or favour.

    He particularly appealed to security agencies to ensure the application of the directive in Bayelsa, especially in areas like Ekeremor and Brass, where he said some known political figures had been fomenting troubles.

    Dickson called on the electorate to maintain their momentum and not to be discouraged by the postponement.

    He also disagreed with INEC on suspension of campaigns, saying that his party would continue to engage the people in accordance with the established law of the land.

    Dickson, who insisted that it was unfortunate that INEC postponed the poll despite all the preparations in the state, including declaring a two-day holiday, asked stakeholders to work against further shift.

  • Bayelsa stakeholders allege imbalance in graduate recruitment

    Stakeholders from Nembe Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, at the weekend accused the state’s Civil Service Commission of shortchanging their council in the just concluded recruitment of 1000 graduates into the civil service.

    The stakeholders under the auspices of Nembe Se Congress (NSC) claimed that the exercise designed by the state Governor, Seriake Dickson, to lift embargo on employment by giving jobs to graduates, was a charade.

    Presenting the group’s position in Yenagoa, the Chairman, NSC, Prof. Monday Godwin-Egein, said persons empanelled to anchor the selection process demonstrated gross incompetence.

    Godwin-Egein said the state governor wanted the commission to work out sound criteria for an equitable distribution of the positions to all the local government areas.

    “There seems to have been no such measure adopted to guide the recruitment process. Otherwise, the set standards or procedures were violated by the very people saddled with the responsibility of anchoring the process”, he said.

    He alleged that the result of the recruitment showed fraud and gross insincerity tailored to shortchange the Bayelsa East Senatorial District especially Nembe and Brass local government areas.

    A copy of the results presented by the group showed that Brass and Nembe had 86 employees each while Ekeremor had 143, Kolokuma-Opokuma 103, Ogbia 119, Sagbama 163, Southern Ijaw 164 and Yenagoa 154.

    But Godwin-Egein said: “Nembe Se Congress takes exception to this abuse of process that casts our constituency as backward and behind other areas in the state in educational achievements.

    “We condemn all tendencies of insincerity of one group to another as seem to have played out in this sad exercise of a lopsided, grossly abused and very provocative recruitment into our civil service.

    “We hope our governor will look into the so-called recruitment result with the eyes of a statesman and with fairness and correct the errors. The governor should also summon the team empaneled to carry out this exercise and tell them that the Ijaw dream is prone to fractures and failures”.

    Godwin-Egein  said the group deliberately refused to draw comparisons on the basis of figures allocated to each local government, but wondered why the combine figures for Nembe and Brass were less than the figure for a small local government area.

    Describing the outcome as clannish, he said: “It is like telling the world that while our children in Nembe Se slept, those of our brothers in other clans were up and toiling upward at night.

    “Nembe does not need this backlash so carelessly inflicted on us. We want justice. We want fair play in the ordering of our collective destiny”, he said.

    But the Chairman, Bayelsa Civil Service Commission, Dr. Peter Singabele, said the recruitment followed followed best practice.

    Speaking when Dickson presented appointment letters to the beneficiaries, Singabele insisted that the process was transparent adding that out of the 23,000 persons that sent in their applications, 21,000 persons qualified to write the job examination.

    He said: “This is the very first time the governor is engaging in mass recruitment. The exercise is purely on merit. When the results were released few days ago there was jubilation in Swali market by the women who said they never knew that their children could get a job without knowing anybody in this state.

    “The employment process was like a marathon race that started in June last year. Over 23,000 applications were received. At end of the screening exercise, about 21,000 were qualified to write the first exam and after that using 70 per cent as the cut off mark, 4,824 passed and went into the last stage of the exam.

    “We hired the Niger Delta University (NDU) as the consultant and the number the governor directed were selected based on merit”.

     

     

  • Lokpobiri lied to Buhari on Bayelsa airport, says Dickson

    Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson has debunked the claim by the Minister of State for Agriculture Senator Heineken Lokpobiri that the Bayelsa International Airport was built at N120bn.

    Dickson said that it was most unexpected of a person of the status of a Minister to feed the President and public with false information inspired by bitterness.

    Dickson, in a statement by his Special Adviser to the Governor on Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, explained the Bayelsa Airport was built at N60bn and not some imagined figures being dangled by Lokpobiri.

    He said the contract for the Airport was executed by Dantata and Sawoe, a Nigerian firm which could be contacted for the contractual sum.

    The governor said that while it would have been proper to ignore Lokpobiri and the imagined figures he dished out to the President and other Nigerians during the APC Presidential rally in Yenagoa, it was important to put the records straight and to spare the society from the mischief of misinformation.

    Dickson also faulted the claim by Lokpobiri the airport was a seasonal facility which was affected by the last flood in the country.

    He said that the airport equipped with the most standard and longest run away in the country was built with the 2012 flood which devastated parts of the country in mind.

    He said that the claim by Lokpobiri the airport was flooded last year was a failed attempt to discredit the achievements of the Restoration Government led by Dickson.

    Read Also: Dickson raises fresh security concerns ahead of polls

    He said: “The Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, told President Muhammadu Buhari and the Public that the Bayelsa International Airport was built at a cost of N120 billion.

    “The Minister went further to say that the airport is a seasonal airport which was affected by the flood that ravaged Bayelsa and other parts of Nigeria in 2018.

    “It would have been logical to ignore the claims of Lokpobiri as the rantings of a politician on a mission to cause mischief through misinformation but for the need to set the records straight in the interest of the discerning public.

    “For the records, the Bayelsa International Cargo Airport which is scheduled to have its inaugural flight on Thursday was built at a cost of N60 billion.

    “Lokpobiri’s claim that the Airport which was built with a high runway with the 2012 flood in mind, was flooded in 2018, is even more shocking and indeed gives insight into his brand of politics.

    “It is a fact beyond contestation that the Bayelsa International Airport was never flooded and therefore cannot be regarded as a seasonal airport as claimed by Lokpobiri.”

    “I call on Bayelsans and indeed all Nigerians to ignore the spurious claims being made by Lokpobiri about this celebrated feat in Bayelsa, the Ijaw nation and the nation’s aviation sector.”

  • Buhari assures polls’ll be free, fair

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday visited Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he assured that he is all out for free, fair and credible elections starting on Saturday.

    He spoke at a meeting with traditional rulers at the secretariat complexes of the Councils of Traditional Rulers of the two states.

    In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said: “I assure you that I’m all out for free, fair and credible elections. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC knows my stand on this.

    “Nigerians are assured of free and fair elections. Under this leadership, nobody will be allowed to intimidate other citizens. Nobody will be allowed to snatch ballot boxes and run with them. I will make sure that the votes count.” he said

    President Buhari commended the introduction of the Permanent Voters Card, PVC and Card Reader, and urged the nation to embrace the technology, arguing that without it, the sixteen years of misrule by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP would not have been brought to an end.

    “In 16 years, the PDP thought nobody could remove them from office. The introduction of the PVC and Card Reader made sure that our votes counted in 2015 and the votes of Nigerians will count in 2019,” he stressed.

    Read Also: Buhari sure of victory, says Ashafa

    On the issue of security, the President repeated his commitment to ensure the protection of lives, property and the territorial integrity of the nation, while urging the traditional rulers to play their part as expected of them.

    “The question of security begins with you,” the President told the royal fathers, even as he commended them for calming down the restive situation in the Niger Delta.

    “Through you, we have been able to persuade the militants to change their attitudes. I congratulate you on the roles you played that stabilized the security and the economy of the country,” he said.

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, at the reception commended President Buhari for his statesmanship and love for the country.

    On his part, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State called for a peaceful conduct of the elections.

    The Chairman of the Bayelsa State Council of Traditional Rulers, His Majesty Alfred Diette-Spiff, who commended the President for the appointment of citizens of Bayelsa into key positions and the infrastructure projects being put in place, added that the state deserved more.

    His counterpart in Rivers State, Dr. Dandeson Douglas Jaja, King Jaja of Opobo, while calling for free and fair elections, also appealed to the President to ensure that security agents remained non-partisan throughout the exercise.

  • Buhari vows to recover $16bn squandered on power by PDP

    …..President gets Ijaw name as mammoth crowd gather in Bayelsa

     

    President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday vowed to recover $16bn allegedly wasted in the power sector by the government of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

    “Where is the power? Where is the money?” The President queried saying his administration would go after persons involved in the power deal to recover the money to continue with the ongoing development of infrastructures across the country.

    Buhari spoke at the Oxbow Lake Pavilion, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, where mammoth crowd of party faithful gathered for his reelection campaign in the state.

    Party faithful comprising men, women and youths adorned in APC vests and fez caps were seen drumming support for Buhari and chanting Sai Baba.

    The APC presidential candidate with his entourage landed at the Government House heliport and was received by the state Governor, Seriake Dickson, his Deputy, John Jonah, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson and other cabinet members.

    Buhari was also welcomed to the state by the state leader of APC and former Governor of Bayelsa, Chief Timipre Sylva; the Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, the state Chairman of APC, Jothan Amos and other party leaders.

    Buhari and his team comprising his Campaign Director and former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi and some members of the National Working Committee (NWC) proceeded to the Secretariat of the state Traditional Rulers Council where the candidate spoke to the council headed by the King of Twon Brass, Alfred Diette Spiff.

    The President was giving an Ijaw name, Ebiwari (good house) by the state Chairman of the party, Jothan Amos, who referred to as a symbol of truth to the admiration of the crowd.

    But the President insisted that persons who were involved in squandering the whooping power money would not go scot free.

    Read Also: My husband has passion for the masses – Aisha Buhari

    “You know we are building roads; the railway was virtually killed we are rebuilding it and there was no power, we are bringing power back. The previous government mentioned on their own that they spent 16bn American Dollars for power. But you are better witnessed than myself. Where is the power? Where is the money? We will follow them and eventually God willing we will get them and we will get our money back,” he said.

    The President insisted that the APC administration would continue to take seriously the problems of security, economy, infrastructures and fight against corruption.

    He said: “We are also promising that we will make people who occupy executive positions both in federal and state levels to be accountable to the people. If you could recall when I came in 2015 under our great party, the party articulated three issues which we campaign and were voted on.

    “These are security, economy and fighting corruption. On security, the people of the Northeast are the biggest witnesses of what we achieved because when we came, at least 17 local governments were under Boko Haram. As I speak now none is under them. But they resorted to train the young men and women wrap them up with explosives and ask them to explode it in churches, mosques, market places and in motor parks. That is even rare now.

    “On economy, when we came in we had very high importation of food stocks. We thank God that in the three previous raining seasons we realised bountiful harvest. The government contribution was to make fertilizer and other agricultural inputs available. That took away many able-bodied persons out of unemployment.

    “On fighting corruption, under this system it is very difficult. But I keep mentioning wherever I go that all those who have account to give should prepare to account for it. Those that are indicted were taken before the court and a number of them are in jail and a number of their properties had been taken away to be sold and put in the treasury and continue with infrastructure”.

    The President praised the efforts of the party leaders saying the APC was stronger and that its strength would be tested in the forthcoming elections.

    On his part, Sylva said the APC remained the stronger party in the state and thanked the President for assisting in payment of workers’ salaries through bailouts.

    Sylva said the Ijaw people could be forgiven the last time for not voting President Buhari because their son contested the election against him; they had no more reason not to vote for him in the coming election.

    He further accused the state government of spending N120bn to build an airport in the state without disclosing the identity of the contractor.

    Addressing Buhari on why the people of the state would vote for him, he said: “Mr. President you have also commenced and almost completed a major road in Bayelsa state connecting the community of the former President. You have also commissioned a major water project in Bayelsa, one in Otuoke and another one in Ekeremor, which was done from the Ministry of Agriculture.

    “Bayelsa has many reasons why they should vote for you again. I always say this to Bayelsans, it is as clear as crystal, visible to the blind and audible to the deaf that Mr. President is winning again. I tell my people that apart from the fact that Mr. President has done a lot, we must also vote for Mr. President because that is the winning team.

    “Our father Melford Okilo taught us that our alliance with northern Nigeria must be sustained. And for us as Ijaw people, that is what we have always known for. Let us not make any mistake. I learnt that some people came here to deceive Bayelsans, but we know them for whom they are. We call them ‘People Deceive People’.

    “For Ijaw land to grow, we need a forthright President like President Buhari. Izon means truth and it is our name as a people. We also know that the name Muhammadu Buhar stands for truth. Buhari is a truthful person so he is our natural alliance. That is why we must all vote for President Buhari.

    “He has brought many things to Ijaw land. I stand here as a son of Ijaw land, as a former governor and as a chairman of the Maritime University, which is also a school that was instituted by the President. Ijaw people have no reason not to vote for the President. This time we must vote enmasse”.

    On his part, Lokpobiri asked the President to ensure a level-playing filed in Bayelsa to enable the APC prove its worth in the state accusing the state government of squandering N1.3trn that accrued to the state for seven years.

    He said: “I have the mandate of the Bayelsa people to tell you that Bayelsa doesn’t want to be left of this moving train and winning movement. Right from the days of Melfford Okilo Bayelsans have always known the party that would win. This time around, Bayelsans have already seen that your reelection had already been concluded.

    “The only request we want is for a level-playing field to be provided for Bayelsans to show you that they love you. This state in the past seven years has received N1.3trn. This is excluding local government allocations, bailout funds and loans that run into hundreds of billions of naira.

    “But Bayelsa is still one of the least developed states in the country. Bayelsa is still one of the darkest states in the country. Bayelsa civil servants have suffered the highest level of retrenchment in this country”.

    He asked the President to bring his anti-corruption drive to Bayelsa and make the state government account for the money it received without commensurate development.

  • Opposition leaders distributing arms in Bayelsa, says Dickson

    Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, on Saturday accused security agencies of aiding opposition leaders in the state to stockpile illegal arms ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

    Dickson, who was visibly angry while addressing the state in a live radio broadcast, said despite all intelligence and reports he tendered to security commanders, those involved in illegal arms were still allowed to work free.

    The governor, who mentioned specific names of opposition leaders, said the report available to him indicated that arms were being distributed to cultists to cause mayhem and unleash violence on innocent people at the poll.

    He mentioned Brass, Southern Ijaw, Ekeremor and Nembe local government areas as where such arms distribution were ongoing without any efforts of security agencies to investigate and arrest persons behind it.

    He said Nigeria would be qualified for a failed state if people were denied the opportunity to participate in a free and fair process of electing their leaders.

    “A nation where security agencies will collude with criminals and terrorists known for bringing arms to disrupt the election is a failed country”, he said adding that the same characters known for electoral violence since 1999 had continued to destabilise the state.

    Dickson said having managed the most trying period in the state’s and resisted intimidation from opposition leaders, he was worried about theatre of the state after his departure.

    Read Also: Sylva to Dickson: you have no fear of God

    He said after losing the last governorship election and failing at litigations, the opposition leaders took a decision to undermine his government and destabilise the state.

    The governor alleged that the opposition leaders with support from other external forces were planning to turn the state to the Sambisa Forest by tampering with the security architecture through frequent redeployment of security commanders.

    Dickson lamented that most of the opposition leaders were using their position as surveillance contractors to arm cultists for electoral purposes.

    The governor immediately inaugurated a committee of inquiry headed by retired Justice Margaret Akpomimieye with the mandate to investigate the activities of the surveillance contractors in the state and report to the government within 21 days.

    He said even if the security agencies failed to act on the expected report of the committee, he would file it in state’s archive for posterity.

    The governor appealed to the people of the state to reject the APC candidates and vote for the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The governor further asked the people to resist any form of intimidation and warned that election days were not designed for people to die.

    His words: “We have to be concerned about the safety of our voters first before anything else. It is the job of security agencies to guarantee the safety of voters. A country where lives and property are not protected is a failed state. That is a ‘shit hole’ country so nobody should blame President Donald Trump when he said, African countries are presiding over ‘shit hole’ countries.

    “In this country, we have had several instances where security men and women in uniform collude with criminal and terrorist in rigging elections and undermine the peace and stability of states like Bayelsa.

    “We now have partisan security officials who have become an armed wing of the ruling party. They are not interested in peace, law and order; their concern is more in political conquest than maintenance of law and order in this state.

    “They have undermined the security of this state in such a way that I have lost count of the number of Commissioner of Police redeployed  to the state within a space three months. This is the 10th CP they have sent.

    “I am a governor whose authority has been most undermined in the area of security management of this state. I have records where security officers in Abuja will be calling militants and cult leaders, and how they give cover to their nefarious activities under the pretext of carrying out surveillance contracts.

    “The new law is that if you are an APC members, you cannot be arrested when you kill. As an APC member, you can buy guns, get uniform, camp militia, kill and nothing happens.”

    When journalists visited the state secretariat of the APC to get reactions from the party since most names mentioned by Dickson are members of the party, the state Chairman, Jothan Amos, said he was too busy to speak on the matter.

     

  • Group raises alarm of election violence

    A coalition of civil society groups have raised alarm over the stock pilling of weapons in Bayelsa State and Niger Delta ahead of next week election.

    The convener, Coalition  Against  Electoral  Violence, Comrade  Olufemi Lawson at a conference in Lagos said the situation was worrisome.

    He said during the 2015 election, the world witnessed an unimaginable height of violence unleashed on the innocent people of the Bayelsa.

    “As this crucial election gets closer, we have found it extremely imperative to inform Nigerians and the international community, about the likelihood of violence in some parts of the country, if the necessary checks are not undertaken by the Federal government and various authorities across our land.

    “This clarion call becomes inevitable at this point, as we have come to the realization, that elections should no longer be seen as wars and that whosoever engage in the destruction of properties and lives of our people, during the election period, is made to bear the consequences of his or her actions. “

    Lawson said those who embark on election violence must be brought to book, noting that their conduct would lead to political apathy if not checked.

    “The Coalition called upon all patriotic Nigerians, leaders and members of the International community, to join hands with them as they commence a new phase of seeking justice for these victims of the senseless act of political desperation. They are also alarmed that from all available reports that these same perpetrators are already recruiting thugs and stockpiling arms, ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

    “Walled on the International Community, embassies and foreign governments to place a visa ban on these purveyors of violence as a further deterrence to those involved in electoral violence in the country.

    “We demanded that the Bayelsa State government, commence the immediate implementation of the reports of the Justice Margaret Akpomiemie led commission of inquiry, which investigated the violence, mayhem and grave breach of the peace that occurred in the state before and during the state 2015/2016 governorship election,” he said.

  • ‘Only PDP candidates can attract development to Bayelsa’

    Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd) on Tuesday told the people of Brass Local Government Area to elect candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to attract development to their area.

    Jonah insisted that only the candidates of the PDP had the experience and qualifications to develop the council.

    Jonah, who led members of the PDP to some communities in Brass, part of the East Senatorial District of the state Commissioner for Information, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said there was a need to consolidate on the achievements of Governor Seriake Dickson.

    The deputy governor, who spoke on the achievements of the PDP-led government in the state said the party put forward persons known with the track records of performance.

    He described the elections as critical for the sustainance of the legacies of the Restoration Government.

    He enjoined the people not to fall for the antics of those who failed to bring development to them when they had the opportunity to do so.

    He stressed that the PDP was the only credible party with a plan to solve the current economic hardship, insecurity and gross underdevelopment in the country.

    Read Also: Bayelsa receives N10.7bn January allocation

    He noted that no party could rival the good work of the PDP saying that if elected, the party’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and other candidates would truly make Nigeria to work again.

    On his part, the Director-General of the Bayelsa East Restoration Campaign Organisation, Jonathan Obuebite thanked the people for their support for the Dickson-led administration and the PDP in the state.

    Obuebite, who is also the Commissioner for Education said the people had always stood by the party and expressed optimism that they would do so on February 16 and March 2.

    The communities visited were Akassa, Liama, Egwema and Beletieama.

    Some of those on the campaign train were, Mrs. Remi Kuku,  Victor Sam-Ateki,  Victor Isaiah, Bello Bina, members of the State House of Assembly from the area and their State Executive Council counterpart, among others.