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Tag: Governor Seriake Dickson

  • Dickson tasks scholarship beneficiaries on hard work

    Dickson tasks scholarship beneficiaries on hard work

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa has charged the 1000 beneficiaries of the Bayelsa Government secondary scholarship to be worthy ambassadors of the state and Ijaw nation.

    Dickson gave the charge on Friday when he paid an unscheduled visit to the Teachers Training Academy, Bulou Orua, where the students are being temporarily accommodated.

    He described the institution as a flagship secondary school.

    Addressing the students, he assured that on resumption from their mid-term break, they would commence academic activities at the Ijaw National Academy, Kaiama, in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of the state.

    The governor said the school was expected to accommodate 1000 students and pledged that his administration would provide the necessary equipment to enable the school function optimally.

    Dickson also enjoined the beneficiaries to shun acts capable of truncating their dreams, urging them to remain focused on their studies to justify the huge investment the government had made in the education sector.

    The state Commissioner for Education, Mr Markson Fefegha, said the Dickson-led administration was nurturing a new crop of leaders in various fields of human endeavour.

    He said the government had so far invested about N40 billion in the development of educational infrastructure and scholarship schemes.

    Also speaking, the Principal of the Demonstration Secondary School, Bulou Orua, Mrs Violet Mama, applauded the state government for establishing and equipping the school with requisite facilities.

    Mama said the school had recorded some successes, including the emergence of the Deputy Senior Prefect, Ekede Majesty, as the winner of the recent statewide essay competition.

  • Osinbajo’s visit unite Dickson, Sylva

    Osinbajo’s visit unite Dickson, Sylva

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State and his immediate predecessor, Chief Timipre Sylva at the weekend looked at each other eyeball-to-eyeball for the first time after the controversial 2015/2016 governorship elections in the state.

    The meeting of the two arch political enemies was made possible by the Friday’s visit of the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo and his team who were in the state to seek solutions to the crisis in the Niger Delta region.

    There was apprehension in the camps of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when feelers filtered in that Sylva was in the entourage of Osinbajo.

    People were worried about the likely outcome of a meeting between Dickson and Sylva who had remained unyielding and unfriendly political foes after the elections that sharply divided the state.

    The worries were believed not to be out of place considering the hate, jabs and tantrums that characterized the actions of the duo during the poll and lingered months after the exercise.

    People recalled how Dickson, the candidate of the PDP, described Sylva, the standard bearer of the APC, as a guy man, eliciting a swift reaction from Sylva, who called the governor a bushman.

    But eventually when a “guy man” and a “bushman” met for the fist time, their behaviour towards each other betrayed their supporters’ expectations.

    It was a dramatic moment when it got to the turn of Sylva to receive handshakes from Dickson who exchanged pleasantries with members of Osinbajo’s team at the heliport of the Government House.

    With a broad smile, Dickson on getting to Sylva exclaimed: “Countryman! Countryman!!” He then warmly shook hands with him as Sylva returned the gesture with an infectious smile.

    Dickson, who was in high spirits then turned to someone standing beside Sylva and said: “Your friend (Sylva) is running away from me”. But Sylva immediately replied: ” I am not running away from you”. Everybody laughed.

    Some Ijaw leaders were happy at the development and thanked Osinbajo during a town hall meeting at the Banquet Hall, Yenagoa, for bringing peace to Bayelsa by uniting the two gladiators.

    The President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Worldwide, before presenting his demands to Osinbajo first counted the peace between Sylva and Dickson as one of the blessings of the visit.

    He said it was remarkable that the visit brought the state chairmen of APC and PDP and Ijaw people from various political divides together.

    He said: “I want to on behalf of the Ijaw nation thank your Excellency the acting President for bringing peace to Bayelsa. This is the first political leader that will bring together two leaders of the Ijaw land together.

    “Ijaw people cut across various political divides sit together. We thank you because our state really needs to be healed politically. Thank you for bringing peace”.

    Even the Masters of Ceremony (MC), Ebi Abi, observed that it was the first of its kind for the state chairmen of APC and PDP to sit together.

    Also Dickson in his speech created more excitement among the crowd. He said he was very glad when he saw Sylva in the entourage of acting President.

    He said: “Join me to welcome my immediate past predecessor. I was very glad when I saw him at the heliport while waiting to receive the acting President”.

    Addressing Sylva he said: “My dear brother, since the end of our campaign, this is the first time I am seeing you. It is good to see that you are looking very well and handsome. That is the spirit of the new Bayelsa”.

  • Tension brews in Bayelsa over land for grazing 

    Tension brews in Bayelsa over land for grazing 

    Tension is brewing in Bayelsa State over a piece of land measuring about 1200 hectares allocated to herdsmen for cattle grazing in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, by Governor Seriake Dickson.

    Dickson’s intentions of confining activities of herdsmen within the Bayelsa Palm area to avoid bloody clashes between them and farmers have divided stakeholders and groups in Ijaw land.

    It was gathered that an Ijaw and human rights activist, Ankio Briggs, had concluded plans to lead a protest of Ijaw stakeholders to demand reversal of Dickson’s decision.

    Briggs was said to be mobilising women and youths of like minds to occupy Bayelsa on February 14, a day scheduled to mark Dickson’s fifth year in office, for the protest.

    Already, a coalition of Ijaw groups under the auspices of the Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative (IPDI) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the governor to reverse his decision or face shutdown of all government activities in Bayelsa.

    IPDI, in a statement by its acting spokesperson, Mr. Mayor Ogobiri, said: “We are giving Governor Dickson seven days ultimatum to revoke Bayelsa land allocated to herdsmen or face mass shut down of all government facilities across the state because we do not want a repeat of the massacre that happened recently at Southern Kaduna in our state”.

    But the core Ijaw groups, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), worldwide, the Ijaw Youth Movement (IYM) and the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Thursday, rose in defence of the governor.

    The INC flayed Briggs accusing her of misinforming and inciting members of the public without making efforts to know the facts of the government’s decision.

    The group in statement signed by its Chairman, Central Zone, Chief Kennedy Odiowei, insisted that the activist misfired.

    Odiowei said: “This time and case we will differ as she missed the well-taken point by all that there is need to establish a central place for all cattle business in the state; and this is what informed Governor Seriake Dickson’s decision to provide and site the grazing field, ranch and abattoir at a portion of the Bayelsa Oil Palms farm.

    “We believe Ankio Briggs was misinformed and deliberately too, by some mischief makers who will not see anything good in any decision taken, no matter how good that decision is  by the Dickson administration.

    “While we appreciate Ankio Briggs’ recognition that Bayelsa State represents the identity of Ijaw people and respect her right to freely express her opinion and concern on happenings in the state, particularly the wellbeing of the people, as opinion is free, we advise her to take a back seat and not delve unnecessarily into issues she is not properly informed on, no matter how concerned she may be”.

    He said as the Chief Security Officer of this state, the governor owed the people the duty to prevent any likely clashes between cattlemen operating in the state and the owners of farmlands.

    “As it has been the case in many places in recent times. It is a decision taken to prevent injuries and deaths likely to arise in the event of any misunderstanding between cattlemen and farmers or farm owners in the state.

    “The governor took the decision as part of his plan to reposition the economy of the state, a vigorous drive in agriculture and investment in livestock to increase the state’s scarce internally generated revenue (IGR).

    “The land in question in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State is government-owned. It was not donated but provided to cater for the need of cattlemen and others doing cattle related businesses such as grazing, ranching and marketing in the state.

    Also backing the governor, the IYC Central Zone Chairman, Mr. Bobolayefa Owopiele, said Briggs’ fears were unfounded and smacked of scaremongering.

    “Her fear of annexation of Ijaw/ Niger Delta territories vis-à-vis acquisition of Ijaw-lands on the pretext of cattle grazing and other related business in this regard, though appreciated are unnecessary and unfounded as the land is not donated or sold to anybody including her so much feared cattle herdsmen.

    “The Bayelsa Oil Palms farm space is provided for cattle business just as the Ekeki Motor Park is provided by government for transport business in the state.

    “The Committee on Management and Control of Ranches was set up in December 2016 to oversee the activities of those doing cattle business in the state, including cattle herdsmen. It is made up of persons of high and proven integrity and very credible representatives.

    “They include relevant organizations like the Nigeria Police, Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Ijaw National Congress (INC), a member of the Traditional Rulers Council, youth of some communities and people in the cattle business in the state”.

    Owopiele said that while governors of some states in their desperation outrightly barred cattlemen from their states, Dickson chose a more beneficial option to the people.

    He said rather than condemn the action; the governor should be commended for choosing an all-inclusive business arrangement.

    He said: “Cattle in Malaysia are grazed in Oil Palm farmlands and both compliment the growth and progress of each other. Confining and domesticating all cattle business in the state to a government assigned ranch area and market such as Bayelsa oil palms farm is a most thoughtful and welcome idea that cannot be faulted.

    “The governor therefore by this action exposes no Ijaw person or any resident of the state for that matter to the dangers perceived by Ankio Briggs. Her thinking in our opinion amounts to crying wolf where there’s none”.

    He accused Briggs of unnecessarily causing tension in the state and noted thousands of cattle in Bayelsa state were owned by some wealthy indigenes with the Hausa/Fulani herdsmen merely serving them.

    “The community leaders, owners of the land, Ijaw sons and daughters in the Niger Delta, across the country also home and abroad have no need to reject any sale of Ijaw nation as no part of Ijaw land is being sold to anybody.

    “Rather we call on them to ask Annkio Briggs to cross-check her facts before going public. So far in our opinion Governor Dickson has acted and acting in consonance with his electioneering campaigns to move the state away from dependence on oil mineral to a more comfortable agriculture industry”, he said.

    But the Bayelsa Youth Movement (BYM) said Briggs, Mr. Claudius Enegesi and Prof. Kimse Okoko should be held responsible if their alleged inciting comments resulted in a bloody clash between the people and herdsmen.

    The youths insisted that recent comments attributed to the trio on the matter were baseless and capable of causing a breakdown of law and order.

    The youths in a statement by the President, BYM, Mr. James Ere-Brown, said any deaths arising from disagreements between the herdsmen and other residents of the state should be blamed on those opposed to the move.

    They said: “The people should put the blame of any death from clashes between herdsmen and any community on Ankio Briggs, Kimse Okoko and Hon. Claudius Enegesi and all those who are against the move by government to check the activities of the herdsmen.

    “By opposing the move by the state government to provide the Bayelsa Palm Area as a confined space for them to rear their cows, slaughter them and sell, instead of roaming around with their cattle in our communities and destroying farmlands in the process, these characters are setting the stage for a breakdown of law and order.

    “This is a purely security and economic decision, but the attempt by these people to politicise what is clearly an altruistic move by the government is not only unacceptable but done in very bad faith”.

    They said: “The action of the state government is not only commendable for ensuring that potential security issues are nipped in the bud before they become hugely insurmountable, but Hon Dickson should also be lauded for making Bayelsa the safest state in the South-South and indeed one of the safest in the country as recently attested to by some security agencies.

    “That achievement did not come by mere grandstanding by people like Okoko, Briggs and Enegesi, but by thoroughly reasoned security strategies like this one and the state’s irrefutable investment in security infrastructure,” the group argued.

     

  • Bayelsa teachers meet, insist on strike

    Bayelsa teachers meet, insist on strike

    The Bayelsa State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has called on all public primary and secondary school teachers in the state to continue observing the strike declared by the union.

    Teachers have been on strike since the resumption of the new academic session to protest unpaid arrears of salaries and other unfulfilled obligations of the government.

    It was gathered that the NUT had an emergency congress on Monday and resolved that the industrial action should continue.

    The body called on the teachers to disregard the directive given by the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) that the teachers should resume work.

    The state Chairman of the NUT, Mr. Kalama Tonpre, alleged that the ASUSS might have been compromised and called on the teachers to stay at home until the NUT would call off the strike.

    Kalama also called on members of the public to disregard the allegation by the state’s Commissioner for Information that the union had been politicised.

    He, however, said the commissioner’s position was his personal opinion which did not represent the standpoint of the state government.

    But the state government, yesterday, assured the teachers of prompt payment of their salaries and allowances and appealed to them to call off their strike.

    The Commissioner for Education, Mr. Markson Fefegha, gave the assurance during a one day workshop on the preparation of monthly payment vouchers and nominal rolls held at the DSP Alamieyeseigha Memorial Banquet Hall,Yenagoa.

    Fefegha said the preparation of vouchers in line with the present administration’s policy on transparency to stop the sharp practices perpetrated by some unscrupulous elements in the system.

    He said the seminar would assist in addressing the issue of voucher preparation to ease the payment process adding that the Governor Seriake Dickson-led government was passionate about the teaching profession.

    He said: “I am sure that most of you have received the two halves and we are working assiduously so that by next week you would receive your other month salary so that you would not only be at par but will be ahead of other civil servants in the state”.

    Also speaking, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, appreciated the principals for their cooperation and urged them to prepare an all-inclusive payroll.

    He scored the government high in educational transformation and urged to safeguard the infrastructure built by the government.

  • Bayelsa teachers to Dickson: Pay us our salaries

    Bayelsa teachers to Dickson: Pay us our salaries

    Primary and secondary school teachers in Bayelsa State, Wednesday, deplored eight months of unpaid salaries and marginalisation in the state appealing to the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to pay the arrears.

    Marking Teachers Day in low key at their secretariat in Yenagoa, the teachers, under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) said Bayelsa’s educational sector was replete with crises.

    The state Chairman, NUT, Mr. Kalama John-Tonpre, reeled out the problems facing teachers in the state as non-payment of salaries for about eight months; non-implementation of teachers promotion over the years and non-payment of annual increments.

    Others, according to him, are abdication of primary schools’ responsibilities by the state government and illegal dismissal of teachers employed in 2008 and 2009.

    John-Tonpre among others, further decried shortage of teachers without recruitment in the school system and non-provision of instructional materials.

    He said: “Some protracted but unattended issues in the sector are over-populated classrooms, poor standard of education resulting from poor funding, inconsistency and non-implementation of education policies.

    “Also, there is frequent disruption of the school system, moral decadence of the youth and eventually the underdevelopment of the state.”

    The NUT boss, however, acknowledged some efforts of Governor Seriake Dickson in educational development such as the construction off senatorial model schools, establishment of Teachers Training Institute (TTI) and repositioning the Isaac Adaka Boro College of Education.

    He regretted that teachers were suffering from marginalisation in the state and the country.

    “The current problems of the society characterised by disease, poverty, unemployment,  kidnapping, militancy,  injustice, lawlessness, greed for political powers and lack of conscience for humanity are all traced to the agonies of teachers”, he said.

    John-Tonpre appealed to the state government to as a matter of urgency satisfy the genuine demands of the teachers in the interest of advancing education for the benefit of the underprivileged in the state.

    He said: “Currently, so many teachers have retired and about a good number of teachers were dismissed from the school system with no recruitment of new ones to replace them.

    “Consequently, some primary schools in Bayelsa State have no single teachers to teach the children – our future leaders.  The issue deserves urgent attention as it portends danger at the foundation level of the education system.”

    He urged the state government to reinstate the dismissed teachers and recruit more teachers to fill the vacancies created in various schools across the state.

    He said: “Currently, so many teachers had retired and about a good number of teachers were dismissed from the school system with no recruitment of new ones to replace them. Consequently some primary schools in Bayelsa State have n single teacher to teach the children, our future leaders.

    “The issue deserves urgent attention as it portends danger at the foundation level of the education system. The NUT, therefore, calls on the state government to urgently reinstate the dismissed teachers and recruit more teachers to fill the vacancies created”.

    John-Tonpre also appealed to Governor Seriake Dickson to take up the responsibility of paying primary school teachers’ salaries because the councils alone could no longer bear such responsibility.

    Speaking at the event, the National President, NUT, Mr. Michael Olukoya, in his address read by the state Secretary, NUT, Mr. Jonhson Hector, called on the Federal Government and the relevant authorities to consider raising retirement age of teachers from 60 to 65 years.

    Olukoya further appealed to the Federal Government to ensure that only professionally trained and qualified persons were engaged in the proposed recruitment of 500,000 teachers to promote professionalism and effective service delivery.

  • NUT begs Dickson to pay teachers’ salaries

    NUT begs Dickson to pay teachers’ salaries

    The Bayelsa State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) Saturday passionately begged the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to pay salaries of primary school teachers.

    Teachers, like other workers in the state, have been thrown into hardship following the non-payment of about six months salaries owed them by the government.

    Speaking in Yenagoa, the state capital, the Principal Secretary, NUT, Mr. Okoro Okechukwu and the state Chairman, NUT, Mr. Bokolo Tonworio, asked the governor to take responsibility for the welfare of teachers including regularly paying their salaries.

    Okechukwu said the law in Nigeria prescribes that the maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education should be the responsibility of the state government.

    He said it was unconstitutional for any state government to allow only the local government to decide the fate of teachers.

    He said the fourth schedule of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution stated that the local government “shall only participate” in catering for teachers, which he said gave the state the main responsibility of funding the sub-sector.

    He said: “Then in May 2002, the Supreme Court gave a verdict in the case of the Attorney-General of Abia State, and the Attorney-General of the Federation.

    “The court said ‘on the tier of government responsible for primary education, in so far as primary education is concerned, a local council only participates with the state government, in its provision and maintenance. The functions obviously remains with the state government’.

    “The provision of this judgement of the Supreme Court is still the position of the law till tomorrow, and what the Supreme Court merely did was to interpret a section of the provision of the fourth scheduled that it remains the functions of the state government.

    “Therefore, it is wrong for any state government to heap the burden of funding primary education upon the local government councils”.

    Speaking about Bayelsa scenario, he said: “In our case in Bayelsa, the local councils lack or are already showing or exhibiting the incapacity to pay their workers and if our primary schools teacher are pushed down to the already erring local council, it means there is no future, no hope, and that the case of primary school teacher in Bayelsa becomes a helpless situation.

    “That is why we are appealing on the executive Governor Dickson who knows the laws better than I do, to do all he can to make sure that the burden is not heaped on the local councils alone.

    “As it is done in other states, let the state and local council jointly participate obeying the constitution in the funding of primary education so that the primary education to the citizenry is guaranteed and the welfare and the monthly regular salary of the teacher who teach in Bayelsa will be assured”.

    Also, speaking on the matter, Tonworio, appealed to the governor to toe the path of other states in carrying primary school teachers along.

    He said the primary school education remains the bedrock of education and asked the state not to destroy the sub-sector.

    He said: “Where the primary education is destroyed, the future of Bayelsa State is destroyed and that is why we are at the level we are today. All along, he has been carrying them along, so whatever must have transpired, let the governor reconsider and carry the Bayelsa state primary schools education along.”

  • Two pensioners die, three others slump in Bayelsa verification exercise

    Two pensioners die, three others slump in Bayelsa verification exercise

    Two old pensioners died and three others slumped in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, during a verification ordered by the Bayelsa State Government, it was learnt Tuesday.

    It was gathered that the incident occurred on Monday and Tuesday at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex at Ovom area of Yenagoa, the state capital.

    Among the collapsed pensioners, two reportedly survived while one was said to be in a coma at a private hospital in the state capital.

    Prior to the incident, the pensioners who had not been paid many arrears, were said to have complained of stress, hunger and dehydration.

    The inclement weather occasioned by heavy downpour reportedly contributed in exacerbating the hardship of the pensioners during the exercise.

    But the retirees complained that the exercise had many hiccups and wondered why the government would subject them to fresh exercise despite other verifications conducted in the past.

    Sources said the unnamed two dead pensioners were first taken to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa, but their remains were later taken to an undisclosed morgue at a private hospital in the state following the ongoing strike at FMC.

    The Chairman, Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Bayelsa Action Group chapter, Chief Bodi Amaran, confirmed the incident Tuesday.

    Amaran clarified that four pensioners slumped on Monday but that two died while the other two survived.

    He added that, another pensioner collapsed and went into a coma.

    He decried the plight of pensioners in the state, saying that they were being treated as refugees.

    Amaran said the pensioners were owed nine months by Governor Seriake Dickson lamenting that many of them were hungry while others who were on drugs could not buy their medications owing to the deplorable conditions.

    He said: “Four pensioners collapsed on Monday. Of the number, two died and the other two were revived. On Tuesday, one elderly pensioner slumped. He is in a coma as I speak.

    “The Monday incident happened in the afternoon while that of Tuesday happened when the rain was falling. The number of pensioners was many. For nine months, we have not been paid.

    “The conditions of most pensioners are pitiable.  We are being treated as refugees. The last month we got paid was in September 2015.”

    Another pensioner, Mr. Daniel Ogobugha, said he was not happy with the method adopted for the verification adding that the government would have combined the payment of the arrears with the exercise.

    He said: “Yes, we have been here since morning, many of our people have fainted, some critical ones have been rushed to the hospital; the government is helping but this exercise is very stressful to us.

    “Most of us are aged, some can no longer walk but look at us here for verification; well, if it is the way to fish out fake pensioners, is okay but I must tell you that this is not good due the health of some of us.

    “Some of us are being owed for over six months, we can’t pay our children school fees, with the current harsh economy, feeding have been a huge challenge to some families”.

    Another retiree, Mr Richard Epiri, urged the state government to expedite action in paying the backlog of their pensions.

    Confirming the development,the Chairperson, Bayelsa Pension Board, (BPB) Mrs. Jane Aleke, said the the pensioners collapsed because of exhaustion.

    He confirmed that the affected persons were rushed to the hospital.

    Aleke said that the exercise was not aimed at stressing the retirees but to enable the government get actual figure of pensioners.

    She appealed to the retirees to be calm and promised that every pensioner in the state would be captured in the exercise.

    “This is about management of wealth and you know in paying them, the state government cannot just begin to pay with a gauss number, so, we cannot do gauss work.

    “We are ready to reach all the Local governments in the state, we have started with Yenagoa; for those of them, who are sick and cannot walk, we will definitely go to their house,” she said.

  • PDP Governors back Makarfi, as Dickson visits party Chair in Kaduna

    PDP Governors back Makarfi, as Dickson visits party Chair in Kaduna

    •Our party only on sabbatical leave- Caretaker Committee chair

    Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State yesterday paid a solidarity visit to the Interim National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ahmed Makarfi in Kaduna, pledging the support of all the party’s governors for the chairman.

    Dickson described Makarfi as a focused, trusted and respected leader.

    The Bayelsa governor who doubles as chairman of the PDP National Reconciliation Committee said he was in Kaduna to consult with Makarfi “on the way forward for our country.”

    He added: “All your governors are behind you and I have, in my capacity as Chairman of the National Reconciliation Committee, been in touch with leaders of our party across the length and breadth of our country and one thing everybody says is that, with you as our national chairman, our party has gotten it right.”

    He asked leaders of the party to refrain from “making legal point out of what is essentially a political misunderstanding within a family. People should resort to political solution and political solution comes by engagement and meetings and interaction of party leaders, not litigation in the law courts. People should refrain from making comments that will not promote the cause of reconciliation.”

    Makarfi said the PDP is only on sabbatical leave from power and will bounce back in 2019.

    He said: “We need to reconcile, we need to acknowledge where we went wrong. It is a good virtue to say sorry where you are wrong. It is a good virtue to reconcile. Every day, whether you are a Christian or Muslim, we pray. It is because we knowingly or unknowingly offend our Creator, asking for His forgiveness and reconciling with Him. No doubt, in the cause of events, we must have hurt each other. Why can’t we talk to each other, reconcile with each other and learn from past mistakes.”

  • EFCC seals off ex-Dickson’s aide’s buildings in Bayelsa

    Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have sealed off buildings and other property allegedly belonging to Governor Seriake Dickson’s former Special Assistant on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mr. Apere Embelakpo.

    Investigations Saturday revealed that a palatial and tastefully-finished building said to be owned by Embelakpo along the Azikoro Road, Yenagoa, the state capital, was taken over by the anti-graft agency.

    It was, however, observed that some unidentified youths were still occupying a section of the building.

    The youths attacked our correspondent with stones when they discovered that the reporter was trying to take a picture of the building.

    While our reporter escaped by the whiskers, one of the stones created an impact on his vehicle.

    It was also found that sets of exotic shopping complexes and malls allegedly acquired by the former aide at the Kpansia Market along the Isaac Boro Expressway were also sealed off by the officials.

    Sources said the EFCC operatives escorted by some mobile policemen stormed the state capital on Tuesday in search of assets allegedly acquired using MDG funds by the former aide.

    An inscription, “property under EFCC investigation, keep off”, was written on the fences and gates of some of the buildings.

    Embelakpo is under investigation for allegedly diverting N800m meant for MDG programmes and projects in the state.

    His wife is also being probed by EFCC for alleged offences of money laundering, forgery and suspicious transactions amounting to N200m.

    EFCC had earlier arrested former Senior Special Assistant on Media to Dickson, Abnedgo Don- Evarada, in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State for allegedly offering a bribe of N10million to the EFCC’s Zonal Head in Port- Harcourt, Mr. Ishaq Salihu.

    Don-Evarada reportedly ran into trouble when he allegedly approached Salihu, over the case involving Embelakpo and his wife, Fiene Beauty.

  • Our goal is to regain Presidency in 2019 – Dickson

    Our goal is to regain Presidency in 2019 – Dickson

    The Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Seriake Dickson, has said that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was restrategising to regain control of the Federal Government in 2019.

    In his remarks at the party’s state congress in Yenagoa, the governor called on members of the PDP nationwide to work hard at getting back power at the national level.

    Dickson in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Daniel Iworiso-Markson, on Wednesday, asked the state chapter of the party to sustain the existing unity in the state.

    He congratulated the electoral panel for the successful conduct of the congresses from the ward to the state level.

    Dickson said that, in the last four years, his government has worked hard to reposition the state and its political culture.

    The governor spoke amidst crumbling economy of the state arising from backlog of unpaid salaries of all categories of workers in the state.

    He acknowledged that the task ahead of the party leadership was enormous and urged them to collaborate with other stakeholders in the South-South and across the country towards winning the general elections in 2019.

    Dickson also expressed his optimism over victory at the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.

    In his remarks, the Chairman of the Election Committee from the national secretariat of the party, Abuja, Mr. Edwin Anayo described the congresses in Bayelsa as the most peaceful and transparent in the country.

    The new State PDP officials elected are, Mr. Cleopas Mose (Chairman), Ebi Sunny-Goli (Deputy Chairman), Keku Godspower (Secretary), Gbalipre Turner (Treasurer) and Ebi Fafi (Financial Secretary).

    Others are Osom Makbere (Publicity Secretary), Luke Demeoru (Organising Secretary), Amalala Atua (Youth Leader), Perekeme Richard (Legal Adviser), Numuomikari Walte (State Auditor) and Eunice Akene (Women Leader).