Elders from Bayelsa State and founding members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Friday rose from a crucial meeting and declared that the party would surmount its challenges and triumph in the December 5 governorship election.
The elders, who met particularly to review the ongoing defections of PDP stalwarts to the All Progressive Congress (APC) ahead of the election, said they were not losing sleep over the development.
One of the elders and PDP founding father, Chief George Fente, said persons who left the PDP and others leaving on Saturday after enjoying all the party’s benefits were ungrateful and selfish.
Over 70 PDP stalwarts and 500 others will on Saturday join the APC in a rally scheduled to hold at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex.
But Fente said: “We know very well that some of our members in the PDP are leaving today. Why did they not defect before? They have enjoyed all the benefits in PDP. They have chosen to dump a party that has made them. They are ungrateful.
“These defectors are political locust and they are gravitating towards an abysmal chasm of destruction. They will implode in APC and they will start running back to PDP. We are still advising them to come back because the umbrella is big enough to accommodate them.”
Reading the collective position of the elders, the Chairman of the Committee of the Restoration Caucus Chairmen, Chief Thompson Okorotie, said majority of Bayelsans were behind the Governor of the state, Mr. Seriake Dickson.
“We hear of defection these days even though some of the listed people have denied the claims of the opposition and that shows there is no coherence or totality in their claims.
“However, we wish to state that those defections will have no impact on our route to success in the forthcoming primaries and the gubernatorial elections,” Okorotie said.
He said the administration of Dickson has recorded many strides in different sectors of the state economy adding that the governor started his government with a sound blueprint.
He named the governor’s achievements in road infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, economic investment promotion and housing.
He said despite the dwindling revenue which had affected all the states, Dickson was still paying salaries of workers.
Okorotie who noted that the governor has created enabling environment for investment, observed that pockets of criminalities especially kidnapping in the state were politically motivated by evil forces.
He named other achievements of the governor as attraction of investors to the state; increased economic activities; opening up of rural areas and ongoing efforts by the government to complete mega projects by processing N25 billion loan.
He said: “it is important that we don’t lose sight of the accountability and transparency policy which the government is running in Bayelsa State. Owing to the governor’s prudence in financial management, Bayelsa State is not only paying workers’ salaries promptly but is also not listed among high profile debtor states.
“The transparency briefing by the government which gives an account of inflow and outflow and the moneys received from Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) is based on exemplary law, first of its kind in Nigeria which the governor is saying he should be impeached if he does not do so for more than three months.”
