Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson has accused Nigeria’s First Lady, Patience Jonathan of masterminding a crowd revolt against his bid for a second term in office during the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Rally at the Samson Siasia Stadium in Yenagoa.
During the PDP rally, President Goodluck Jonathan’s appeal for support of Dickson’s governorship ambition attracted boos and jeers from a section of the crowd described by Dickson as loyalists of the Mrs. Patience Jonathan.
Dickson, through his Chief Press Secretary Daniel Iworiso-Markson, fingered members of the First Lady’s NGO, Women for Change and Development Initiative and the openly pro-Jonathan campaign group known as the Transformation Ambassadors (TAN) as the perpetrators of the unfortunate act.
According to him, attempts by members of TAN and Women for Change and Development Initiative to boo and stone the Governor were drowned by the singing and drumming of pro-Dickson supporters, who were at the venue of the rally in their numbers.”
However, a political pressure group, Network for Bayelsa People’s Agenda (NBPA) has lauded the people of Bayelsa for the courageous display of their displeasure with the incumbent Governor and his administrative style. By openly booing Dickson, the people passed a vote of ‘no confidence’ on the Governor’s leadership style.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Comrade Ibipa Oweiza NBPA accused Dickson of administering Bayelsa State as his private estate. It also alleged that acts of nepotism, especially the award of state contracts to kinsmen and in-laws, had become the standard practice under the leadership of Dickson.
The group appealed to President Jonathan to give consideration to the demands of Bayelsa youths who are totally against the administration of Governor Dickson, “We are the people who are feeling the pains of Dickson’s leadership and are in a better position to say so, and we urge President Jonathan to listen to the voice of the people.“
At the PDP Presidential Rally in Yenagoa, a section of the crowd had jeered persistently when President Jonathan urged the people to support the party’s Governorship candidate, Dickson, at the forthcoming elect ion.
Yenagoa is the capital city of the President’s home State of Bayelsa in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger