Dickson - APC Can't Rule in Bayelsa

Barely five months to the Bayelsa State governorship polls Governor Seriake Dickson has expressed strong convictions that he would be re-elected, saying that opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) has no structures on ground to threaten him.

Dickson stated this in his keynote address at ongoing national conference of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) holding in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on Thursday.

The governor explained that in 2011 when he was running for the governorship election, he did not have the benefit of a support base comprising the state and national assemblies members, local government chairmen and councillors, as compared to now when all these groups are on board.

“The campaign team we have, when we unveil it, you will see that, it is made up of who is who in politics of their communities, wards and their constituencies. It is an impregnable thing.”

“The restoration support base is actually far more robust now than it was in 2012 and we have the advantage that I am running on a record of concrete achievements, not promises as any other person may be. 

“The core restoration team is still intact. As a matter of fact, we are even stronger now because at that time, we didn’t have national assembly members supporting me.

“Now, all National Assembly members are on board; all 21 assembly members are on board. I didn’t have local government chairmen when I was running last time, now they are all on board. I didn’t have councilors supporting, now they are all on board, commissioners and elders of the state are all on board.”

Exuding confidence, Dickson insisted that “We took out a sitting government. So, if you see a man who was Sylva’s deputy governor and his speaker, who became acting governor decamping to join Sylva, you shouldn’t be surprised, because they were not with us. It may sound as if some big thing is happening, because they are the same characters that we replaced.

“They were not just with Sylva in his APC and that tells you a lot about the way they practiced politics, because if they were loyal and committed to Sylva and his political tendencies, they should have been in APC long ago, but they were with us and they stayed back and now they are going to meet their master because the APC has won power at the centre, so they were not part of our winning formula in 2012. The chairman of APC in the state was a local government chairman under Sylva’s administration and when I became governor, he served out his tenure and he has gone to join his master. That is what is happening.”

While describing his ‘record of service in the last three years as good enough,’ the governor expressed confidence that, though, power comes from God, the people appreciate the development strides of the present government in the amidst of daunting challenges.

Dickson, who described members of the APC as propagandists whose antecedents were well known by the people, expressed confidence that whoever emerges as its flag bearer would be roundly rejected and defeated at the polls, as the party has no political structures in the state.

“What I know is that the APC has no chance of winning the election in this state. I know that the APC has no chance of winning the governorship election. The APC is not on the ground. It is a party of propaganda; a party of lies; a party of people, whose antecedents are very well known by our people. I believe and I’m confident that whoever is the candidate of the APC will be roundly rejected and defeated.”

But surprisingly, the governor, in another breadth, pleaded with those who have defected to retrace their steps to the PDP, adding that, the party would accommodate them into the PDP fold, as all hands were required to build the state.