Gov poll: Don’t field candidates from Bayelsa Central, Group warns APC
Olaoluwa Folalu
With less than five months to the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa State, a socio-political organisation, Bayelsa for Good Governance and Accountability has protested against the zoning of the governorship slot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Central Senatorial District.
A statement by the Chairman of BGGA, Mr. Goodness Ebiye, and made available to journalists in Yenagoa said the zone had produced Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and governed Bayelsa State for six years.
It said, “Zoning the governorship slot to Bayelsa Central again will amount to unfairness and injustice on the part of the other zones, especially the Bayelsa West senatorial district.
“If the APC is serious as made to believe, it should jettison the idea of zoning Bayelsa Central; o else, it will give the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) an easy ride to the Creek Haven. Aside the fact that the zone had produced governorship candidates in the past, those that are parading themselves from the zone have no moral justification to rule the state.
“Ikiogha has been in the corridor of power since 1999, as Special Adviser and Commissioner with little or no impact, while Warman Ogoriba as a former member of the House of Representatives attracted no development to the state. As for Alaibe, he no longer has any electoral value going by his antecedents.”
The group, therefore, called on the APC leadership to uphold the tenets of democracy which is justice, fairness, transparency and accountability and warned the leaders against fielding candidates from Bayelsa Central Senatorial District.
With this political calculation, if uphold, hope of the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Timi Alaibe, Chief Dikivie Ikiogha and Hon. Warman Ogoriba to contest the 2015 governorship election in Bayelsa State under the platform of APC may have crashed into the brick wall.