Bayelsa state PDP Secretary; Mr kiku who is Governor Seriake Dickson’s closest adviser and associate recently ordered all five statutory delegates from some of the wards in the state to submit their VIN number of voters card and PDP membership card to him.
This act of collecting voters card registration number and PDP card numbers of delegates without communicating the reason is very worrisome. This is most especially because the last state PDP primary elections in Yenagoa federal constituency and assembly primaries for Yenegoa constituency 1&3; KOLGA constituency 2 were marred with violence. In these elections, selected delegates were prevented from accessing the venue of the primaries because they were suspected of not supporting the Governor’s preferred candidates. Some of these delegates were beaten, had their clothes torn and their monies and valuables collected. As a matter of fact, the house of representatives primaries for yenegoa/kolokuma-Opukuma federal constituency was marred by indiscriminate shooting and violence.
With a fore experience of this type of violence,intimation and harassment from the restoration government in the past, the delegates have expressed palpable fear as the state PDP Secretary ordered the submission of these items in a gestapo style. A lot of delegates desire that the next primary elections hold peacefully without threats but they also express fears because of threats from state PDP executive leadership preventing them from seeing certain aspirants especially Mr Kenebi Okoko. In fact, the state PDP leadership sometime early this year sanctioned some delegates that had a chat with Mr Kenebi Okoko.
The PDP national chairman and party executives should note that these precedences are unhealthy tendencies exhibited by the Bayelsa state PDP executive leadership and one can infer that this a violence driven government that does not believe in the civilised principles of free and fair elections. With the collection of these information from delegates,a lot of people are worried of their safety as delegates.
The ongoing practice of deliberately victimizing and excluding some delegates perceived to be supporting candidates that are not restoration candidates should not only be condemned but the PDP state Secretary should be sanctioned. Bayelsa PDP cannot afford to be thrown into violence and division by the activities of some over zealous actors of the restoration team. The National executive committee members of the party is kindly invited to note these happenings. They should call on the state actors stop these cancerous and unwholesome practices that may cause crisis and jeopardise the credibility of the the forthcoming pdp governorship primaries in Bayelsa state.
Bayelsa State PDP is known for promoting equity and equality of rights of every stakeholder and a few bad eggs cannot be left to destroy this legacy.
Mr Ebikeme Amaseimogha
Bayelsa PDP integrity group
