Pdp, Apc Bicker Over Bayelsa Governor’s Visit To Aso Rock

BEVERLY HILLS, December 30, (THEWILL) – The two front-line political parties in Bayelsa state – the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC – have been thrown into a war of words by yesterday's visit of Governor Seriake Dickson to the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

With the controversial visit coming barely 10 days to the rescheduled governorship election in the state, the APC described it as a desperate move to lobby President Muhammadu Buhari over the January 9 supplementary poll, while the PDP accused its rival of being in the wrong for thinking that Dickson would visit Aso Villa without any previous appointment.

However, APC expressed delight that Buhari, who it said had received series of abuses and name calling from Dickson, did not grant the governor audience.

The ruling party in Bayelsa while denying reports that Dickson was at the Presidential Villa to see the President but was disallowed to meet with him, described it as “lies and figment of the imagination” of the APC.

But APC through a statement issued on Wednesday by the Director, Media and Publicity, Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organisation, Chief Nathan Egba, berated Dickson for name-dropping, accusing him of repeatedly alleging that Buhari wanted to use federal might, including the military and the police to rig the election in favour of the APC candidate, former Governor Timipre Sylva.

He said sources in the Presidential villa were surprised to see Dickson around, having stayed away from the villa for the past weeks.

The APC maintained that Dickson's request to meet the President was turned down and he was rather directed to meet the Chief of Staff, Alhaji Abba Kyari, for his mission.

According to Egba, “Governor Seriake Dickson is quite unsettled ahead of the January 9, 2016 rerun election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, which is a stronghold of the APC and he is now looking for a soft-landing after the eventual loss of the governorship seat.”

While urging Buhari to be wary of Dickson, whose main plan is to win the election through the use of violence, he stressed that Dickson was adept at intimidating and harassing people to support his reelection.

But responding through the Director of Publicity, Restoration Campaign Organisation of the PDP, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, the party stressed that a reply was not intended as necessity to such statement as it was nothing but APC's propaganda and recurring lies.

Obuebite said, “ It's almost like a no brainer for any discerning mind to know that nobody just wakes up in the morning, get dressed and head straight for the villa without being invited or having a prior appointment.

“For crying out loud, it is inconceivable for anyone to assume, much less believe that the Governor of an oil rich state that contributes over 40 per cent of the nation's wealth will be denied access to see the President.”

Obuebite, while dismissing the report as “ non-essential worthy of any response,” stressed that the governorship election had already been won and lost, and therefore not surprising that the APC in the state was still carrying on in their usual deception as if they still stood a chance.

“The APC has lost and they know it. No amount of propaganda and blackmail will return them as winners. They have been roundly rejected by the people and we truly sympathise with them because the APC is finished in Bayelsa State,” Obuebite declared.