Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has said that there is no disagreement between him and former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
Governor Dickson, who stated this on Friday while fielding questions from newsmen shortly after returning his expression of interest and nomination forms in Abuja, declared that “I will not like to comment on my senior brother’s wife, her Excellency, Dame Patience Jonathan, but in order to put the records straight here, there is no rift whatsoever, she supports my re-election bid, in fact, she is all over the places campaigning for me.
According to him, “as a rule that I have set, I don’t talk about my elder brother’s wife to the media. She has rights to her privacy for which I have respect. There’s no rift between us, and she’s in support of what we are doing.”
On the recent defection of some members of the party to other parties, he noted that though the APC might have taken some ambitious people from the party, basking in the euphoria of being the ruling party at the federal level, it had no significant structure to undo the PDP in Bayelsa State.
According to him, “political structure is not all about controlling the Presidency.or what have you, it is about having the support of those who matter in the affairs of the state and we have it as you can witness by the calibre of people who are here with me today.”
“The other side has no single councillor in Bayelsa. Of all the 205 wards, the councillors are PDP. Of the 23 members of the House of Assembly declared so far, PDP has 21. Federal lawmakers are 99 percent members of the PDP. The other side has little or none.”
“They are simply a bunch of ambitious aspirants, and there’s nothing wrong with people having ambition. But I can tell you that all the leaders of thought and opinion in Bayelsa are in PDP and are here with me. So in PDP Bayelsa, we say, no shaking,” he boasted.
On whether his four years in office has left a legacy memorable enough to carry any obligation of being re-elected by Bayelsans for another term, and whether the recent gale of defections doesn’t have any significant political value, he stated that he is seeking another term only to consolidate on current achievements.
“We are simply asking for another term to consolidate on the gains we have made. On your question as to whether those who defected have political value, I can assure you that every human being has a political value; at least they can vote for themselves. However, their defection will not have any significant negative effects on the chances of our party.
“I’m not a politician who is at this stage running for re-election based on promises. I don’t dwell on propaganda. I speak about things that are on ground. You need to come to Bayelsa to see what we have done.
“In terms of revenue base, we all know that there’s an economic downturn from which we are all suffering currently. However, we try our best within the available resources. If you asked me, are we where we need to be? I would say no. And that is why we ask for an extended mandate that would take us to the promised land,” he said.
