Dickson Accused of Squandering N1.5bn on Declaration

 

 • Dickson
                 A group of stakeholders from Bayelsa State, Thursday, accused the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, of bankrolling his formal declaration for a second term with N1.5billion state funds.

The group under the auspices of the Bayelsa Surveillance Group (BSG) claimed that the money was used by the governor to hire the mammoth crowd that attended his declaration in Yenagoa on Tuesday.

But in a swift reaction, the Ijaw Young Professionals (IYP) countered

the claim describing it as frivolous, unfounded and baseless allegation against Dickson.

The IYP said the accusers were faceless adding that the surveillance group was non-existent and a decoy sponsored by the opposition to deceive the people.

However, the BSG in a statement signed by the Chairman, Kemekiye Oliver and the Secretary, Peter Izontari James, insisted that “Dickson spent a whopping N1.5 billion of Bayelsa State funds for his declaration for a second term as governor”.

The group said that the Dickson’s administration should have used the big sum of money to complete few of its numerous abandoned projects in the state.

It said: “We have it on good authority that the said amount was used to enable Dickson’s foot soldiers rent crowd from all nook and cranny of the state to attend the declaration.

“The aim was to create a facade of popular support by the grassroots for Dickson. Some of the abandoned projects are fast constituting an eyesore and dent on the Bayelsa skyline.

“Furthermore, this wrongful and unproductive deployment of scarce resources by Dickson clearly negates his avowed commitment to bring badly-needed infrastructural development to Bayelsa.

“Spending that huge sum of money for a failed governor’s declaration for second tenure is quite appalling and needs to be probed by anti-graft agencies”.

The BSG also lambasted former President Goodluck Jonathan for publicly endorsing of Dickson’s second-term bid instead of playing the role of elder statesman in the election process.

It maintained that Jonathan’s public endorsement of the governor amounted to imposing the governor on Bayelsans, adding that the former President was repeating what he did in the run-up to the 2012 governorship election.

But the IYP in a statement signed by its Spokesman, Seighfa Tonye-Brown said the accusation was false considering Dickson’s known disposition to public spending.

Tonye-Brown said: “Governor Dickson is a very principled, strict and morally upright gentleman. He will not spend a dime of government money to fund his declaration.

“As one of the many pro-Dickson support groups that took part in that declaration, I should inform all such rumour mongers that we spent our own resources to mobilize two thousand of our members to attend the event to express our solidarity with the governor. I know for a fact that similar support groups also contributed money to make their presence felt at the rally.

“Of course, we are aware that the APC governorship aspirant is behind the wild rumour because he is now jittery over the groundswell of support and popularity of the incumbent governor. It has nothing to do with government.

“Governor Dickson is not the kind of person who will spend state resources for himself. He is that strict and those who are peddling such propaganda are just being wicked and mischievous,” he stated.

The group called on Bayelsans to continue to support Dickson’s re-election, stating that “he is one man who means well for the state and cares about the prosperity of the people.”