The Punch reports that the Director-General, Bayelsa State Restoration Campaign Organisation of Governor Seriake Dickson, Mr. Fred Agbedi, has said the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Timipre Sylva, is not electable. Agbedi, who spoke during an interview on Saturday in Yenagoa, alleged that Sylva had been rejected by the people of Bayelsa. Agbedi, who was a one-time state Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party and a current member of the House of Representatives, said the acceptability of Dickson was genuine.
This was just as the Silva-Igiri Campaign Organisation lashed out at the governor over his recent endorsements for second term in office by some groups and traditional rulers in the state. The Sylva’s team said Dickson was giving the impression of being popular when he knew full well that his popularity had plummeted. The campaign organisation described the purported endorsements as vanity and a charade, saying the endorsements would not take him anywhere.
But Agbedi, who spoke on the return of some APC members to the PDP, stated that they (returnees) did the right thing. He said:
“The action they took is the best. The APC candidate has been rejected in Bayelsa in the full glare of every Bayelsa person. The APC candidate, Timipre Sylva, has been rejected by the people of Bayelsa.
Reacting to Dickson’s endorsements for a second term in office by some groups and traditional rulers in the state, the Director of Media and Publicity, SICO, Chief Nathan Egba, said Dickson was deceiving himself. Egba said the repeated rounds of endorsements of Dickson were all desperate attempts to create a sense of acceptability among the people of the state. He stated:
“Before the presidential election, there was a spate of endorsements. Every group, House of Assembly, local government chairmen and traditional rulers that endorsed former President Goodluck Jonathan also endorsed Dickson. And now, there is another round of endorsements.
“The simple question now is: have those earlier endorsements expired? And if those have expired, what is the life span of these new ones? Are they not going to expire before the December 5 governorship election?
“You can see that these endorsements are an exercise in futility. And as you know, vanity upon vanity is vanity. He is engaged in vanity. It is a charade. Dickson is trying to create an impression of a popularity which he lacks. Dickson’s popularity has plummeted and he knows it.”