Gov. Dickson's 2 ex-aides decamp to APC.

Two ex-aides of Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson have defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress in the state. The defection took place on Saturday when the APC candidate in the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, took his campaign tour to the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area ahead of the December 5 governorship poll. The new defectors are Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Furoebi Akene, who resigned his appointment penultimate week, and Dickson’s Special Representative to Southern Ijaw, Apreala Pereladei. The two, who said they had defected to the APC with their supporters, insisted that the APC represented the needed change that would accelerate the socio-economic and political development of the state.

The Southern Ijaw, home to Dickson’s strong allies such as his Chief of Staff, Government House, Talford Ongol; late former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha; and Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Konbowei Benson, is believed to be a major battle ground for Dickson and Sylva in the December poll. Of the total 663,639 number of registered voters released on November 5, 2015 by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the election, Southern Ijaw has 120,827 voters, second only to the Yenagoa Local Government, which has 139,777 voters. Among the major towns in the Southern Ijaw area, where Sylva campaigned on Saturday, were Otuan, Amassoma, Koluama, Foropa and Oporoma, headquarters of the council.

Addressing supporters after the defectors were welcomed into the APC by the party’s Chairman, Chief Tiwei Orunimighe, Sylva assured them that the party had come to change their lives from poverty to wealth. He urged them to embrace the APC if they wanted development and progress. He said that the Southern Ijaw was a strong stakeholder in APC because his running mate, Wilberforce Igiri, and the state chairman of the party, Tiwei Orunimighe, were indigenes of the area. Sylva said, “Oporoma people, Southern Ijaw people, if you want development and progress, it is APC. The opposition party is dead. We have buried it in Abuja. We will also bury it in Bayelsa. “On December 5, vote for me and my deputy. After victory, we will sit down and look at how to bring peace to Bayelsa, companies will come, and there will be jobs and enjoyment.