Ahead of the November gubernatorial race in Bayelsa State, youths in Yenagoa, under the aegis of Coalition of Epie/Atissa Youth, have called on prominent sons and daughters of Yenagoa to come and contest for the governorship position, saying it is time for a son of the soil to govern the state.
This call is coming ahead of the moves by political gladiators in the state to unseat the incumbent governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, who himself has began clandestine meetings with political stakeholders in order to consolidate.
At the end of an enlarged meeting held at the Sorrentina Hotel, Yenagoa at the weekend, the Epie/Attisa youths group headed by Egba Utovie, said though past governors have done their best, a Yenagoa man will do better for the people of Yenagoa and Bayelsa State at large.
The group therefore used the opportunity to call on prominent personalities like Senator Emmanuel Paulker, Prof. Steve Azaiki, Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Allison Madueke, Chief Diekivie Ikiogha, Barrister Godknows Powell, Chief Lambert Ototo and others who are from Yenagoa to come out and contest for the governorship come November.
They based their argument on the fact that no indigene of Yenagoa, where the state capital is located has produced the state governor since the creation of the state in 1996.
Already politicians in the state have begin preparation for what observers have said will be the mother of all election in the state, especially now that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has lost out at the center to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Meanwhile there are noticeable crack in the fold of the PDP in the state following the victory of the APC during the March 28 Presidential election as mass defection is set to hit the party in the state.
We gathered that the decision by prominent PDP members to move into the APC was informed by the new political profile of former Governor Timipre Sylva and the rising disenchantment by members of the PDP over the disciplinary stance of Dickson over alleged anti-party activities.
It was gathered that the early defection and regrouping by loyalists of Sylva was based on the battle to unseat the PDP in Bayelsa during the gubernatorial election in 2015.
While most of Sylva’s former aides are considering ways to seek forgiveness from their former boss over alleged political betrayal after his removal as governor, others are seeking defection to the APC as part of an alleged plot against the second term bid of Dickson.
