A member, Board of Directors of Bayelsa Oil Company Limited, Chief Alex Ekiotenne, Tuesday resigned from Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration.
The elder statesman said he abandoned the government because Dickson had disappointed the people.
Ekiotenne in a press conference in Yenagoa told journalists that Dickson “derailed from the consultative approach to development programmes and transparency objectives of his government”.
He said the governor without consultations embarked on many projects in one fell swoop without considerations to prioritisation, strategic needs and funding prospects.
“The age-long adage that one finger cannot remove lice from the hair is very instructive. Thus, lack of strategic planning, prioritisation and a result-oriented advisory system gave productivity and sustained performance serious impairment.
“While productivity was expected to rise, there was a steady decline in productivity and good performance of government in almost all sectors which has inexorably led us to the present state of gloom,” he said.
He said successive governments in the state including Dickson’s administration, were carried away with the fat federal allocations and failed to develop the industrial, agricultural and commercial sectors of the economy to promote internally generated revenue (IGR).
“Bayelsans believe that if consultations and strategic planning including prioritisation had been sustained, we would not have found ourselves where we are today,” he said.
He said the sorry state of affairs in the state and the need to find a solution to “the quagmire” compelled elders and highly-placed stakeholders to form the Bayelsa People’s Consultative Assembly.
Ekiotenne, who is also the Spokesman of BPCA, said members of the group had identified the APC as the only platform in which the political destiny of the state could be pursued.
He added that the group was formed to address the political and social-economic issues in the state.
He said the group embarked on wide consultations with the leader of APC and former Governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, and the National Working Committee of the party led by Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
He said: “The NWC of APC gave its blessings to the holding of a grand rally for the demarcation of all prominent new members and their teeming supporters into the APC fold.
“The leader of the party in the state, Chief Timipre Sylva clearly reiterated his resolve to stay out of the governorship contest to create a level-playing field for the emergence of a credible and widely acceptable candidate of choice for the APC in the forthcoming election.
“It is a contentious issue. We visited Sylva as the leader of the party in the state. Nobody can take it from him. As a statesman he came in openly to say that he was not going to run. We take his word and that is where we stand.
“We will soon become members of APC formally. We are waiting for the consummation of the process of joining the APC. The PDP has suspended its leading figures in the state. So, the complete psyche of the PDP is broken down irretrievably.
“I am from Ekeremor and I am sure that if election is conducted in my local government area, APC will win 90 per cent of the votes. Almost all opinion leaders in the state are members of BPCA including some people in the government,” he said.
