Chidi Samuel|The embattled governor of oil-rich Bayelsa state, Seriake Dickson, on Tuesday said leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) went into an alliance with former President Goodluck Jonathan as cover to manipulate last Saturday’s governorship election in the state.
Dickson who spoke for the first time since his party lost the election to APC’s David Lyon at a press conference, described the former president’s alliance with the APC as regrettable.
According to him, the perception that he alienated PDP stakeholders, including the former president, was unfounded.
Dickson said, “Jonathan remains my oga and I respect him, but there are lots of efforts by certain interest to create a rift between us, there is no politician that has been there for the former president than me.”
“He has also helped me but it is unfortunate that I am being misconstrued in this matter of the election. I tried to meet Jonathan 16 times and he opted to support a candidate that does not wish me well.
“I will soon write my memoirs and people will have a fair view of what happened, the visit of some APC governors to Jonathan who congratulated the APC candidate without congratulating the candidate of his party.
“Our candidate, Sen. Douye Diri and the party chairman have been speaking about the charade called election that took place in Bayelsa on Saturday, and the invasion of our state by security forces,” he said.
“The dehumanisation of our people and how the majority of the areas and in places, where our people were denied the right to vote for the candidate of their choice.
“The story is all out there that what took place in the state on Nov. 16 was not a democratic election.
“So, today, I’m here to add my voice to all that has been said already, and it was so brazen, it has never been like this in this state before.
“I know that in 2015, we went through a very tough time, there was displayed of federal might, but at least, it was not as bad as this.”
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