Bayelsa Governorship Race: Group Drums Support For Reuben Okoya

From Amos Odeh,Yenagoa
As the race for Governorship election in Bayelsa state draws near, a group under the aegis of Bayelsa Democracy and Development Initiative (BDDI) has called on Architect Reuben Okoya, a former commissioner in the state to come out and intensify his campaigns for the governorship seat.
The group said the call is as a result of their field survey, research and the firm conviction that Okoya has the requisite character, wisdom, competence and exposure to pilot the affairs of the state, urging all well-meaning individual and groups to provide every necessary incentives and motivation to achieve the vision.
“Having looked at the players for the December 2015 elections in the state, the BDDI believes that only a tested and experienced technocrats/ administrator with a track record of service, talent, skill, integrity and courage can rescue the people from the current dangerous drift, knowing fully well the resolve by the people to reject typical politicians”.
In a statement issued yesterday in Yenagoa, the Executive Secretary of the group, Dr. Ekiyor Konrad-Welson who has been on the campaign with his group for a better governance in the state, lamented that the dividends of democracy were lacking under the administration of Governor Seriake Dickson.
According to him, “we have reviewed the state of governance in Bayelsa state and concluded that beyond the lopsided and late payment of salaries and wages in the state and the periodic uncoordinated award of contracts in the state, the government of Seriake Dickson has not fulfilled the mandate given to him in 2012 to govern Bayelsa state.
“The group notes that till date, the provision of very essential social amenities and services in the state is still a mirage, while Yenagoa, the state capital remains an urban slum, a situation caused by the lack of a comprehensive development blueprint. The main purpose of government is to serve the people through the instrumentality of law, but the current regime in the state has failed woefully on all counts and the evidence is clear”.
He lamented that spite of the fraudulent claim of attracting international investments through the establishment of investment offices in London and South Africa, there is no single presence of any industry since the advent of the administration.