Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday inaugurated a 10-member Peace and Reconciliation Committee to address grievances arising from the just-concluded primaries of the party for the state governorship election.
Inaugurating the Senator Inatimi Spiff-led committee in Government House, Yenagoa, the governor described disagreements and grievances as normal in any political contest.
Dickson in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, however, said the way and manner such grievances were managed was important for the PDP.
He said the PDP family under his watch always demonstrated maturity, love and resilience in handling their differences with a view to promoting the greater good of the party.
He harped on the need for all aggrieved aspirants and their followers to join hands with the PDP leadership to work for the success of the party in the November 16 gubernatorial polls.
Dickson, who expressed optimism over the victory of the party, assured those embittered by the outcome of the primaries that their interests could only be better protected in the PDP than elsewhere.
He noted that the people of Bayelsa would not make the mistake of ceding their state to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use its land for rural grazing.
He said: “Let me say that reconciliation and persuasion are the core of the political service; politics is about reconciling and managing conflicting interests,ambitions and perspectives and sometimes even reconciling clash of egos
“The way we are in this state, everyone knows that Bayelsa is PDP stronghold.
In the last National Assembly and state House of Assembly Elections, we displayed that again even with the presence of security forces and abuse of security and the collation process we won convincingly. So there is no doubt that this is a PDP stronghold.
“We have just come out of a hotly contested gubernatorial primaries and as it is in life, there are always people who will have one or two grievances about their government, the flag bearer and even about the running mate that he has on his own nominated, all of these are normal things, which we must deal with at this time.
“And because we know we want to keep every PDP leader, every aspirant and every supporter in the PDP family, we have set up this committee. That’s the only way we can remain strong and big and maintain our position as the foremost election-winning party in this part of our country.
“This is a committee of very respectable elders and leaders known across the state and even beyond who will undertake a special assignment at this very important period, the responsibility of reconciling and bringing to the fold those who have grievances including those who feel maybe they should try some other pastures which certainly we know are not greener.
“I am talking about those who entice people, we all know what happened 2015 in my re-election. By this time over 150 to 200 key leaders of our party decamped openly and I gave them the stadium and in broad day light, appointees were leaving everyday, saying lots of things but yet we defeated the APC even with their federal back up.
“We don’t want one single well-meaning PDP leader to leave to APC because this state has no room for APC to use it for RUGA. This land is completely PDP and so our leaders have been assembly to do what they have the experience in doing all this year promoting reconciliation and peace”.
Responding, the Chairman of the Bayelsa State PDP Peace and Reconciliation Committee, Senator Inatimi Spiff, thanked Dickson for counting members of the Committee worthy to carry out the reconciliation assignment.
Senator Spiff noted that although some party faithful were aggrieved including members of the Committee who worked for their favoured aspirants, the reconciliation process would help to strengthen and reposition the PDP for victory.
Senator Emmanuel Diffa is the Vice Chairman of the Committee while former Secretary to the State Government, Chief Gideon Ekeuwei is the Secretary.
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Other members are Solomon Aguanana, Chief George Okrinya, Chief Israel Igbori, Chief Million Asangba, Chief (Mrs) Apretari Ogugu, Chief Darius Obiene and Chief Bright Ereware-Igbeta.
