Date Published: 08/22/11

Group faults Bayelsa Speaker on Sagbama Council Crisis

Timipre Sylva

The Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Nestor K. Binabo has been faulted for the on-going staff crisis in Sagbama local government council area of Bayelsa State.

This was the position taken by the Sagbama Restoration Agenda (SRA) at the end of an emergency meeting held in Yenagoa recently to review the worrisome situation in the local government.

Addressing newsmen shortly after the meeting, Chief Douye Dick, the protem chairman of the SRA, said the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly was to blame for the show of shame in the Sagbama council.

Douye said, "All the problems in that council are caused by the Speaker, Mr. Nestor Binabo, who is encouraging the chairman of Sagbama LGA to sack 504 workers. We have it on good authority that Peres Peretu has given the Speaker 50 employment chances after retrenching the 504 staff."

Douye noted that it was for this reason, Mr. Nestor Binabo has refused to call Peres Peretu to order. He disclosed that the Speaker also gets as much as N5million from the Sagbama LGA monthly allocation as settlement from Peres Peretu.

On the committee set up by the Bayelsa State Government to look into the crisis, the SRA chairman observed that it was a right step in the right direction, but insisted that justice must be done to justify the action of government.

He expressed satisfaction with the composition of the committee and noted that the Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Werinipre Seibarugu deserved commendation for the mature manner he had been generally handling the Sagbama local government staff crisis.

Also speaking, the public relations officer of the group, Mr. Elijah Okubotin, observed that only a bad leader would support what Peres Peretu was doing in Sagbama and recalled how a single suicide case led to the unrest in the Arab world. The image-maker of the SRA promised that soon, they would take legal action against Peres Peretu for "criminally stealing the mandate of the people of Sagbama LGA" who never voted him into power.