QUESTION:<\/p>\n
What is being done to address the upsurge in criminality particularly
\nkidnapping and armed robbery?<\/p>\n
Governor Dickson:<\/p>\n
Let me say that we sounded the alarm some months back about the upsurge in
\nviolent criminal activities in our state. And there is a correlation
\nbetween the rise in the political tempo because of\u00a0 the Governorship
\nelection and the upsurge in criminal behavior in our state.<\/p>\n
Everyone knows what we have been able to achieve in the area of law and
\norder. This is not just me or government or security agencies observing
\nbut it is an account that everybody who is a Bayelsan will tell you . The
\nmoment the presidential elections were concluded and the other party
\nbecame victorious, elements who are on the other side developed
\ngovernorship ambitions and that immediately impacted on the security and
\nlaw and order of the state.<\/p>\n
The conduct of their primaries was characterized by violence. Once there
\nis a lapse in enforcement of law and order and once people take the law
\nfor granted, people hide under the garb of politics to procure arms and
\nammunition as part of their election preparations.<\/p>\n
The mayhem in Brass, southern Ijaw and Ekeremor and all of\u00a0 that was a
\nbuild up in arms. And what has worsened it in Bayelsa State and in this
\ncountry is that up till now\u00a0 that those who killed and maimed in Brass
\nand even destroyed other people\u2019s houses have not\u00a0 been arrested,
\ninterrogated or charged to court.<\/p>\n
Those who killed and maimed in Southern Ijaw are still going about freely
\nand are even protected by the agents of state. That is the situation of
\nthings that we have come to see in the past couple of months and that of
\ncourse has a direct bearing on criminal conduct because if crime is not
\npunished, then the law loses its deterrence and\u00a0 society gradually
\ndeteriorates to a situation where life becomes short, nasty and brutish.
\nI hope that we do not get there. Governors are called chief security
\nofficers, but that is only a name. The gentlemen who\u00a0 control the federal
\nlevers of power for now have created a notion which they can disprove, but
\na notion which is fast gaining currency in Bayelsa that if you are APC,
\nyou can kill and maim and procure prohibited weaponry and destroy people’s
\nhouses and the state agencies will be powerless. In other words being a
\nmember of APC confers immunity in Bayelsa. That is the situation we have.
\nBayelsans have to manage and live through it. We have managed it for the
\npast few months and I believe that after the January supplementary
\nelections,\u00a0 the majesty and supremacy and authority of the law once again
\nwill be brought to bear on conduct of criminals in the state.<\/p>\n
I expect the civil law enforcement agencies to do more. I have raised a
\nfew things about the conduct of some officers of the military and I am
\nhappy to report to people of this state that those issues are being
\nattended to, but the civil law enforcement arms, the police, the
\ndepartment of state security, need to know that they cannot be an arm of
\nthe APC or any other political party. We expect them to take steps to
\nensure that people who have violated the law in this brazen manner,with
\nimpunity are brought to book. I am aware of some arrests and prosecution
\nthat have started but the people of this state would want them to do
\nmore.<\/p>\n
In the area of kidnapping,\u00a0 you know that\u00a0 even my own younger sibling is
\none of the most current victims. I appreciate all the concern that has
\nbeen shown but let me make it clear that as Governor of this state, every
\nkidnap case affects me the same way. Every kidnap is condemnable and must
\nbe treated purely as a crime that it is and we all must work together,
\nget information speedily to the security agencies and collaborate so that
\nwe can flush these criminal out. You are aware my commissioner is also
\none of the latest victims. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and
\ntheir families but for now we are treating these as crimes in their own
\nright and for us to take caution that there should be no finger pointing.
\nA crime has occurred, these are criminals but we do not want any finger
\npointing. At this point investigation has commenced, people should
\ncooperate with the law enforcement agencies handling these matters.<\/p>\n
Apart from the kidnapping and the induced political violence, our state
\nis generally peaceful. Those who will come out to vote on the 9th of
\nJanuary\u00a0 should not forget to vote for security and continue to reject
\nand say ‘tufiakwa’to all those whose politics is about killing and
\nmaiming and cultism and arming people to kill and shoot other people and
\ndestroy their homes. Our state cannot grow in the hands of such
\ncharacters. The first condition for development is law and order, and
\nthat is why for me no criminal can hide under any partisan color. If
\nthere is any criminal that is in support of PDP, please security men
\napprehend and take appropriate law enforcement actions. I do not condone
\ncrime and criminality in my politics, everybody knows that.\u00a0 And unlike
\nthose whose politics is about blood and destruction, I am in politics to
\nbuild, protect lives and properties and not destroy. So Bayelsans, on the
\n9th of\u00a0 January, 2016, those who are yet to vote in southern Ijaw and
\nother units should reject the APC and Slyva for trying to plunge our
\nstate to criminality.\u00a0 I do not need anybody to kill anyone because of my
\nelections, I have never bought any weapons for any body and I will not. I
\nhave never encouraged anybody to be armed in course of supporting me.
\nThat is the type of leadership we need in this state. Not a cultist, a
\ncriminal, a guy who doesn’t know the distinction between criminality and
\nproper conduct and instead of spending money talking to people you spend
\nmoney to buy weapons and on election day they go and ambush people and
\nhigh jack those materials and run away with them and you claim to
\neverybody that you have votes, scores that nobody voted. What a shame
\nthey are turning our state to be.<\/p>\n
My dear people of the state, be calm, go about your normal businesses,
\nthese things will be attended to. It is unfortunate that they have
\nhappened and a scenario has arisen that the agencies that have statutory
\nresponsibility appeared to be not very proactive but all of this will
\nchange. what I can promise is that at the security council meeting that
\nwas held, we reviewed our strategies and some of you may have started
\nseeing some security presence more. Bear with us if you are stopped and
\nsearched and asked questions because those are steps we have taken so
\nthat we can be on top of the game but ultimately all of you have a duty
\nto ensure\u00a0 that we protect lives and property, and do not forget to vote
\nout those who feel that if you disagree with them in politics, you should
\nbe killed. Reject them, reject violence.<\/p>\n
QUESTION:<\/p>\n
In the face of dwindling and delayed allocation, how has the Bayelsa
\nstate government under your leadership coped with the payment of salaries
\nof workers and pensioners especially in this season of Christmas?<\/p>\n
GOVERNOR DICKSON:<\/p>\n
This is a very serious issue and I have not hidden the truth from
\nBayelsans.\u00a0 We also know what is happening at the national level and this
\nis even not peculiar to Nigeria. It is a situation faced by all economies
\nthat are dependent on oil revenues because the oil price has dropped to
\nas low as $34-35 per barrel as against when it was selling for 120 or
\nmore dollars per barrel. And it is still going down. That should tell
\neveryone that the national economy and therefore the economy of this
\nstate is in very grave danger and I have been sounding this alarm but
\nbecause of the prudent way we have been managing and\u00a0 the sacrifices the
\nsituation here is not as dire as in most other places. Most people
\nespecially workers and pensioners are taking theif entitlements for
\ngranted but they\u00a0 should please also bear with us to understand the
\nnational context under which some of these things are happening.\u00a0 Our
\ntotal wage bill alone ie without any other expenditure of government\u00a0 is
\nabout N4.6b. every month and for the past three months consistently, what
\nwe have been getting is about 3 to 4 billion. You can imagine the
\nproblem.<\/p>\n
The gentleman when he was governor, you know the debt he left behind
\nwhich we are still servicing. So it has been very difficult. Most of them
\ndo not even know that for the past 3-5 months, my own office has not had
\nany expenditure for running cost. We know how we manage and same goes for
\nother offices . We manage to pay the salary obligation of workers and
\nlast month I know that what we received could not go round after paying
\nstanding obligations so some workers could not receive their salary and
\nnow this month we thought they will share the excess to support
\ngovernment expenditure at this festive period. As you know for the past 3
\nyears we have been paying salaries before people go for Christmas. We
\neven pay bonuses.\u00a0 I have been doing that for the past over 3 years . I
\npay Christmas bonus for every civil servant in the state running into
\nover a billion\u00a0 naira now. But this year, they just finished the FAAC
\nmeeting this morning, FAAC was delayed for this month, and today is 23rd.
\nWhen they concluded and I got the figures, they are\u00a0 even worse than last
\nmonth, meaning that we are not in the position\u00a0 to do all the things we
\nwould have loved to do for the people, particularly at a time that I have
\nenjoyed this overwhelming support\u00a0 in winning elections convincingly
\ndespite\u00a0 all the odds and the violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n
Right now as I speak, we have not got our remittances from FAAC. And to QUESTION:<\/p>\n The electoral umpire, INEC has scheduled the re-run elections for GOVERNOR DICKSON:<\/p>\n My reaction has been in the public domain. First, I and my party should That supplementary election became necessary because as attested to by That’s the type of criminal activity that the\u00a0 APC candidate and some of What they don’t know is that the conduct of elections has become more What makes an election is the votes and not Forms EC8A and EC8B. So, the He is not banking on the votes of people but on terrorizing and killing QUESTION:<\/p>\n You were at the recent meeting in Abuja with INEC and other parties. QUESTION:<\/p>\n At the INEC interactive session a lot of issues were raised. One\u00a0 is that So, it’s not going to be\u00a0 bringing together of all electoral materials at The security forces are better prepared now, as they know the terrain Very clearly we have no problem with institutions but with the conduct of I know he is going around writing names of people that will go out to And in any case for all practical purposes this election is already over. No leader should show this level of desperation for power. And in any So if he couldn’t defeat me in a fair election in Brass and Nembe, is it He should campaign on issues and let the people vote as I am doing The security agencies will not allow lapses any more. I have received He shouldn’t destroy the directorate of State Security , the Police, the Yenagoa has the largest registered voters of about 138,000. In Yenagoa QUESTION:<\/p>\n What are your plans for your next term in office to ensure that civil GOV. DICKSON:<\/p>\n I am telling them to get ready so that we can partner and work together to QUESTION: What is being done to address the upsurge in criminality particularly kidnapping and armed robbery? Governor Dickson: Let me say that we sounded the alarm some months back about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive","category-interviews"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nworsen matters, tge federal government has\u00a0 declared tomorrow<\/span><\/span> and Monday<\/span><\/span>
\na public holiday. That is the fix we are in now, but I have been talking
\nto our bankers and begging them to see what they can do, I have told them
\nnobody in treasury should close, let them pay to as many people as they
\ncan now because it is not conceivable for workers and pensioners who are
\nold people to have a bleak Christmas\u00a0 without having anything in their
\nhomes. I feel very bad. It is not peculiar to Bayelsa but applies to all
\nother states which are dependent on the federal government. That is why
\nwe in Bayelsa need to be less dependent on government. Now you are seeing
\nthat the oil is almost selling for nothing. So government does not have
\nmoney to fund people’s life styles. Government does not have money for
\npeople to\u00a0 have free money as it used to be in Bayelsa\u00a0 which if you did
\nnot do made you\u00a0 a bad man. This free money has already dried up, it is
\nnot feasible. Now when we are spending N4.6b and we are getting just
\nabout N3b, how do we generate money to make up for the balance? That is
\nthe challenge we all have in Bayelsa.That is what we will do and engage
\nall strata of our society to see how we can reposition our state to
\nprepare for the challenges ahead. But right now, I have directed the
\nfinance team not to rest or go anywhere. The banks too are working with
\nthem and for the first time I have spoken with the MD’s to see how they
\ncan raise some funds to support us. But if with all our best efforts you
\ndo not get anything or all\u00a0 your due,it won’t be\u00a0 because we have not
\ntried our best. FAAC just ended this morning, usually FAAC should have
\nbeen done early last week and by last week, allocation from FAAC should
\nhave gone to the states because Christmas month, payment of salaries
\nusually commences say 17th or 18th so that people can prepare but
\nunfortunately the federal government I think were sourcing for funds
\nbecause the federal Government itself has no money.\u00a0 So those who are
\nrunning to Federal Government thinking that they will ‘chop money yanfu
\nyanfu ‘ will be completely disappointed . Already those who thought that
\nthe NDDC was there for them and they were promising all\u00a0 sorts for people
\nin Bayelsa have received their first shocker and the good news is that
\nmore shocking news is awaiting them from the APC led federal government.
\nHere too the\u00a0 situation is challenging but we are working hard. Nobody in
\nGovernment House got any salary, nobody has anything but we are trying to
\nsee what little we can make available for our people so any small thing
\nyou see this Christmas, please my dear people, appreciate it. If you
\ncannot get your allowances before the public holidays, you will have it
\nat the next working day, but just know your government is not resting.<\/p>\n
\nSouthern Ijaw and a few other local governments to hold on the 9th of
\nJanuary. What is the outlook on\u00a0 that?<\/p>\n
\nhave been declared as winner because I won six out of the seven local
\nGovernments but INEC said because of the registered voters that had not
\nyet cast their votes and in order for them to play safe there was need to
\nconduct the supplementary election.<\/p>\n
\nlocal observers as well as international observers some\u00a0 people just stole
\nelectoral materials, kidnapped electoral officers and just wrote results
\nthe way they liked it which in itself is a criminal act. It’s like
\nbreaking into INEC’s strong room and stealing all the electoral materials,
\nforms EC8A and EC8B, kidnap electoral officers and force them to sign, put
\nthe forms in the pocket and go to every office in Abuja, telling them that
\nyou have the result of the election and that you have won the election.<\/p>\n
\nhis supporters indulged in.\u00a0 That’s the kind of nonsense and impunity that
\nplayed out on that day.<\/p>\n
\nsophisticated. Now, It is PVC and whereby votes are recorded
\nelectronically. So anybody who is serious about winning election should
\nnot be going after just pieces of paper but getting to convince the
\nelectorate to vote for your candidate. That is what was missing and INEC
\ndid the correct thing by canceling the election in Southern Ijaw.<\/p>\n
\nnext election I hope will be better. My reaction is that INEC did what is
\nright as any other decision would have questioned the credibility and
\nintegrity of INEC itself. We are getting ready for the supplementary
\npolls and in Southern Ijaw, in\u00a0 community after community I will defeat
\nTimipre Sylva fair and square. He will be thoroughly humiliated.<\/p>\n
\npeople and all those who are his accomplices will be brought to book at
\nthe end of this exercise because nobody can subject our state to this
\nlevel of bad press and anguish and go free.<\/p>\n
\nGiven the incidents of violence and destruction that happened on\u00a0 Dec 5
\nand 6, are you sure there won’t be a repeat of such cruel incidents at
\nthe supplementary election slated to hold January 9th<\/span><\/span>?<\/p>\n
\nthe military ought to be at the outer cordon and not to be at the
\nimmediate vicinity of the election and not be in possession of any
\nsensitive electoral material. That point has been clearly made. The point
\nhas also been made about the movement of voting materials straight to the
\nvoting areas.<\/p>\n
\nOporoma in one place where people can go in and pounce on them to steal
\nthem.<\/p>\n
\nbetter and in any case the theatre of action has reduced. It’s no longer
\nthe whole State, it’s Southern Ijaw Local Government Area with 17 wards.
\nI believe that the security agencies have the personnel,particularly the
\npolice, Civil Defence, the DSS. The military, because of our terrain
\nwill still have the responsibility of providing security cover at the
\nouter cordon.<\/p>\n
\nsome officials and those problems are being attended to. We will work with
\nthem and create enabling environment for our people to vote. Bayelsa
\npeople are resilient people, not people that can be intimidated by anybody
\nbecause what the APC is banking on is to intimidate our people.<\/p>\n
\nintimidate people which is nonsense because if you want people to vote
\nhim, he should talk to people, engage them and convince them. I have
\npeople I’m also engaging even though I have overwhelming majority. Is it
\nby force to become a governor? It is not by force. You can’t start
\nkilling and maiming everybody because you want to become a governor or go
\nto Abuja and tell your party people to come and kill your brothers and
\nsisters and burn down houses because you want to be governor.<\/p>\n
\nThis election is already won by us comfortably and lost by the APC and as
\nI said in my last interview on AIT, this election is a\u00a0 PVC-based
\nelection. If you are misled to carry a gun and bring result to INEC, it
\nwill only be cancelled which is what Timipre Sylva did planning with
\nsecurity agencies and making our people to vote at night. I could not
\nhave wasted my time to do that, which is why I campaigned the way I did.
\nHow is he going to look at people whose houses were burnt down in Brass
\nand people who were killed?<\/p>\n
\ncase he is a leader we already know. Even if we go into election a
\nhundred times in Southern Ijaw , I will defeat him.\u00a0 They had to
\nmanipulate figures to get unrealistic number. Even in his own place Brass
\nI defeated him and the records are there. I won in Brass, won in Akasa,
\nwon Egweama, won in Odioma. They only won in places where they\u00a0 assaulted
\npeople in\u00a0 Twon Island. Twon, Okoma and Iwouma and they falsified the
\nresult. Even in Brass I won more wards than him. It is 6 over 7. In
\nBrass,\u00a0 in Nembe I defeated him.<\/p>\n
\nin Southern Ijaw that he would defeat me?He is only amassing weapons to
\nintimidate the people using some misguided elements as it were and
\nclaiming that they have federal government cover to do terrible things.
\nThey will regret it because\u00a0 even in community after community where
\nmaterials got to at night, the people waited to vote for me and they are
\nangry now and the turn out will be even more to vote for me. Timipre
\nSylva is not going be able to hijack materials again, so anybody he is
\ntrying to use should think twice. That will not happen again. The
\nsecurity agencies will not let that happen, INEC will not let that
\nhappen, the communities will not let that happen. I and my party will not
\nlet that happen. Why is he afraid of voting and is rather terrorizing
\npeople and abusing national security officials for his own selfish
\nagenda?<\/p>\n
\ninstead of cutting corners. We should all abide by INEC’s rules.\u00a0 Let the
\nmaterials get to the communities and let them vote. But he wants to
\nimpose himself on the people by fire by force and by fire by force we
\nwill resist him. At Amassoma women and youths stood up to block armoured
\ntankers, Communities stood up and they are going to stand up more.<\/p>\n
\nassurances to that effect. Southern Ijaw has registered voters of 120,000
\nbut only 109,000 collected their PVC’s. And in the results that we have
\nhad no local government had voter turnout of more than 40 percent. It is
\neither 30 percent or 50percent, which should be about 50,000 to 55,000.
\nAnd clearly I will have majority of these votes, so this election has
\nbeen won and lost. The APC has lost this election. The APC leader should
\ntell that man not to destroy even the APC.<\/p>\n
\nmilitary,. These are military institutions bigger than anybody. These are
\national Institutions. Where was he when we won Yenagoa, Ogbia, Kolga
\nNembe? He lost Ekeremor. lost Sagbama and wants to put young people in
\nsouthern Ijaw in danger,\u00a0 to kill people for him in an election\u00a0 he knows
\nhe will never win.<\/p>\n
\nwhich has the highest literacy rate with highest density, only about
\n50,000 voted. Which is just about 40 or 30%. INEC already knows the voter
\nturn out, international and local observers know it, we all know it,
\nsecurity agencies know it. And he is suddenly thinking that he will get
\nsome misguided young men living in the past who do not know that these
\nthings are monitored electronically and they go after ordinary paper.
\nThat is the kind of election he is bragging about, telling people he had
\n70,000 votes. It is only in Nigeria that this kind of thing will happen,
\nIf it was in other places he would have been arrested and be facing
\ntrial. And I hope that this country will also get to this level.
\nBayelsans should beware, especially those in southern Ijaw. Do not allow
\nyourself to be used, this election is already won by us and lost by APC.<\/p>\n
\nservants execute your plans, your aspirations and your dreams to ensure
\nthat the Bayelsa of your dream becomes a reality?<\/p>\n
\nbuild a better Bayelsa, not a Bayelsa of needless rumor and acrimony but a
\nBayelsa where people show understanding. For example in the year 2016, the
\neconomic outlook is not very bright at a national level so these are
\nissues we all must bear in mind, that people must come to terms with. Do
\nnot allow the politicians and other detractors to use you.\u00a0 Civil servants
\nare so important, we will do more about training and welfare and I will
\nmeet with them more regularly this second term but they need to show more
\nunderstanding as we move forward. Bayelsa is committed to welfare and
\nminimum wage. I do not believe in reducing minimum wage at all, I am
\nrather even in support of enhancing it where possible.\u00a0 Finally,good
\npeople of Bayelsa, it is a great privilege and honor to have an
\nopportunity to be of service to you. You have already decided for the most
\npart. The elections are over, having won in 6 out of 7 local government
\nareas declared.\u00a0 Even in\u00a0 the last one which was Brass , we won more wards
\nthan the son of the soil and that tells you a lot particularly what will
\nhappen in southern Ijaw. We defeated them in Nembe.\u00a0 That tells a lot
\nabout all the units where election will be conducted and even in southern
\nIjaw. You in southern Ijaw cannot know Timipre Slyva more than those in
\nBrass and Nembe local government areas. . It is our belief that year 2016
\nwill be a prosperous and triumphant and victorious year for all of us as
\nwe assume duty for a second term. By your grace and the grace of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"