Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has been accused of
\nsponsoring protests against the Bayelsa State Government over the state’s
\ndecision to allot the Bayelsa Palm for herdsmen operating there.<\/p>\n
A group, the Ijaw Patriots, in a statement in Yenagoa, the state capital,
\nmaintained that the ex-First Lady\u00a0 was behind Ms Ankio Briggs’ rally in
\nBayelsa last week.<\/p>\n
The Ijaw group stated that the decision of the ex-President\u2019s wife to
\nsupport a protest that might lead to the breakdown of law and order was
\nnot only insensitive, but done in bad faith.<\/p>\n
Executive Secretary of the Ijaw Patriot, David Lawson, who signed the
\nrelease on behalf of the group, said the action of the former First Lady
\nwas condemnable and must be resisted by all well meaning Ijaw sons and
\ndaughter.<\/p>\n
According to the organisation, Mrs Jonathan’s sponsorship of\u00a0 Briggs was
\nhinged on her selfish interest to avoid paying taxes to the government on
\nher own herds, herself, being an owner of over 500 cattle in the state.<\/p>\n
It noted that restricting the movement of the cows to the area provided
\nwas not only a strategy against any unforeseen clashes between herdsmen
\nand farmers, but would also help boost the Internally Generated Revenue of
\nthe state.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe owns 500 Cattles and the protest was to ensure she does not pay tax
\nper head of cattle as part of government’s decision to restrict herdsmen
\nand their cattle to the Bayelsa Palm Area for grazing\u201d, the IP said.
\nThe group described the act as irresponsible and unwarranted and warned
\nthe former First Lady to steer clear of Bayelsa State in the interest of
\npeace and public sanity.<\/p>\n
The socio-political organisation also condemned attempts by Ms Briggs to
\nlead the protest \u201cafter collecting huge sums of money from Dame Patience
\nJonathan to incite citizens in a protest against the Bayelsa State
\nGovernment\u201d<\/p>\n
It called on all true Ijaw sons and daughters to resist any attempt to set
\nthem against each other, noting that it would not augur well for the badly
\nneeded cohesion required to advance the progress of the Ijaw people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call on all Ijaw sons and daughters to join forces with government to
\nkeep the peace in the state rather than allow some people use their own
\nselfish interest to destroy the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cConfining the Fulani herdsmen to Bayelsa Palm was aimed at pre-empting
\nany security breach such as is happening in other parts of the country\u201d,
\nthe group posited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, has been accused of sponsoring protests against the Bayelsa State Government over the state’s decision to allot the Bayelsa Palm for herdsmen operating…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n