Exodus as hit both the Bayelsa State Government and the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the November 16, 2019 governorship election in the state.

The latest to dump the party is a former Deputy Governor in the state, Ebebi Peremobowei.

Ebebi, also a former Speaker, sent his resignation letter dated October 11 to the party’s Chairman in Ward 3 Alaebiri, Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state.

Ebebi’s abandonment of the PDP was described by party stakeholders as a big blow to the party especially as it came at a time he was appointed and listed as a PDP Coordinator West in the party’s campaign council.

Besides, it was gathered that Governor Seriake Dickson, was recently in a warm embrace with Ebebi, who assured him that his initial rumored defection was a fluke.

However, Ebebi in the letter, said he decided to leave the party after experiencing and enduring enduring an excruciating period of a largely fraudulent internal democracy in the state chapter of the PDP.

He said: “I have come to this hard decision after experiencing an enduring and excruciating period of a largely fraudulent internal democracy in the state chapter of the PDP, disregard and disrespect for due process as entrenched in the PDP constitution and electoral guidelines, high-handedness and desperation of the party’s leadership.

“The fact that my membership of the party is ending does not diminish the great political experience I have enjoyed. It has been absolutely outstanding.

“I am thankful for the opportunity the Larry gave me to serve the state in various capacities especially as a two-time Speaker of the State House of Assembly and two-time Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, which offered me outstanding political career development and enabled me gained irreplaceable experience in politics”.

Also other appointees of the Seriake Dickson-led Bayelsa State Government, have left their jobs in the ongoing realignments ahead of the election in the state.

The Director, Ethics and Compliance, Due Process Bureau, Benjamin Ogbara and Dickson’s Special Adviser on Culture, Chief Natus Zebakame, tendered their resignation letters on Thursday.

Others are Special Adviser on Agriculture, Godspower Ake; serving Commissioner 1 in the Bayelsa State Local Government Service Commission, Berry Negerese; the Special Assistant on Student Affairs, Iniruo Ipogi and Special Adviser on ICT Development, Clever Ebede among others.

Zebakame in his letter thanked the governor for giving him the privilege to serve the government and the people of the state.

He said: “This is, therefore, a formal notification to the government and the people of Bayelsa State as the decision to resign my appointment is entirely personal”.

Ogbara on his part said he took the decision to resign to enable him go back to his private legal practice.

He also thanked the governor, who found him worthy of the appointment and expressed his best wishes to the people of the state.

But the PDP in a statement by its State Chairman, Chief Moses Cleopas, said that the party would win the forthcoming gubernatorial election with or without those defecting to the All Progressives Congress.

He said the Bayelsa people and followers were not with the defectors who according to him, lack the requisite character, principle and integrity.

Cleopas alleged that the defecting politicians were motivated by greed and the inordinate quest for political positions being dangled to them by the APC.

He said that the PDP won the election convincingly in 2015 in spite of the spate of defections and would repeat the feat in the next election without such unstable characters.

The PDP Chairman said he was reacting to a wild frivolous claim by Ebebi, that he was defecting from the party because of high handedness and fraudulent primaries conducted by the leadership of PDP.

He said that the difference between the party leadership and the defecting politicians was the lack of capacity to resist the temptation of suspicious political offers and even threats.

He recalled that the government regularised Ebebi’s position as a former Deputy Governor and approved a monthly pension of N2.5 million, for him, which he has been collecting since 2012 till date in addition to other forms of material and financial support.

He added that Dickson also appointed Ebebi, as the Bayelsa State Representative for the Niger Delta Development Commission in 2014.

He said that it was rather shocking that Ebebi, whose nominee was still a serving Commissioner, could come out to launch a scathing attack on the government and the party to justify his defection to the APC because of greed and inordinate quest for political offices.

According to the party Chairman, Ebebi was among the first leaders of the party to make a strong case for Senator Douye Diri, later discovered to be his cousin, as the best of the aspirants of the PDP to support in the primaries.

He said that that it was even more shocking that Ebebi who had received and endorsed Diri and his team when they visited him in his Yenagoa residence opted to accept the position of the Director General of the Chief Timi Alaibe campaign organisation two days after.

He said that same Ebebi attended the flag off campaign rally of the PDP at the Oxbow Lake, on October 7, 2019, where he spoke in support of the PDP and its candidate.

•Adapted from a report by The Nation.

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