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.
Read Also; Bayelsa guber: APC not
ready for election, says Dickson
“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.
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.

Source:- Thenationonlineng