By Amos Odeh
The member of the Federal House of Representative representing Sagbama\Ekeremor Federal Constituency of Bayelsa State, Hon. Fred Agbedi has described as a ‘fairy tale’, the decision by the State Governor, Seriake Dickson to present three persons as his preferred aspirants for the governorship ticket of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
Dickson had a fortnight ago presented three governorship aspirants, Senator Douye Diri, the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Kemele Okara and the Chief of Staff, Thalford Ongolo as his preferred aspirants and successor come 2020.
But Agbedi, who also served as two-time Director-General of the Governor Seriake Dickson campaign organisation and a Governorship aspirant of the PDP, said the presentation of preferred aspirants by the governor on the platform of the Restoration Caucus was an error and not a collective decision by all members of the present restoration administration in the state.
Agbedi, who led members of his Onward Restoration and Transformation Campaign Organisation yesterday to the Secretariat of the Federated Correspondents’ chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists(NUJ) in Yenagoa, said the nomination of the preferred governorship aspirants was a fairy tale and that it was done without a meeting among members of the Restoration Team.
According to Agbedi, “there was no restoration meeting to decide the issue of preferred aspirants. After Dickson in the Restoration, I am the next person. And any meeting I don’t attend,as a key anchor of restoration, did not hold. That is what it meant. I am sure that the issue of preferred aspirants at the purported meeting is a fairy tale.”
“Because if there is a restoration meeting and I was called and I sent apology. It means there was a meeting. But if I was not invited, there was no such restoration meeting. I can tell you on good authority. That was why we named our campaign team as Onward Restoration Organisation. This is Restoration itself. Go and check all others who claimed to be restoration members. Go and check their slogans. You will not find anything restoration.
“I beat my chest to say it you cannot become governor when you have abandoned restoration. Is that the way to go? We can continue to rescue, sustain and transform. That is the way to go. Onward are those things we have not completely restored. We will continue to restore them. Sustain them and transform them. Because without transformation, we cannot be remodeling. There is no newness. That is why we are Onward Restoration Campaign Organisation,” he said.
