INTERVIEW
Ahead of the January 9 supplementary election in Bayelsa State, Governor Seriake Dickson in this interview with newsmen, says the state is ready for the polls. He also explained why he set up the Judicial Commission of Inquiry on electoral violence among others. Excerpts:
What is being done to address the upsurge in criminality particularly kidnapping and armed robbery?
Let me say that we sounded the alarm some months back about the upsurge in violent criminal activities in our state. And there is a correlation between the rise in the political tempo because of the governorship election and the upsurge in criminal behavior in our state. Everyone knows what we have been able to achieve in the area of law and order. This is not just me or government or security agencies observing, but it is an account that everybody who is a Bayelsan will tell you. The moment the presidential elections were concluded and the other party became victorious, elements who are on the other side developed governorship ambitions and that immediately impacted on the security and law and order of the state. The conduct of their primaries was characterized by violence. Once there is a lapse in enforcement of law and order and once people take the law for granted, people hide under the garb of politics to procure arms and ammunition as part of their election preparations. The mayhem in Brass, southern Ijaw and Ekeremor and all of that was a build-up in arms. And what has worsened it in Bayelsa State and in this country is that up till now, those who killed and maimed in Brass and even destroyed other people’s houses have not been arrested, interrogated or charged to court.
Criminality must be punished to deter other criminals
Those who killed and maimed in Southern Ijaw are still going about freely and are even protected by the agents of state. That is the situation of things that we have come to see in the past couple of months and that of course has a direct bearing on criminal conduct. If crime is not punished, then the law loses its deterrence and society gradually deteriorates to a situation where life becomes short, nasty and brutish. I hope that we do not get there. Governors are called chief security officers, but that is only a name. The gentlemen who control the Federal levers of power for now have created a notion which they can disprove, but a notion which is fast gaining currency in Bayelsa that if you are APC, you can kill and maim and procure prohibited weaponry and destroy people’s houses and the state agencies will be powerless. In other words, being a member of APC confers immunity in Bayelsa. That is the situation we have. Bayelsans have to manage and live through it. We have managed it for the past few months and I believe that after the January supplementary elections, the majesty and supremacy and authority of the law once again will be brought to bear on conduct of criminals in the state. I expect the civil law enforcement agencies to do more. I have raised a few things about the conduct of some officers of the military and I am happy to report to people of this state that those issues are being attended to, but the civil law enforcement arms, the police, the department of state security, need to know that they cannot be an arm of the APC or any other political party. We expect them to take steps to ensure that people who have violated the law in this brazen manner, with impunity are brought to book. I am aware of some arrests and prosecution that have started, but the people of this state would want them to do more. In the area of kidnapping, you know that even my own younger sibling is one of the most current victims. I appreciate all the concern that has been shown but let me make it clear that as Governor of this state, every kidnap case affects me the same way. Every kidnap is condemnable and must be treated purely as a crime that it is and we all must work together, get information speedily to the security agencies and collaborate so that we can flush these criminal out. You are aware my commissioner is also one of the latest victims. Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families but for now we are treating these as crimes in their own right and for us to take caution that there should be no finger pointing. A crime has occurred, these are criminals but we do not want any finger pointing. At this point, investigation has commenced, people should cooperate with the law enforcement agencies handling these matters.
January 9 must be peaceful for election
Apart from the kidnapping and the induced political violence, our state is generally peaceful. Those who will come out to vote on the 9th of January should not forget to vote for security and continue to reject and say ‘tufiakwa’ to all those whose politics is about killing and maiming and cultism and arming people to kill and shoot other people and destroy their homes. Our state cannot grow in the hands of such characters. The first condition for development is law and order, and that is why for me, no criminal can hide under any partisan color. If there is any criminal that is in support of PDP, please security men apprehend and take appropriate law enforcement actions. I do not condone crime and criminality in my politics, everybody knows that. And unlike those whose politics is about blood and destruction, I am in politics to build, protect lives and properties and not destroy. So Bayelsans, on the 9th of January, 2016, those who are yet to vote in southern Ijaw and other units should reject the APC and Slyva for trying to plunge our state to criminality. I do not need anybody to kill anyone because of my elections, I have never bought any weapons for anybody and I will not. I have never encouraged anybody to be armed in course of supporting me. That is the type of leadership we need in this state. Not a cultist, a criminal, a guy who doesn’t know the distinction between criminality and proper conduct and instead of spending money talking to people you spend money to buy weapons and on Election Day, they go and ambush people and highjack those materials and run away with them and you claim to everybody that you have votes, scores that nobody voted. What a shame they are turning our state to be.
Allow stop and serach, reject violence
I urged the people of the state to be calm, go about your normal businesses, these things will be attended to. It is unfortunate that they have happened and a scenario has arisen that the agencies that have statutory responsibility appeared to be not very proactive. But all of this will change. What I can promise is that at the security council meeting that was held, we reviewed our strategies and some of you may have started seeing some security presence more. Bear with us if you are stopped and searched and asked questions because those are steps we have taken so that we can be on top of the game. But ultimately, all of you have a duty to ensure that we protect lives and property, and do not forget to vote out those who feel that if you disagree with them in politics, you should be killed. Reject them, reject violence.
In the face of dwindling and delayed allocation, how has your administration coped with the payment of salaries of workers and pensioners especially in this season of Christmas?
This is a very serious issue and I have not hidden the truth from Bayelsans. We also know what is happening at the national level and this is even not peculiar to Nigeria. It is a situation faced by all economies that are dependent on oil revenues because the oil price has dropped to as low as $34-35 per barrel as against when it was selling for $120 or more per barrel. And it is still going down. That should tell everyone that the national economy and therefore, the economy of this state is in very grave danger. I have been sounding this alarm but because of the prudent way we have been managing and the sacrifices, the situation here is not as dire as in most other places. Most people especially workers and pensioners are taking theif entitlements for granted. But they should please also bear with us to understand the national context under which some of these things are happening. Our total wage bill alone is without any other expenditure of government is about N4.6bn. Every month and for the past three months consistently, what we have been getting is about N3 to N4 billion. You can imagine the problem. The gentleman when he was governor, you know the debt he left behind which we are still servicing. So it has been very difficult. Most of them do not even know that for the past 3-5 months, my own office has not had any expenditure for running cost. We know how we manage and same goes for other offices. We manage to pay the salary obligation of workers and last month, I know that what we received could not go round after paying standing obligations. So some workers could not receive their salary and now, this month, we thought they will share the excess to support government expenditure at this festive period. As you know for the past 3 years, we have been paying salaries before people go for Christmas. We even pay bonuses. I have been doing that for the past over 3 years. I pay Christmas bonus for every civil servant in the state running into over a billion naira now. But this year, they just finished the FAAC meeting this morning, FAAC was delayed for this month, and today is 23rd, when they concluded and I got the figures, they are even worse than last month, meaning that we are not in the position to do all the things we would have loved to do for the people, particularly at a time that I have enjoyed this overwhelming support in winning elections convincingly despite all the odds and the violence and intimidation.
-Leadeship
