Don’t blackmail me, Dickson tells LG chairmen

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

Governor Henry Seriake Dickson has broken his silence on the crisis rocking three local government councils in the state declaring that he would stand firm by Nigeria’s constitution. He told three embattled local government chairmen of his state that they should stop blackmailing him.

This is even as the crisis has deepened with claims by the legislative arms of Sagbama and Kolokuma/ Opokuma that they have impeached their chairmen and replaced them with leaders of the legislative arms of the two councils. Koku Gariga ( Sagbama), Selekibina Sabo ( Ekeremor) and Ineye Ingbaifugha ( Kolokuma/ Opokuma) who were ordered to be sworn-in as Council chairmen by the Supreme Court have been at logger-heads with members of the legislative council culminating in the serving of impeachment notice to the council chairmen.

The embattled council chairmen have fingered Dickson in their travails insisting that the impeachment notice served on them and the setting up of impeachment panel by the Chief Judge of Bayelsa were orchestrated by Dickson because they (council chairmen) had categorically turned down the request of the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to stay for few months and insisted that they would serve out their term of three years. However, speaking on the issue for the first time during the celebration of the 365 days since he assumed office, Dickson said the embattled council chairmen want to blackmail him so that he can support them in their battle with their legislative houses.

According to him, as a lover of law enforcement being a former policeman and lawyer, he would not do anything that would violate the constitution of the country. Giving an insight into how the crisis was triggered by the battle of wits between Chief Rufus Abadi who was then state chairman of PDP and former Governor Timipre Sylva, Dickson maintained that the three council chairmen were not the candidates of the party. He said their problems were self-inflicted as they neglected the constitution and decided to run the affairs of the council like sole administrators.