The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche Secondus, yesterday, said his party would stop killings, poverty and hunger in the country if it returned to the Presidency in 2019.
Secondus, who led members of his National Working Committee (NWC), to witness a mega rally in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, to mark the 6th anniversary of Governor Seriake Dickson administration, said the brooms of the All Progressives Party (APC) brought killings and vengeance to the country.
The party chairman spoke at the Ox-Bow Lake Pavilion, Yenagoa, where party faithful and thousands of women, youths and elders in outfits with touch of red in the spirits of the Valentine, gathered to celebrate Dickson.
Former governors, former ministers, state chairmen of PDP led by Obong Paul Ekpo of Akwa Ibom State, members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly led by their Speaker, Kombowei Benson, National Assembly members and traditional rulers were in attendance to honour Dickson and his Deputy, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd).
Scores of APC stalwarts and their supporters defected to the PDP at the event, which witnessed various displays of Ijaw culture including boat regatta.
Secondus, who earlier inaugurated the pavilion, also reaffirmed his doubts over the possibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a free and fair election.
Describing INEC as the parastatal of the APC, Secondus , however, warned that any attempts to manipulate the elections in 2019 would be resisted by the people.
He said: โStarting from Bayelsa today, we are waiting for very prominent stakeholders of our nation to come over to the party that will rescue our nation from this challenge of difficulty, hunger, killings, poverty.
โOur country witnessed the era of brooms from 2015. This broom has brought us evil, vengeance, hunger, poverty, killings in our land. We will continue to receive these brooms and throw them into the ocean. Never again shall our people witnessed killings, poverty.
โWe will rebrand, reposition our party and regain the lost ground. Bayelsa has laid the foundation for our teeming supporters. Just two days ago, we were at Abia State and we visited Abia. The governorโs of PDP are performing.
โThey are the good example of nation-building. I believe that all the 11 governorโs of PDP are the best the country has today. And because they have performed, the entire nation can see that this is the party that can rescue this country.
โI believe that we will provide a platform, free and fair for all the processes of primaries and the general election. But our fear, is that will INEC play the game according to the provision of our constitution? Will they not rig election? Our fear is that INEC is getting ready because they are parastatals of APC to rig election.
โLet me warn that 2019, no party, whether you are in government, INEC or security, you cannot rig election. It is better for you to talk to the people to be reconnected to the people and ket the people come to vote.
โThe vote of everyone will count in our nation. It is time for revival. It is time to come together to chase out this evil party called APC. It is only your voter cards that can restore this nation as Dickson has restored Bayelsa.
โNow the people of Bayelsa are happy, in 2019, the country will experience happiness and joy. The people are happy with governor Dickson. The governor has broken all the records in Bayelsa State. We have been told that very soon an international airport will open here. This is the first of its kind on Ijaw landโ.
Receiving the defectors, Secondus said all their rights and privileges had been restored and warned state party chairmen against frustrating people willing to join the party.
Addressing the defectors, he said: โYou and all your supporters are welcome. All rights and privileges are hereby restored unto you. You are free to contest elections. There will not be any barrier to any of your aspirations.
โYou are eligible, you are competent and you have the rights to be as if you are six or seven years old members of this party. No state chapter should bar anybody from coming into our party. We have opened the doors, the space is hereby openโ.
Secondus described the pavilion as a unique project saying it was the first of its kind in the country.
On his part, Dickson highlighted some of the achievements of his administration and said PDP remained the only platform to win elections in the state.
He said the APC was not on ground in the state and challenged his opponents to test their popularity without relying on security institutions and other federal agencies to rig the elder on.
He said: โBayelsa has wonderful healthcare facilities, infrastructures, roads and bridges and we will continue to do more. Bayelsa is one of the safest, one of the stable places to invest and live in.
โWe are utilizing this occasion of grand launching of the pavilion to signpost another side of Bayelsa, that we will also become the headquarters of tourism in Nigeria. We will be commissioning the new Yenagoa City, the International Airport with the longest runway.
โTo those who are out there deceiving people with newspaper articles, who are not on ground, let me call on you to play according to the rules.
โIf you are truly on ground and you are willing to test your popularity in elections, mobilise your people, sell what your party has done to our people, tell our people in your communities what the federal government has brought to them. Because what we have put on ground is in every community for people to see.
โYoung people of this state should not allow the,selves to be deceived and misled. Politics is not about cultism, promoting killings, buying arms for misguided youths and promoting and funding drug abuse.
โPolitics is about service to our people and that is what we have been doing. If you are out there know that those people donโt have a party on ground in this stateโ.
In their goodwill messages, other party stakeholders such as the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Kombowei Benson; Elder Statesman, Chief Thompson Okorotie and Bayelsa PDP Chairman, Cleopas Moses extolled the leadership qualities of Dickson.
