Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Bayelsa State election, Chief David Lyon, has visited the mother of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Lyon met Madam Eunice Jonathan in Otuoke, her community in Ogbia Local Government Area of the state, when the candidate led his campaign train to her residence and other Ogbia wards to solicit votes.
Lyon was led to Madam Jonathan’s home by Ogbia leaders and Jonathan’s kinsmen, including a grassroots mobiliser and former chairman of Bayelsa Environmental Sanitation Agency, Chief Robert Enogha, who recently quit the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration to join the APC.
The APC candidate, who exchanged pleasantries and held brief discussions with Madam Jonathan, also bowed before the woman for prayers and blessings.
Jonathan’s mother, who spoke in Ogbia dialect, was seen beaming with smiles as she received the candidate and his team.
Translating what ex-President Jonathan’s mother told Lyon, a kinsman of the former Nigerian leader in the entourage, Wisdom Ikuli,quoted her as saying: “David my son, on behalf of my entire family, I have blessed you. Almighty God wants to use you to change the story of Bayelsa State.”
Confirming the development, Ikuli, who is an actor and activist, said: “The great and most blessed people of Otuoke community did not only speak, they acted and also matched their words with action. They told the incoming Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief David Lyon, that he has secured their blessings.
“In order to further confirm the above, they formally handed him over to our great mother, Mrs. Eunice Jonathan, mother of former President Goodluck Jonathan, who blessed him with so much blessings.
“David Lyon has taken the blessings from the community; any other blessing will be like that of Esau. Congratulations to Chief David Lyon. Any Diaspora blessings outside Otuoke, even by our father, leader, hero, legend and living deity, President Goodluck Jonathan, will not be effective.”
Lyon, who was received by a crowd of Otuoke residents at the campaign ground in the area, lamented the abandonment of the water project in Ogbia by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He promised to give the reactivation of the water project priority when elected a governor and to bring the Imirigi gas turbine back to life.
He said the abandonment of the gas turbine had thrown the Otuoke community in perpetual darkness and vowed to restore light in Jonathan’s local government area.
Lyon said it was unacceptable that there were no good roads leading to Otuoke and other communities in Ogbia, saying the local government area would witness tremendous development under his administration.
Addressing the rally, he said: “They have kept you poor and have concluded that you can be easily bought during the election. If they give you money, collect it and vote them out. I assure you that I will use the resources of the state judiciously to develop Bayelsa.”
