Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State STATED Why PDP will retain power

Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has boasted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will retain power by defeating the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the forthcoming gubernatorial election.

Dickson revealed this during a radio broadcast on Sunday night monitored by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa.

According to Dickson, 21 governorship aspirants had collected and returned PDP’s expression of interest and nomination forms at N21 million each.

The party primaries has been scheduled for September 2, ahead of the November 16 governorship election in the state.

He said: “The party leadership decided to make the contest open and all embracing and as a consensus builder I believe that every aspiration is legitimate, it is a right that they have to test their popularity at the primaries.

“The large number of aspirants is an indication that the party is a platform of choice for any politician to actualize his governorship ambition and looking at the rival party, they don’t have up to two aspirants.

“Nothing is happening there, the PDP is taking the shine and it is all happening because of the political capital we invested in building the party, if I lost my re-election in 2015, the party would have been dead by now in Bayelsa.

“The party that I lead in Bayelsa defeated the APC when it was still very popular with all the federal might and this time I will be leading the party but not as a candidate but as an outgoing governor.

“Although I won’t participate as a candidate, I am a stakeholder in the race, the biggest stakeholder, and consultations are ongoing amongst the stakeholders towards the emergence of the PDP flag bearer in the governorship elections.”