Former Nigeria First Lady and wife of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience Jonathan has been alleged to be working for All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State for the purpose of foisting a candidate of her choice in the forthcoming governorship election in the State.
A group, which identified itself as ‘Forum For Political Freedom in Bayelsa State’ (FOPOF) accused the former First Lady of using illegally acquired wealth to heavily fund and create a power bloc in the APC in Bayelsa State. She was said to be using members of the defunct Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) whom she equally used to undermine the leadership of the PDP in the State in the period leading to the last presidential election which the husband lost.
The Director General of FOPOF, Elder Adenzi Kakarite, alleged that majority of those defecting from the PDP to the APC are not only her close associates, but vocal members of the defunct TAN in Bayelsa State, whom she wants to use to impose a candidate of her choice to run on the platform of the party in the upcoming elections.
Elder Kakarite pointed out that the former First Lady, who had promised to remain in Okrika, has now made Otuoke her political sanctuary, where she holds daily meetings and raises funds, with a view to ensuring that the defectors hijack the machinery of the APC.
He alleged that Mrs. Jonathan is also funding and working with the PDP Unity Forum, made up of PDP members who were accused of anti party activities during the last State House of Assembly polls in the state, and were either expelled or suspended from the party.
Elder Kakarite explained that most of this group of PDP members, who were readmitted into the party after the peace and reconciliation efforts of the National and State offices of the party, are being funded by the former first lady to carry out campaigns of calumny and spreading deliberate falsehood to discredit Governor Seriake Dickson.
The FOPOF leader warned Bayelsans to be mindful of the dirty and anti progressive antics of this group of persons, who are going about propagating falsehoods, using some vulnerable Bayelsans to state that the PDP would lose the Bayelsa governorship if it fields incumbent governor Henry Seriake Dickson in the upcoming election.
The statement read in part:
“The former First Lady is very greedy and selfish by wanting to sponsor the candidates of both the PDP and the APC, so that she can continue to milk the state dry.
“Bayelsans must rise up and resist this woman, who clearly does not mean well for Bayelsa state, because she was partly the reason for the husband’s defeat in the last presidential election; and since she couldn’t succeed at the national level, she wants to come and force a governor of her choice down our throats. No, we must resist it.”
The statement disclosed that Mrs. Jonathan was meddling in Bayelsa politics, because she has fallen out of favour with her kinsmen in Okrika, Rivers state. [myad]
