Posted by BY FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa on
Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha has been described as no longer fit to dorn the toga of a hero of the Ijaw nation.
Former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha has been described as no longer fit to dorn the toga of a hero of the Ijaw nation. Alamieyeseigha's maternal cousin and governorship standard bearer of the Action Congress, Prince Ebitimi Amgbare, who made the damning remark in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun said the former governor's conduct during the last governorship election re-run in the state when he openly romanced with those who supervised his disgraceful exit from power, cast a doubt over his status as a hero of the Ijaw nation.
Amgbare who said that he stood behind Alamieyeseigha throughout his ordeal under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo expressed disappointment with the ex-governor for not only romancing with those who disgraced him, but also campaigning for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which did not lend him a helping hand throughout his ordeal with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
According to Amgbare, his disappointment with Alamieyeseigha's conduct had nothing to do with being a relation of the former governor, but with the former governor's brazen desecration of his position in the Ijaw nation.
He wondered why Alamieyseigha would campaign for the PDP when there was no record anywhere that the party had reversed his expulsion. Amgbare spoke further: 'This has nothing to do with being relations but about the position he occupied in Ijaw nation. It has nothing to do with blood ties but the place he occupied in the Ijaw nation. Some of us were able to stand with him in the face of trials and challenges, because of what we felt he represented, a hero, an Ijaw hero. But what we s aw in this period is not what a hero would do.
As I speak, there is no record anywhere that he has been recalled to PDP, his expulsion was announced on the radio, television and in the papers and everybody knew he was expelled from PDP. The hero that we knew would not dance with people who did not want him, people who have not indicated interest in having him back in their fold, this not a sign of heroism."
The AC governorship candidate disclosed that Alamieyeseigha was in the vanguard of attempt to persuade him not to contest the recent re-run election, adding that that was anti-people and anti-democratic.
His words: 'Alamieyeseigha has always been in the forefront of PDP attempt not to make me contest the election. He was one of the arrowheads of that campaign. But I have always maintained that the position was anti-people and anti-democratic. Anything that went the way of Ebitimi Amgbare and Action Congress not to contest the election was anti-people.
'It beat my imagination that he would campaign for PDP, because like I said, no hero works against the people. No hero would go against the people."
He pointed out that the chanting of solidarity songs against Alamieyeseigha by the people on the day of the Bayelsa governorship re-run election was an indication that the former governor had lost his toga of heroism.