Posted by Bisi Olaniyi, Yenagoa on
The gubernatorial candidate of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Bayelsa State in the April 19, 2003 election, Mr. Paul Orieware, has defected to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The gubernatorial candidate of the Movement for Democracy and Justice in Bayelsa State in the April 19, 2003 election, Mr. Paul Orieware, has defected to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
The defection was coming a few months after hundreds of Bayelsans in the opposition political parties, led by the 1999 gubernatorial candidate of the then All Peoples Party, Chief Francis Doukpolagha, also defected to the PDP.
The alarming rate of defection to PDP by avowed critics of the present administration recently made the state Governor, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, to declare that he had no opposition in Bayelsa.
At an elaborate ceremony at Ayamasa in Ekeremor Local Government Area of the state on Saturday, Orieware said the progress of a people could be hardly realised if pursued in isolation.
He pointed out that in 2001, he found himself in the political terrain of Bayelsa, which he had not been familiar with, without the aim of fighting perceived enemies, but in response to a divine call.
Orieware, a former Commissioner for Information in Bayelsa State, said he discovered to his chagrin after the 2003 elections, that he and his supporters were on the other side of the political divide.
He said, 'It is not so much as the opposition that mattered.
'That is normal in every modern polity."
Orieware said he had already registered with the party but just decided to make his declaration public.
He consequently called on all members of the PDP in the state to extend their hands of fellowship to him as they had done to other members in order to move the state forward.
The former information boss, at a ceremony which was attended by the paramount ruler of Ayamasa, Chief Walter Kpeyaye, then vouched his loyalty to the PDP, while expressing his preparedness to cooperate with all the members of the party.
Chairman of PDP Ward One in Ekeremor LGA, Chief Wuruingobor Anderson, and the Secretary, Mr. Pamugha Ofaka, while receiving Orieware, assured him and his teeming supporters that their interests would be protected.
The PUNCH, Tuesday, August 16, 2005