Dickson drops commissioner, aide over rift with First Lady
January 6, 2015
Written by Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa
•Camps take rivalries to Jonathan’s daughter’s wedding

The political acrimony between Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson and First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, burst open yesterday.

The governor sacked the Commissioner for Local Government, Mrs. Marie Ebikake, and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Federal Government Projects, Chief Remi Kuku, for alleged disloyalty to his camp and hobnobbing with President Goodluck Jonathan’s political bloc.

The Nation had reported that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which hitherto paraded itself as a close-knit family, had been split into two – Dickson’s and First Lady’s camps.

This paper also reported that those found associating with Mrs Jonathan’s loyalists were perceived as Dickson’s enemies, and vice versa.

Ebikake and Kuku were said to have been acting as moles for the First Lady, whose ambition to remove Dickson and replace him with her loyalist and Senior Special Adviser to the President on Domestic Matters, Dr. Weripamowei Dudafagh, had become public knowledge.

The “disloyalty” of the sacked officials to Dickson was said to have become obvious after they were spotted among the women who welcomed at the weekend Mrs Jonathan at her husband’s Otuoke community in Ogbia Local Government Area.

The First Lady and the President were in the state for the wedding of President Jonathan’s foster daughter, Miss Inebai Paul, who married Dr. Simeon Onyemaechi.

It was learnt that prior to the wedding, aides to the governor were directed to shun the First Lady, as payback for a similar treatment she meted out to Dickson and her wife, Rachel.

But Ebikake and Kuku reportedly disobeyed the order as they joined the women loyal to the First Lady.

The wedding venue was said to have been turned into a political battlefield between women loyal to Dickson and those in Mrs Jonathan’s good book.

The anti-Dickson women, under the aegis of the First Lady’s Women for Change Initiative (WCI), were said to have eulogised Mrs Jonathan but slammed Dickson.

But the women, who were mobilised in huge numbers, reportedly stormed Otuoke with drums and large banners, singing Dickson’s praises.

The pro-Jonathan women were said to have outdone their rivals. A free-for-all almost broke out.

A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “The scene was tense. The women hired by the WCI were insulting the governor. But the loyal women of Bayelsa put up a show, affirming their support for the governor.”

But another source in the anti-Dickson’s camp said the refusal of the governor and his wife to accord Mrs Jonathan a befitting reception spurred the WCI women to sing her praise.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, confirmed the sack of Ebikake and Kuku in a special announcement aired repeatedly yesterday in Yenagoa on the state radio station, Glory 97.1FM.

Though the statement did not give reasons for the sack, it said the termination of their appointment was “with immediate effect”.

It added that the governor’s action was in line with the administration’s process of re-organising the machinery of government to deliver on its Restoration Agenda.

The statement also said Dickson had ordered the immediate redeployment of the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Markson Fefegha, as the governor’s new Principal Executive Secretary.

It thanked Ebikake and Kuku for their service to the state and wished them well in their future endeavours.

Dickson, last March, sacked seven commissioners in a similar State Executive Council (Exco) reshuffle to remove Dudafa’s loyalists from his government.

Those affected were: Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Francis Egele; Trade, Investment and Industry, Ayakeme Massa and Health, Anapurere Michael Awoli.

great news! in Airtel's woice.

What concerns gej mama piss with bayelsa state as a soverignty. Is her first lady recögised by our constitution. Why cant gej control his wife. It seems everybody is in a bid to destroy him in disquise of helping him. Now this among their numerous interference would share bayelsa into two. Gmb2015

Madam gej small small nao. Take am easy

Dickson should relax. After the elections he and the whole party structure can decamp enmass to the apc. No more first lady headaches.

#change
#GMB
#APC