Bayelsa Elders Raise Alarm Over Fake Campaign Posters

Elders of the Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa State, yesterday raised an alarm over the plan by some politicians within the state to embark on the printing and circulation of campaign posters purportedly for the 2011 governorship aspiration of the state deputy governor, Chief Peremobowei Ebebi, saying the plan is a deliberate attempt to project the deputy governor as a man with an inordinate ambition to succeed his boss.

The PDP leaders, under the aegis of the Committee of Friends to Bayelsa Deputy Governor, Peremobowei Ebebi, said though their investigation was ongoing the politicians involved in the alleged plot, the issue of the 2011 ambition of the deputy governor has been resolved with the decision of the deputy governor not to contest but remain a team player in the governance of the state under the leadership of Governor Timipre Sylva.

In the statement issued yesterday in Yenagoa by the Committee of Friends of the Bayelsa Deputy Governor and signed by its grand patron, Chief Alex Ekiotenne and the chairman, Hon. Benjamin Abrakasa, they alleged that the plot to embarrass the deputy governor was hatched in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and the fictitious posters printed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

They alleged that the movie posters, according to their investigation, has been discovered to carry inscriptions such as "Ebebi for Governor, Bayelsa" and with slogans such as "Change 2011" and "I have a Dream to Change Our Dear Bayelsa State .�

Chief Alex Ekiotenne said the identity of those involved in the plot had been unveiled to the state Commissioner of Police and other security agencies. The Bayelsa State deputy governor will continue to abide by the peace accord brokered by the National Working Committee of the PDP in Abuja�. The plot appears to be a calculated attempt by these politicians to give dog a bad name and hang it. It is more or less a calculated and heinous attempt by these mischief makers at bringing the political image of the Deputy Governor to disrepute."

"We have not pointed at anybody and we have not claimed they are members of any political party, but what we are saying is that these politicians are out to cause confusion in the state and destroy a man when he least expected. But they forgot that the good people of the state are discerning enough to differentiate between petty and mean political tactics that the authors and political charlatans of the unholy printed materials are out to achieve.

February 06, 2010