Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
A group, Save Ogbia Movement (SOM), has insisted that former President Goodluck Jonathan worked against the interest of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 National Assembly elections.
Although PDP won the Ogbia Federal constituency seat, it, however, lost the Bayelsa East senatorial seat and the Nembe/Brass federal constituency seat.
The party had recently inaugurated a central working, stock-taking committee and eight different stock-taking panels for the eight local government councils to identify and evaluate the performance of top party members and political appointees in the success or failure of the party during the 2019 election.
The Save Ogbia Movement (SOM) in a statement by Franklin, Azibola James, said the former president despite benefiting immensely from the PDP, abandoned candidates of his party especially in Ogbia Local Government Area and the entire Bayelsa East senatorial district in the last elections.
According to him while Jonathan urged PDP members to vote for the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, he encouraged them to vote their choice in the National and House of Assembly elections.
James lamented that Jonathan’s disposition and lack of contribution to the party made the elections very difficult for the PDP and brought the ugly narrative of an opposition party winning his senatorial district.
According to him, having failed to attract any meaningful development to Bayelsa and his own local government, Jonathan was expected to return home and help the PDP to withstand the force of opposition.
“The last election was a case study. Instead of supporting his party, our former president worked for the candidates of the ADC. We can no longer keep quiet. I mean how long will we continue to cover up for the anti-PDP posture of Jonathan in his home state?
“We are still disappointed at his outing at the presidency. He squandered a glorious opportunity to develop Bayelsa, his home state. He couldn’t even complete the East-West Road. In fact, the Bayelsa section of the road has remained deplorable. He couldn’t construct roads in our own Ogbia local government.
“Anybody who visits Ogbia will never believe that we once produced the president. We tried to swallow all of these unforgivable shortcomings. But the one that we can’t tolerate is working against the interests of PDP in elections.”
James appealed to Jonathan to work with the state leadership of the PDP to promote the general interests of the party in the state.
Jonathan had dismissed a similar allegation made by Ogbia Renaissance, noting that there was no way he could work against a party on whose platform he became president.
His spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, had said: “It is manifestly dishonest, deceitful and preposterous for anybody to suggest that former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is working against the interest of the party on which he rose to occupy the highest office in the land.”