Bayelsa shouldn’t be among poorest states, says Peter Obi

INDEPENDENT NG

The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, said on Tuesday that Bayelsa State ought not to be among the poorest states in Nigeria given its oil-producing status.

He pointed out that Bayelsa lacked good roads, infrastructure and basic social amenities for use by the people of the state despite the huge resources from oil.

Obi spoke during a town hall meeting held at the Aridolf Wellness Resort and Spa, Yenagoa, where the national chairman of the LP, Julius Abure, formally presented the party’s flag to the governorship candidate in Bayelsa, Udengs Eradiri, ahead of the November 11 polls.

Apart from attending the meeting, Obi also inaugurated the campaign office of Eradiri and his running mate, Commodore Benjamin Nathus (retd.) along the Isaac Boro Expressway in the state capital.

He said that bad leadership was responsible for the high poverty level in the state, and called on the people to vote for the LP and its flagbearer at the forthcoming governorship election.

Obi said, “After Sokoto as the poorest state with 90.5 percent, the next state is Bayelsa with 88.5 percent. Can anybody believe it? Sokoto is 90.5 percent and Bayelsa is 88.5 percent. Bayelsa is not supposed to be on the list of poor states.

“For what God has endowed them with, they are not supposed to be classified in that category. It is bad leadership, and that’s what we are trying to change. Our candidate has told you that they (the other parties) will give you money. We are not in politics of sharing money because we don’t have any money we’ve stolen to share.

“Those who are giving you money are actually giving you your money. We didn’t steal anything, so we can’t give anything. Bayelsa has suffered. I was in Bayelsa last year when there was flooding. The entire state was under water, the first place where oil was found in Nigeria! Nigeria didn’t care, nobody bothered about them and that’s what we want to stop and change.”

The LP presidential candidate told the crowd of party members and supporters that Eradiri has the capacity and competence to move Bayelsa away from consumption to production, urging them to support him.

Also speaking, the LP national chairman, Julius Abure expressed appreciation to the people of Bayelsa for voting overwhelmingly for Peter Obi in the February 25 presidential polls, saying the party won landslide but the results were changed overnight.