I won’t resign, daring Bayelsa Speaker tells Dickson, others
by Mike Odiegwu, Yenagoa
Bayelsa Speaker, Tonye Isenah, has vowed not to resign his position contrary to the directive of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders including Governor Seriake Dickson.
Isenah came under intense pressure to relinquish his office in the House of Assembly to enable his party balance political equations ahead of the November 16 governorship election.
The speaker was said to have reached an agreement with Dickson and other PDP leaders to vacate his office in the event that Senator Douye Diri, who hails from his Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area, emerged the candidate of the PDP for the election.
Following the emergence of Diri, PDP leaders were said to have asked Isenah to surrender his position to another lawmaker from Southern Ijaw to enable the party garner votes from the council.
But Isenah was said to have insisted that he would not let go of his position before the governorship poll.
The Speaker in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Aotendeike Boloigha, said he had served the PDP faithfully and had yet to see how his resignation would help the party in the forthcoming poll.
He also denied the insinuations that Dickson was after him because he failed to carry out the governor’s request to initiate an impeachment proceeding against his Deputy, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd).
Isenah was compelled to officially react on the matter following a social media post by his Senior Special Assistant in New Media, Mr. Dickson Didi Opuene, that the speaker was undergoing the travail for refusing the governor’s request.
Opuene in the post that went viral wrote: ““First they asked him to impeach the deputy governor for no just reason and he refused, now they want him to resign just to perfect their aim and plan. No way, he will not resign, they should come and impeach him and lets see.
“Rt. Hon. Tonye Emmanuel Isenah remains the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly and he has not resigned or will ever contemplate of doing so, please disregard any rumour of his resignation”.
Debunking Opuene’s claims, Isenah described the posts as generated and authored by over ambitious politicians taking advantage of the present situation in the assembly.
Isenah said the claims were not only untrue but misleading and aimed at heating up the system.
He said at no time had the governor imagined anything relating to impeachment of his deputy, whom he constantly described as a dependable ally adding that Dickson had never given such directive to the assembly.
He said: “My stand on the issue of resignation has been that I have served the party PDP and Govermor Seriake Dickson faithfully and with unflinching loyalty and I will not resign as doing so at this time will not in anyway help the party succeed in the November 16, governorship elections.
“I call on my teeming supporters to distance themselves from making unnecessary statements and posts in the social media. When the need arises, I will make official statements on his stand”.