Chief Owazi Wills, father of the current Commissioner for Environment in Bayelsa State, Iniuro Wills, has officially joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Nembe Local Government Area ahead of the December 5 Gubernatorial election in the state.
Chief Owazi Wills is an old politician in the state at a formal defection of an ally of former President Goodluck Jonathan and former Commissioner in the state, Bishop Biobarakuma Degi Eremienyon and the former Assistant Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chief Douglas Samson Awudu.
in Bassambriri, at the weekend, Chief Wills said the people of Nembe could not be left behind in the change movement.
Mr. Iniuro Wills, a lawyer and former Commissioner for Information and Orientation in the state, and serving Environment Commissioner under the Governor Seriake Dickson’s administration, is the first child of the old politician.
The senior Wills, who spoke in his Nembe local dialect during the defection programme which had the APC Governorship candidate and former Governor, Chief Timipre Sylva in attendance, said “if you try somebody for some time and you are not getting result, you turn to another area. That is change.
"That is what you see in our son, Timipre Sylva. Our support to him should be total”.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Deputy Director – General of the Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organization, High Chief Jonathan Lionel- Omo, said the continuous defection of political big fishes into the change party, APC, has marked the demise of the PDP in Nembe. Lionel-Omo, said even the Ogbia people are trooping into the APC with the expectations that President Muhammadu Buhari, would bring development to the area.
Said he, “If you go to former President Jonathan’s village, Otuoke, where you have a University which look like a glorified college with some new roads being opened up, yet it is still in a state of dereliction.
Then go to Opume here where one of the best friends to the former President comes from, King A.J Turner, who is also close to Governor Dickson. After six years in the presidency and also supporting Dickson, there is no light or water in Opume. In the year 2015, when the people don’t have ordinary basic amenities after six years in Presidency.
"What are we saying? PDP is a rotten party.”
Chief Lionel-Omo, who welcomed the decampees to the APC , warned those planning to cause violence during the election to desist saying that they were confident that Sylva would win the election based on one-to-one voting.
He said: “Let me tell you, that even on one-one vote. We are going to win the election.
"This community will support Sylva with more than 80 per cent votes. Let nobody come to this community to shed blood,” Lionel- Omo warned.
In his own speech, Chief Degi- Eremienyo, formerly of the Federal Road Maintece Agency, FERMA, said it took him time to decide to cross to the APC because of his principles and that he was convinced after holding a long session with Sylva that APC was the new destination for a lot of them.
“Our brother here, Chief Sylva, knows me, all of you know that I don’t change easily because of my principles. You know the only permanent thing in life is change. Today, I have seen the reason to leave the PDP and join APC.
"The minor difference I had with our brother, Sylva, here, we have settled it. And when I look around and see my colleagues, former Honourable members at national and state level, former Commissioners and others in this party, I smile. These are the people we usually plan and strategise together for election.
"I begin to wonder, who are those left in the PDP? I do not need to boast of how many people and supporters that are moving with me in Nembe into APC. We have done it before and now that we are here, we will do it again.
"This is the time for a change. This change is real. This is the change that will make us have a sense of fulfilment as a people. We will experience the difference and it will be very clear,” Eremionyo stated.
The APC Gubernatorial candidate and former Governor, Timipre Sylva, who is from Nembe, asked the people to point to any project undertaken by the Dickson-led administration in the past three years if any, to which the crowd chorused, 'None!'.
Sylva said: “These are my people. That is why I am a chief in this community of Nembe.
"Sometimes I wonder, if any right thinking person in this community will even contemplate the possibility of voting for any other person knowing that I identify completely with the aspiration of this community; knowing that I have stood for this community; knowing that there are development wars to fight for this community.
"Now, if you think they are better, point to one project in this community that they have done for you? Then, if you can’t point to one project, then point to human beings they have empowered here. If you ask me, I can point to projects and human beings that I have empowered.
"Unfortunately, and I'm sure you agree with me that the community is angry with some of the people we empowered who are now behaving anyhow.”