ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
Political associates of Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri under the auspices of Friends of Senator Douye Diri (FSDD) have started canvassing for support for the governor’s re-election bid as well as the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023.
To this end, they have inaugurated eight executive members in the eight local government areas of the state to work towards the suceess of the PDP in the forthcoming polls.
The President, FSDD, Chief Bodi Arerebo, who spoke during the inauguration in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, said the occasion was to prepare towards the forthcoming elections by ensuring that the PDP candidates have a landslide victory at the coming general elections.
He also charged the newly-appointed coordinators in the LGAs to put in their best, work in unity with other party members to deliver all the party candidates.
Arerebo said: “The inauguration of the FSDD’s LGA coordinators is to just prepare ourselves towards the forthcoming elections. All the people inaugurated today are people who love Governor Douye Diri to the core and are ready to give necessary supports in any way for him and all other PDP candidates.
“Our priority is to ensure that all PDP candidates have landslide victories in the 2023 general elections. We are solidly behind Diri’s transformational leadership in the state. Since he assumed leadership of Bayelsa, the governor has carried out a lot of infrastructure developments which are visible to all.
“We want to also implore our coordinators to do all they can for them to see that we work together in unity and deliver all PDP candidates.
“Also, as part of the resolutions of the group, we agreed we should empower children with HIV/AIDs.
They are our children and the children of this state. They have the right to be happy, to live the best lives they can live hence we provided them with educational materials including 1,000 notebooks to enable them to pursue their education despite their challenges.”
Speaking on behalf of the LGA executives, Coordinator of Brass LGA, Mr Gony Onah, expressed his profound gratitude for the opportunity given them to serve and deliver the party’s candidates across board.
Onah said, “We promise to go back to our council’s and carry out the mandates of the group and ensure that we deliver all PDP contestants in the forthcoming elections in the state.”
As part of the activities lined up for the inauguration, the FSDD empowered many students that have dropped out of school because of HIV/AIDS challenge.
Arerebo presented the educational materials including over 1,000 notebooks to a non-governmental organisation, the Synergy Care Development Initiative (SCDI), that had been catering to the needs of the HIV patients who are out of school.
He said the gesture was designed to empower the out-of-school children to enhance their educational pursuits and to show empathy to their plights.
Receiving the educational materials on behalf of the vulnerable children, Executive Director, SCDI, Mr Akpata Joseph, said the gesture was a welcome development not just for the NGO but for Bayelsa as a whole.
He emphasized the need for such gestures to be extended to other NGOs in the state in dire need of assistance.