By Ayomide Otitoju
Former Bayelsa State Governor and current Senator, Seriake Dickson, has expressed disappointment over the ongoing crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying ex-President Goodluck Jonathan “must be sad” that a party that produced three presidents since 1999 has been “killed and buried.”
Dickson made the remarks on Tuesday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, weeks after leaving the PDP for the newly registered Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Asked whether he consulted Jonathan before his defection, Dickson, who hails from the same state as the former president, said, “What I can say is that President Jonathan, while I’m not his spokesman, must be very sad. I know that if I’m sad, having been this attached to the PDP, you can imagine how sad he will be…that platform is evaporating.”
Dickson, who governed Bayelsa from 2012 to 2020 under the PDP, officially joined the NDC on March 5, describing it as “our symbol of victory.” At the defection ceremony in Abuja, he said, “My dear Nigerians, you now have a credible alternative opposition party known as the Nigeria Democratic Congress. Yes, it is coming at this time…thank God it has finally arrived.”
The PDP has faced internal crises over the past year, with rival factions claiming leadership and several governors defecting to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Addressing claims that he and other key figures were abandoning the PDP, Dickson insisted, “It wouldn’t be correct to say that we are leaving the PDP or that I have left the PDP. The PDP, rather unfortunately, has left us, has left me, because the platform has evaporated and ceased to exist.”
