The declaration for his second tenure in office by the Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson may have cost the state a whooping N1.5 billion according to The Bayelsa Surveillance Group.
The group had accused Dickson of using public funds to organise his last Tuesday’s declaration to contest in the December 5 state governorship election under the People’s Democratic Party.
The BSG made the allegation in a statement yesterday signed by the Chairman, Kemekiye Oliver and the Secretary, Peter Izontari James.
It alleged in the statement that “Dickson spent a whopping N1.5 billion of Bayelsa State funds for his declaration for a second term as governor”.
The group posited that the Dickson administration could have used the colossal sum of money to complete some of the abandoned projects it had undertaken in the past three and half years.
“We have it on good authority that the said amount was used to enable Dickson’s foot soldiers rent crowed from all nook and cranny of the state to attend the declaration.
“The aim was to create a facade of popular support by the grassroots for Dickson. Some of the abandoned projects are fast constituting an eyesore and dent on the Bayelsa skyline.”
“Furthermore, this wrongful and unproductive deployment of scarce resources by Dickson clearly negates his avowed commitment to bring badly-needed infrastructural development to Bayelsa.
When contacted, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Esueme Dan-Kikile, dismissed the allegation as “false in its entirety and a figment of the imagination of the group and their sponsors”.