Mrs Goldcoast Dickson, the mother of Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has been accused of falsifying her age to get employment with the state civil service.
In a statement issued by a group, Concerned Bayelsans for Good Governance and Transparency, and published by Vanguard, the governor’s mum was accused of submitting records that showed she was eight years old when she gave birth to him.
The statement signed on the group’s behalf by one Prieye Johnson read:
“The scandal involves the mother of the Governor, Mrs. Goldcoast Dickson, who gave birth to the Governor, when she was only 8 years old. And this is official according to the available public service records which puts the date of birth of the mother at June, 1958 while the Governor was born on 28th January,1966.
The mother, a staff of the Tarakiri Rural Development Authority, was employed in 2004 as a Senior Cleaner with a possible forged age declaration and has been collecting salaries when in fact she would have been retired. The Governor has always portrayed himself as running a transparent government but the malfeasance around his immediate family has put a lie to that claim.
It however, took the petition written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, by a group, Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability, for the Special Adviser to the Governor on Treasury, Accounts and Revenue, Mr. Timipre Seipulou, to direct the Chairman of the Tarakiri Rural Development Authority to stop the payment of the salary to Dickson’s mother from February, 2014”.
The big question: When does she go to work to carry out her duties as a Senior Cleaner? In fact, the woman lives inside the Government House, Yenagoa with her son and does not go to work but collect salaries. This is not only fraudulent but clearly rubbish any sense of transparency in governance.
We are convinced that her engagement into the service wouldn’t have been without the knowledge and facilitation of the son, Governor Dickson. So, who helped her falsify the age? The Staff Nominal Roll as at February, 2014 captured the status of Mrs. Goldcoast Dickson.”