Ahead 2016: Dickson Recruits 10,000 Cultists

Gov. Seriake Dickson
By SaharaReporters, New
York
Gov Seriake Henry Dickson of
Bayelsa State on Saturday
stunned the public and
observers of political
developments with the
announcement of enlistment
in a youth empowerment
programme of 10,000 of the
11,000 youths who
reportedly renounced
cultism.
The governor, who was
speaking an elaborate
ceremony at the Bounquet
Hall in Yenagoa, said he had
set aside N1 billion for the
programmes to ensure they
become self-reliant.
"If we do not help to build
you all, then our future will
not be assured,” he told
them.  “You are all aware of
what our Restoration
Government is doing;
building schools, roads,
hospitals, investing in
security and making our
state safe, talking to people
to come here to invest so
that we can create jobs for
you.
“All of these will come to
nothing, if we don’t help to
equip you with the skills that
you need to partake in the
economy to protect our
future.”
He promised that the
exercise is just the
beginning, and that his team
will conduct a meticulous
verification exercise to select
the 10,000 beneficiaries, local
government by local
government.
“When we are through with
all of these, we are going to
engage you in a special
youth empowerment
programme. A total of 10,000
youths will be engaged”
Dickson said.
The announcement however
caused a stir among those
youths who were not part of
the 11,000 that earlier
registered to renounce cult
participation.
The state government had
announced the provision of
free transportation from the
eight council areas, a
development that caused
several thousands of youths
to join the bandwagon.
One of the so-called
“repentant cultists” told our
reporter that he was lured to
join the group because of
the empowerment attached
to it.
"I can tell you that most of us
here are here for the money,
since the government is
rewarding the lawless and
punishing the lawful we have
to play along, first it was the
militants, now it is the
cultists, may be armed
robbers and kidnappers will
be the next.
"This same government just
increased tax burden on civil
servants and has announced
it will impose additional
levies on citizens for refuse
disposal. Since there is
nothing for the law abiding
ones, we have to survive,
that is the game," said one of
them.
It was however learnt that
Dickson bought into the idea
for calculated political gains
ahead of the 2015 general
elections and his re-election
contest in 2016.
Said a resident, "This is just
an exercise to worsen the
spate of violence, we all
know the history of militancy,
the initial cache of arms they
used were remnants from
election duties and that was
what took us to where we
are today. It is rather
unfortunate that we are all
sitting on a keg of
gunpowder by this policy of
government. Let them wake
up if they are dreaming.”

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