Yet with the PDP Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike's mandate in Rivers State upheld in the High Court with Timipre Sylva (who went over from the PDP to the governing All Progressives Congress) a sore loser to the PDP's Henry Seriake Dickson in Bayelsa with a protracted war with Boko Haram with inter-communal violence between Sunni Muslims and the Shiite minority in the north and with renewed tension in the Middle Belt the Presidency has signalled that it intends to leave the rump PDP faction in place for now...
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The governorship election on 5 December in neighbouring Bayelsa pitted Timipre Sylva now with the APC but a former PDP member against incumbent Governor Henry Seriake Dickson who is standing again on the PDP ticket...
As Africa Confidential went to press Seriake Dickson was leading by 30 000 votes but officials of the Independent National Election Commission called off voting in the Southern Ijaw area traditionally the Ijaw seat of government where both Tompolo and Sylva have support bases...
The PDP Governor Henry Seriake Dickson declared seven days of mourning and ordered flags to be flown at half-mast for the Ijaw 'Chief of Chiefs'...
Seriake Dickson stands for re-election as Governor on 5 December...
The other Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa remains a semi-detached member of the PDP but is no longer on speaking terms with Patience who formerly served in his state government...
Poisonous relationsAn even more opaque contest is developing in neighbouring Bayelsa where Governor Henry Seriake Dickson has fallen out terminally with First Lady Patience who has resigned her position in the Bayelsa State government...
Next door in Bayelsa Governor Henry Seriake Dickson still nominally in the PDP has been locked in a very public row with Patience Jonathan the highly interventionist presidential wife...
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Just five of the 36 state governors clearly back Jonathan’s second-term bid: Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa Ibrahim Shema of Katsina Chief Theodore Ahamefule Orji of Abia and Gabriel Suswam of Benue...
In February’s governorship election there Jonathan openly campaigned for the winner Henry Seriake Dickson whose overwhelming qualification was that he was Jonathan’s man...
Jonathan’s own man Henry Seriake Dickson was parachuted in and unsurprisingly won the governorship election on 13 February...
His close friends include retired General Owoye Andrew Azazi a former Chief of Defence Staff; Emmanuel Paulker Executive Secretary of the National Boundary Commission and former People's Democratic Party Chairman in Bayelsa; and Henry Dickson a member of parliament and former Bayelsa Attorney General...
