Former
Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has assured the Bayelsa State
government and the Alamieyeseigha family of his commitment to efforts
geared towards giving the departed foremost Ijaw leader a befitting
state burial.
Jonathan gave the assurance on Friday, when he paid a condolence visit to the deceased family at Opolo in Yenagoa.
The former President who is scheduled to
travel to Tanzania, where he is expected to spend about 12 days,
promised to be fully involved in the burial arrangements, as soon as he
returns to the country.
Accompanied by Governor Seriake
Dickson, his Deputy, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (rtd) and other
dignitaries, Jonathan said, he received the death of Alamieyeseigha
with a rude shock, stressing that the deceased stood firmly for Bayelsa,
the Ijaw people and the South-South geo-political region.
Jonathan traced his relationship with
Alamieyeseigha to the days of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP),
one of the five political parties formed during the administration of
late General Sani Abacha as Nigeria’s Head of State.
Assuring the Alamieyeseighas’,
especially the widow and children of his continued support, Jonathan
acknowledged that without the role the Governor-General of the Ijaw
nation played in his life, he would not have risen to become President
of Nigeria.
“I knew Alamieyeseigha during the UNCP
days, when we were working for him. I never knew I was going to be his
Deputy Governor because that was not my interest then.
“From that time, the political evolution
in the country and the state brought me to run with him. From 1999,
we’ve been together. He always took me as his younger brother. Our
relationship was not that of a governor and his deputy but that of an
elder and a younger brother.
“Alamieyeseigha meant well for
Bayelsans; stood very firmly for the Ijaw people and wanted to advance
the South-South. He’s somebody we’ve collectively missed”, he lamented.
Highlights of the visit included the
signing of the condolence register by Jonathan and consolatory prayers
offered by the Bishop of the Royal House of Grace International Church,
Bishop Peter Leghemo for the state, the Ijaw nation and the deceased
immediate family.
PHOTO: Nigeria’s
former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan (L), and Governor Seriake
Dickson of Bayelsa State (R), commiserates with Mrs. Margaret
Alamieyeseigha (M), during a condolence visit to the family, over the
death of the former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha,
at Opolo, Yenagoa
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