Igiri thanks youths involved in abduction of his mother; says ‘incident was timely’

NEDU MARK, Yenagoa

The All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and running mate to Chief Timipre Sylva in the December 5, 2015 governorship election, Elder Wilberforce Igiri has blamed the insensitivity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) policies and programmes for youths as cause of his aged mother’s abduction at Foropa.

The 105 year-old Madam Ebifeghe Dikoro was kidnapped last Thursday at her country home in Foropa, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

Elder Igir, who appealed to the kidnappers to unconditionally release his mother, said that he is ready to forgive the abductors as ‘they are victims of poor youth empowerment and development policies of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party administration in the state.’

Igiri who spoke in Yenagoa on Tuesday at an APC Forum Workshop on the development of a locally-based agenda for the Sylva/Igiri administration, said the abduction of his aged mother has brought to the public domain the poor security, social and youth policies of the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration.

“Let me say I want to thank the youths involved in the abduction of my mother. The incident was timely. It showed that those youths were not encouraged by the present administration.”

“I don’t blame them. Let them bring out my mother and I will forgive them. I have discovered that if they had been engaged in an employment through proper education and youths empowerment policies, they would not have done what they did. I believe my mother is coming back.”

He equally called on APC supporters to shy away from campaign of calumny and name dropping, saying that the Sylva/Igiri campaign will be based on issues.”

Earlier, Deputy Director General of the Sylva/Igiri campaign Organization, Chief Lionel-Jonathan Omo attributed the alleged poor performance of the PDP-led administration in the state to ‘lack of vision.”

“If you don’t have an idea, how do you sustain development? Vision is not a physical thing. When you are being ruled by people without vision, we will have poor governance. We have people without vision at the helm of affairs. Even if they have scattered vision and not documented, they cannot excel.”

He stated that APC has opened the door for local peculiarities to be taken into consideration before proper manifestos and good governance.”