LAGOS OCTOBER 17TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Former Federal Commissioner for Information and Ijaw leader has described the late erstwhile governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha as a victim of political travail whose death is a monumental loss not only to his family, but also the South South and Nigeria as a whole.
The Elder statesman described Alamieyeseigha’s death as a heavy wind of calamity in Ijaw land.
In a condolence message he made available to Journalists in Abuja yesterday, Chief Clark stressed that Ijaw nation has never been so hit like this, just as he said he was still in shock and did not believe until he called Alamieyeseigha’s wife yesterday, adding that he has not been able to recover from the shock.
According to the South South leader, the death of the former governor has left a great vacuum as there will never be another Governor- General like him in Ijaw nation, adding, “there can never be another Governor- General like him in Ijaw Nation. Chief Alamieyeseigha was no doubt, a victim of political travail, but this is not the time to cry. His death is a monumental loss, not only to his family, but the South South and Nigeria as a whole.”
Chief Clark further said:”the news of the sudden deat of the Ijaw Governor- General, D.S.P. Alamiyeseigha came to me as a rude shock which I have not been able to recover from. I could not believe it until I spoke to his wife, Mrs Margaret Alamieyeseigha this morning(yesterday).
The Ijaw Nation, across all divides, has never been hit by such a heavy wind of calamity. We called him Governor- General because of his love for the Ijaw Nation and preparedness to die for it. He was very close to his people, and the place of the Ijaw people under a united Nigeria was foremost in his thoughts. His Ijawness was unsurpassed.
“The Ijaw National Congress(INC) and the Ijaw Youth Congress, IYC were the umbrellas that cover the Ijaw Nation and he saw to it, when he was Governor of Bayelsa State, that they were well nurtured, funded and that the leadership of the Organisations were at all times courageous and the patriotic men of integrity and respectability.
“Apart from those two- organisations, he regularly assembled the Ijaw leaders, irrespective of political and religious differences, together at Government House in Yenagoa, to discuss Ijaw issues within the larger Nigerian affairs, under a friendly atmosphere without any fear or intimidation from any quarters.
“This spirit, he carried to the South-South level when he hosted all the south south Delegates at Yenagoa, where he drew up our agenda based mainly on Resource Control at the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC) inaugurated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in February 2005 and thereafter visited us regularly.”
Vanguard