Mrs Patience Jonathan under fire

Mrs. Patience Jonathan some concerned youths in Bayelsa State, under the auspices of the Bayelsa Youth Vanguard, have threatened to disrupt the Peoples Democratic Party presidential rally if President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Patience, comes with her husband for the campaign.

The rally is slated for February 5 at the state capital, Yenagoa. The organisation therefore warned Patience not to accompany her husband to the presidential campaign. It accused her of causing crisis in the state and warned her to desist from that or face the consequences. The warning, the group said, was sequel to what it described as attempts by the President’s wife to destabilise the state and fuel needless crisis and political tension in the state.

The spokesperson for the BYV, Precious Ebi Johnson, in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, said that Patience would only be allowed to come to the state “unless she retraced her steps or otherwise we will mobilise against the President’s rally.”

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The statement read in part, “We are constrained to issue this statement to bar the President’s wife from accompanying President Goodluck Jonathan to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, for the presidential rally on February 5. “Our action is well informed by the various steps and activities of the President’s wife in recent times which portend clear danger for the good health of our dear state. “We note with regret the various attempts by the President’s wife to create crisis in the state through subterfuge or using surrogates.

“As things are, we want to make it very clear to her that she has to change this attitude or we go against her coming to Yenagoa with the President for the presidential campaign. “Indeed, we may be forced to mobilise against the entire rally. “For the avoidance of doubt, we want to state clearly that we love our dear president.

President Goodluck Jonathan is our own even when we have to add that we have not really benefited from his administration as expected. “We dare say the President should not come to Bayelsa with his wife if she continues to fuel crisis and destabilise the state for no just reason except for selfish reasons.

This is not Rivers State and we won’t allow it to happen.” He said that the youths of Bayelsa would not allow Patience to step her foot into Bayelsa soil unless she retraced her steps. Johnson said it would be wrong to assume that they were sponsored by anyone to issue the warning.

The statement added, “We want to further state that we are not sponsored by anybody but certainly cannot just stand by and allow our peaceful state to be dragged to the mud, as she did in Rivers State. “We are no fools. The President’s wife cannot come to our state to dictate to us who to support and vote for.

“We are matured enough to know what is good for us. Nobody should come and bribe our poor mothers and women with expired bags of rice and some money in the name of politics to mislead our people.”