Dickson Sanctions 500 Workers For Supporting APC

For allegedly supporting the All Progressives Congress during the just-concluded governorship poll in Bayelsa State, the Seriake Dickson administration has marked no fewer than 500 civil servants for

sanctions. It was learnt on Monday that the affected civil servants might not receive their salaries for the months of December and January, as part of their punishment for being pro-APC in the election. Already, the action of the government has started generating tension in the state.Dickson was
re-elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, defeating former Governor Timipre Sylva of the APC and Moses Siasia of the Peoples Democratic Movement.The Independent National Electoral Commission conducted the governorship election, marred by violence, on December 5 and 6, and the supplementary poll on January 9, 2016.The government was said to have set up ‘a special committee’ in each of the eight local government areas of the state to ‘take note of civil servants who are pro-APC’ before and during the election.The action of the government cuts across the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, affecting civil servants who are within grade levels eight and 17. It was learnt that the directive to punish the ‘unpatriotic’ civil servants was based on the report submitted by the ‘special committee’ shortly after INEC declared Dickson winner of the election on January 10, 2016.