The political crisis in the Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) escalated dramatically on Thursday when Senator Konbowei Benson Friday (Bayelsa Central) defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), causing visible tension and shock within the Senate chamber.
This move occurred just 24 hours after Governor Douye Diri surprised his own supporters by also quitting the PDP, a decision that political analysts believe “now appears to have triggered a wave of defections” in the state.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, displaying a “broad smile,” read Senator Konbowei’s defection letter to the Senate.
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As the announcement was made, APC senators responded with “excitement,” rising to welcome their new colleague with “handshakes and applause, transforming the usually solemn chamber briefly… into a scene of celebration rather than legislation.
However, the mood on the opposition benches was “starkly different.
Senator Henry Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West), a former governor and a most prominent figure” in the PDP, sat in visible disbelief.
Without speaking, Dickson quietly collected his files, stood up, and walked out of the chamber.
Akpabio attempted a mix of jest and reprimand, calling after him: Leader of the Bayelsa Caucus, you shouldn’t be leaving when such an important letter is being read!”
Dickson, however, did not turn back, replying curtly as television cameras followed his exit”: “I have more important things to attend to.”
The walkout appeared to lend weight to a warning Dickson had given just one day earlier, when he had cautioned that Nigeria’s democracy was sliding toward imbalance.”
He had stated, “A democracy without opposition ceases to be democracy… It becomes dictatorship and totalitarianism.”
Political analysts suggest that Senator Konbowei’s defection significantly strengthens the APC’s dominance in the Senate, pushing their number of seats to 74, which constitutes a supermajority and may “significantly diminish dissenting voices.
For the PDP, the departure is another defeat in a region that was once considered its political stronghold.
The incident signals an ongoing realignment of power and influence in Bayelsa, and for Senator Dickson, the walkout is seen as both a personal protest and a symbolic defense of opposition politics in a democracy increasingly tilting toward one-party control.
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