Seriake Dickson Attacks Senator From North For Saying Constituency Larger Than Bayelsa

The Senator representing Bayelsa West Senatorial District, Seriake Dickson, on Tuesday carpeted Senator Aishatu Benani for deriding Bayelsa State in her lead debate for the creation of a federal medical centre in Mubi, Adamawa State.

Senator Dickson also attacked lawmakers from the north who he alleged take colleagues from other regions for granted during debates by flouting “unverifiable figures.”

An angry Senator Dickson said if not for the creation of unviable states in the north by the military, the north would not be arrogant in her relationship with others.

The Bayelsa West lawmaker described Senator Benani’s claim that the site for the proposed federal medical centre has 2,089,540 people, making it larger than Bayelsa State with just eight local governments and a population of 1,704,515, as reckless and unverifiable.

“If Bayelsa had had a military Head of State, there would be no one here in this Senate who would have boasted of a state larger than Bayelsa,” he boasted.

He also queried census figures used in her argument as far fetch, lamenting that they were concocted by the military.

He said “those whose Chi (God) had been benevolent to them, should not assume others to be stupid” as he cautioned that Senator Binani could make her case without reference to Bayelsa.

He added “in my Senatorial district, it will take me four days to go round. In my local government, Sagbama, it will take me three days to go round.

” I just felt I should rise up to enlighten the sponsor of this bill and by so doing the rest of the country.

“When people talk about population, they should be careful, because if you go deep and ask who conducted the census, who verified what and what are counted, who are the residence and how justifiable,” he said.

Senator Binani in her lead debate on a Bill for an Act to provide the legal framework to establish the Federal Medical Centre, Mubi, Adamawa State and for related matters, 2021, argued that the establishment of the centre would among others, address growing health challenges in the zone.

While advancing the argument in support of her bill to establish Federal Medical Centre in Mubi, she said the town, with total land mass of 506.4km2 and population of 759,045, is neighboring nine local government areas.

“This together with the population of Mubi North makes it 2,089,540 people (very much higher than Bayelsa State’s eight Local Government Areas, with a population of 1,704,515).

“Nonetheless, this historic town has suffered from government neglect in terms of federal presence especially in the area of tertiary healthcare delivery,” she said.

The submission did not go down well with Senator Dickson (PDP, Bayelsa), who faulted her claim on Bayelsa population.

Senate President Ahmad Lawan interjected and cautioned Dickson against inputting improper motives to the debate.

Lawan said, “apparently, I have to guide this contribution because you have made your point and, giving our standing orders, we shouldn’t impute improper motives on the submission by our colleagues.

” The discussion is not on the population of Bayelsa or population censors conducted before, we should rather concentrate on the main focus, which is on the establishment of federal medical centre.”

He added that “I agree that there are many questions people will like to raise, but I think the essence of this debate is to focus on the general principles and the merits of the bill.”