Bayelsa Polls: Governor Dickson Sets up 5-man Panel, Probes Role of Civil Servants

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson, has constituted a five-man panel to investigate the level of involvement of some career public civil servants in partisan politics, with a view to saving the civil service of the state from destruction by politicians.

Members of the panel include Mr. Renner Tiebiri (chairman), Dr. Enokie Bribena is (secretary and Legal Adviser), Suru Oyarede, Walton Liverpool and Ebikipah Ebikake.

A statement issued on Thursday in Yenagoa by the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Serena Dokubo-Spiff said, it has come to the notice of the government that such public servants have been involved in partisan politics in the last December, 2015 and January, 2016 governorship polls, “where they were used as coordinators of political parties and party agents at various levels.”

According to him, the state government was aware of plans by a particular political party to use some public servants as witnesses to testify during election petition tribunal.

“The action of such public servants, most of whom were card-carrying members of various political parties, was a clear contravention of the extant Public Service Rules, PSR No. 030422 (a-d) of the 2008 edition”, the SSG stated.

The government, he said, would invoke the provisions in the Public Service Rules, PSR 030401 and 030402 and deal decisively with any public servant indicted by the panel.

The panel has been empowered to investigate workers in all tiers of the public service, including those in the educational institutions and the unified local government service.