Group Accuses Dickson's Mother Of Falsifying Age

A group, Concerned Bayelsans for Good Governance and Transparency has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate the mother of Governor Seriake Dickson for allegedly falsifying her age to get employment in the civil service.
This allegation is coming ahead of the gubernatorial election in Bayelsa state set to hold on Saturday, November 5 with a strong face-off expected between Governor Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress candidate Timipre Sylva who is also a former governor of the state.

Vanguard reports that the group issued a statement on Sunday, November 30 through Prieye Johnson. It accused the governor of collaborating with his mother to defraud the state by falsifying her age to be employed in the state civil service.
The group noted that if the age provided by Mrs. Goldcoast Dickson during her job application should be believed then that meant she gave birth to the governor when she was just eight years old.
“The scandal involves the mother of the Governor, Mrs. Goldcoast Dickson, who gave birth to the Governor, when she was only 8 years old. And this is official according to the available public service records which puts the date of birth of the mother at June, 1958 while the Governor was born on 28th January,1966.
“The mother, a staff of the Tarakiri Rural Development Authority, was employed in 2004 as a Senior Cleaner with a possible forged age declaration and has been collecting salaries when in fact she would have been retired. The Governor has always portrayed himself as running a transparent government but the malfeasance around his immediate family has put a lie to that claim.
“It however, took the petition written to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, by a group, Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability, for the Special Adviser to the Governor on Treasury, Accounts and Revenue, Mr. Timipre Seipulou, to direct the Chairman of the Tarakiri Rural Development Authority to stop the payment of the salary to Dickson’s mother from February, 2014.
“The big question: When does she go to work to carry out her duties as a Senior Cleaner? In fact, the woman lives inside the Government House, Yenagoa with her son and does not go to work but collect salaries. This is not only fraudulent but clearly rubbish any sense of transparency in governance.

“We are convinced that her engagement into the service wouldn’t have been without the knowledge and facilitation of the son, Governor Dickson. So, who helped her falsify the age? The Staff Nominal Roll as at February, 2014 captured the status of Mrs. Goldcoast Dickson.”
Meanwhile, the APC was accused of abandoning Sylvia as most of the party’s governors who were expected to attend the Sylvia inauguration campaign were not in attendance.