Bayelsa crash: Dep Gov to work out memorial modalities with families of victims

Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, has said that a state memorial service will be held in honour of Bayelsa women, who lost their lives in the Saturday tragic road accident along the Ahaoda axis of the East-West Road in Rivers State.

The governor, who described the accident victims as eminent women who played significant roles in the politics of the state, said the government was working out modalities for their interment.

He spoke as the Ijaw National Congress, INC, announced the postponement of the Ijaw Day celebration indefinitely in honour of the victims of the auto crash.

Dickson spoke when INC, its youth wing, the Ijaw Youth Council, IYC and the Bayelsa State Traditional Rulers Council paid him a condolence visit at Government House, Yenagoa.

Dickson, delegated his Deputy, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha Jonah to liaise with the bereaved families concerning the funeral rites of the departed.

He said: “The deputy governor, representing the state government will interact with the various families to discuss the modalities for the interment and what needs to be done from our end.

“We are thinking of organising some kind of state memorial service and I want to plead with all people of goodwill and our leaders to attend the service that we intend to hold in their honour before interment.

“The way and manner the interment will go will be essentially determined by the families.”

Expressing gratitude to sympathizers within and outside the state for their show of concern over the tragedy, the governor urged all people of goodwill to support the families affected by the incident.

He said on the part of the state government, “we are trying to console the families of our departed sisters, mothers and wives, all of them very eminent women in their own rights who were playing very important roles in the politics of our state and particularly in their communities and families.

“It is a very tragic and painful loss to our people, but in the end, it is also a huge personal loss to the families; spouses, children and to all their loved ones that have been left behind.”