Ambassadorial list: Bayelsa indigenes protest at NASS

Aggrieved indigenes of Bayelsa State on Tuesday in Abuja stormed the premises of the National Assembly protesting the exclusion of the State from the Ambassadorial list sent to the Senate for screening and confirmation by President Muhammadu Buhari.

While calling on the National Assembly not to carry out the screening exercise until their demands were met, they appealed to the President to do the needful by including persons from the state in his list of ambassadors.

The protesters, under the aegis of Concerned Bayelsa Indigenes, whose action at the National Assembly gate, temporarily halted vehicular movement for some minutes, said the non-inclusion of any indigene of the state in the list was an injustice that must be addressed immediately.

The group accused President Muhammadu Buhari of deliberately sidelining Bayelsa State in major appointments, including the recent appointments of Permanent Secretaries.

The Coordinator of the organisation and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Prince Bodi Arerebo, told journalists that the President’s action was unfair to the state where he said campaigned vigorously for his victory at the 2015 presidential poll, against its indigene, Goodluck Jonathan.

He said it was improper for the state, which had contributed to the growth of the economy to be excluded from such a list.