Former governor of Bayelsa state, Seriake Dickson, was one of the early mourners of the late philanthropist, Keniebi Okoko, who had many sons and daughters of the Niger Delta on scholarships all over the world.
Dickson who commiserated with the state governor, Senator Douye Diri, and former President of the INC, Prof. Okoko, also condoled with the wife of the late politician, his aged parents, his Obunagha community, the Gbarain Clan, Bayelsa State, the Ijaw nation and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) family on the sudden death of the politician.
The former governor who described the death of Okoko as painful and sad said that he left indelible marks in the world of business and politics at a young age of 42 in a statement on Wednesday.
He said: “Keniebi was somebody we all had a lot of hope in; he proved to be an open minded, accommodating, large hearted, understanding political leader that I encouraged to be under my wing henceforth for political grooming and support.
“My family and I are pained and I have made a lot of calls to our leaders. Everybody is pained and we should take it as bad as it is as what God has done. Nobody can question Him.”
Dickson said this period of COVID-19 was a particularly trying period for Bayelsa with the death of prominent politician George Fente, (still being mourned) and the loss of the wife of Senator Ben Murray Bruce to cancer in the US and the painful death of Okoko.
The former governor who urged all Bayelsans and indeed the Ijaw nation to pray against a recurrence of such painful deaths in the state, stressed that Okoko’s death was a heavy blow to Bayelsa and indeed the Ijaw nation.
He said that he would personally visit the families of the three prominent ijaw indigenes.
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