There are indications that Chief Diekivie Ikiogha, Governor Seriake Dickson’s former chief of staff and one of the founding members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has absconded with government property barely six months after his resignation.
According to a report on The Trent, the close friend of former president Goodluck Jonathan who unexpectedly defected to the APC in June is yet to return some of the government property in his possession in accordance with the public service rules.
This has triggered the ire of the Bayelsa state government which has ordered him to return all property in his possession.
A source in Government House told journalists that in defiance of the public/civil service rules, the former chief of staff only returned some property while others are still in his possession.
Chief Diekivie Ikiogha
The source said: “In accordance with the administration’s principle of transparency and accountability, the government reported the matter to the police, no public officer, after leaving office has the right to withhold government properties.
“However, instead of doing the needful by returning the remaining properties in his possession, the former Chief of staff headed for court asking for injunction to stop police from arresting him. Ikiogha, after leaving office as the Chief of Staff, Abuja office is still having some government properties in his custody.
“It is clearly stated in the public/civil service rules that any official that is leaving the office should handover properties in his/her possessions to the most senior officer in the Ministry, Department or Agencies.
“Instead of handing over all the properties, Ikiogha, only returned some and kept others. The idea of asking him to return the properties should not be politicized. It is not aimed at witch hunting him but he should do the needful.”
Chief Diekivie Ikiogha was one of those people who secured Dickson’s emergence as a governor in 2012.
It is rumoured that Ikiogha’s unexpected decision to dump the PDP for the APCwas caused by a strained relationship with his boss, after Dickson decided to remove him from the state government sending him to the state’s liaison office in Abuja, thus removing him from mainstream Bayelsa politics.
The government is determined to take the former chief of staff to court if he refuses to return the property within the stipulated period.
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