Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has thrown a challenge to all the local governments in the state, especially those who are yet to produce Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, to brace up.
He threw the challenge on Monday, while being by National Assembly members from the state and other top government officials, to honour two sons of the state- Fedude Zimughan and Preye Agedah-who were recently conferred with the highly revered legal rank.
It was the first time since Bayelsa’s creation 29 years ago that two of its sons were at same time elevated to the prestigious legal rank. Diri said at their reception ceremony that the conferment brought to 11 the number of SANs from the state.
He said: “This is another historic day in the life of our state. Since its creation, this is the first time we are producing two Senior Advocates at the same time. God perfects everything at His own time.
“We are very proud of the two gentlemen, Fedude Zimughan and Preye Agedah. One is from my mother’s local government area while the other from my father’s.
“From nothing after the creation of our state, Bayelsa has today produced 11 SANs. Zimughan’s local government, Ekeremor, had produced four. I had known him from way back and though some thought he was long overdue, I believe this is the God-ordained time for him.
“For Agedah, we were secondary school classmates. He set the pace when he came into politics in the old Rivers State and became the first chairman of the old Yenagoa local government area. Today, he made history again as the first SAN from my local government, Kolokuma/Opokuma.
“I challenge my brothers and sisters from other local government areas. You discover that the smallest senatorial district has more SANs than us that are from our very large Central Senatorial District.
“In my senatorial district, there is no SAN from the whole of Yenagoa local government. Even in Southern Ijaw, which we are proud of as one of the largest local governments in Nigeria, there is none. Well, some would say (Michael) Numa is from there but he tilts more towards Ekeremor. This means I’m challenging myself also as this is my senatorial district.
“In the East, we have more from Nembe. In Ogbia, we had one, who is now late while Brass has one.
“So this is the challenge to us in the state. This year, we produced two. Next year, we can have three.
“It is not rocket science. We have people with the brains and the wherewithal to attain such heights. Let us as a people be seen to be helping one another to climb and not to oppress ourselves.”
The governor congratulated the new SANs on behalf of the state and urged them to continue to be good ambassadors of Bayelsa.
