Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate for 2023, says he has brought Bayelsa State salvation from flood and poverty ravaging the state due to misrule of the Peoples Democratic Party.

The APC presidential candidate made this statement while speaking at an APC rally at the Ox-Bow Lake Pavilion, Swali, Yenagoa on Thursday.

“Today I bring great news to Bayelsa, and that news is that hope and salvation is here, prosperity is here, that employment is back, that happiness is here, that high prices of goods are gone. No matter how much they try to frustrate this news, we will bring it to you.

“Where we are is Bayelsa, one of the most blessed with mineral resources in this country. The wealth that would have prevented you from dying in flood. But the poverty developing party could not help you. They collect your money and tell you lies. They lie to you too much,” Mr Tinubu said.

The former Lagos state governor charged Bayelsans to vote for the APC, saying “It is about time you sweep them away because they keep making promises to you and cannot fulfil them.

“I promise you that I will build thousands of experts of employment. I promise you a technical hub that will give you job opportunities. I promise you that your houses, your father’s house, your mother’s house, your dear parents will no longer be washed away by the flood,” he added.

Bayelsa, a state governed by the PDP since it was founded in 1996 by former military dictator Sani Abacha, falls among states ravaged by massive flood with thousands displaced and rendered homeless.

In 2019, the APC’s David Lyon came close to winning the Bayelsa State governorship election for the first time in the state. But the Supreme Court nullified Mr Lyon’s victory paving way for PDP’s Douye Diri to emerge as governor.

Next year, Mr Tinubu, 70, will be up in contest against PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, 76, Peter Obi of Labour Party and other presidential candidates for the top job in Africa’s most populous country.