TheCable

Former president, Goodluck Jonathan, says Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the first elected governor of Bayelsa state, left this world when the ovation was loudest.

Speaking at his funeral on Friday, Jonathan said Alamieyeseigha, who died on October 10, 2015, at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, left when the people need him more.

“Just like philosophers would say, the world is like a stage where everybody comes to play a role. You played your role very well, and we appreciate that,” Jonathan said.

“Maybe you decided to leave the stage when the ovation was loudest, so that we would mourn and cry. It’s sad that we are on a journey to take you back home at this time.

“This is the time we need you more. Just like most others said, we know the role you played in the immediate past election. You led us, and we all followed and the success story was very clear.”

He prayed for the family of the deceased, eulogising the departed as a selfless leader who did his utmost for the Ijaw nation.

“As you leave us, we pray that God should keep the immediate family, the wife and children – they are still very young people – the fortitude to bear the painful loss.”

Alamieyeseigha, who was 62 years old as at the time of his death, will be laid to rest on Saturday, in his Amasoma, his home town.