By Ekaunkumo Agbere
Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has rejected the overtures by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), declaring that he was going nowhere and more committed to the PDP.
Diri, who expressed appreciation to the APC for acknowledging his good works, described the call for him to dump PDP as unfortunate, provoking and unwelcome.
A one-time deputy governor of the State, Rt. Hon. Peremobowei Ebebi, had at the weekend during an APC stakeholders meeting in Ekeremor local government area, called on Governor Diri to dump the PDP which he described as a sinking ship.
But Governor Diri, through his director of New Media, Mr. Kola Oredipe, declared that he remains a strong, committed and one of the leaders of the PDP in the country and has no reason to leave the party to another platform now or in the near future.
According to the statement issued on Sunday and signed by Oredipe, he berated the APC leaders, saying: “It will be a political suicide to leave the only party that exist in Bayelsa State, to join a party that has no root, no structure.
“Ebebi, must be a joker. We know him for many acts of theatrics and at this time too, it is not different. He has confessed that the governor is not doing badly meaning that the PDP is on the right track, why then go to join a party that has taken Nigeria many years back?”
The media aide to the governor wondered if Ebebi was not aware of high-profile members of the opposition APC who have since joined the PDP and aligned with the vision of the Prosperity Government for a united and greater Bayelsa State.
He said, “Where was Ebebi all these months when many chieftains dumped his APC to return home in PDP. He knows APC ranks have been heavily depleted and that is why he is calling on them to return. It is too late. We have accommodated them in the PDP.
“We know Ebebi is not a fulfilled man where he is. It is him that will come back to the PDP. For now, he has no electoral values in his community, Aleibiri in Ekeremor Local Government Area. This much came out clear in the Bayelsa West Senatorial election he contested late last year where he lost woefully. My conclusion on his comment is that he must be looking for relevance in his new party.”
Oredipe noted that the rising political profile and general acceptability of Governor Diri, was giving Ebebi and his co-travelers headache, ahead of the 2023 elections because no one in the APC would have the capacity to stop the re-election of the governor.
He stated that Ebebi should be reminded that only recently the people of his constituency in Aleibiri under the leadership of Hon. Tari Porri, the member representing Ekeremor 1 in the State House of Assembly passed a vote of confidence on Diri for his developmental efforts.
