Bayelsa: How providence restored my stolen mandate –Diri

says ‘I’m a “miracle governor’

In an interaction with newsmen in Abuja yesterday, Diri said that after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared David Lyon, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), winner of the election, all hopes appeared lost but he and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) went to work behind the scene to retrieve their mandate.

He said that he promptly rejected the results because of the controversial results upon which the declaration was made because the election was not only marred by violence, but manipulated to give victory to the party with the so-called federal might.

“We’ve been in the wilderness. We’ve gone through a tortuous and winding road and at the end of the day, God himself delivered us. So, I have christened myself as the miracle governor.

“The truth is that the election results were concocted from a hotel room in Yenagoa with the use of federal might to overtake and overrun Bayelsa. But you’re aware that I promptly rejected those results. But in their bid to look for legitimacy for those results, they started telling Nigerians stories about me, about my predecessor and all of those falsehood stories. They also came with all those stories about factions and we all know that factions are common in any political party.

“The truth is that they used the so-called federal might to impose somebody on Bayelsa State. But the good thing is that today, the PDP has triumphed and Bayelsa now has a governor in my humble self.

“This is against the utterances of all those who were swearing that there would be no governor in Bayelsa State. They swore as though they were gods, but to their greatest chagrin and to the glory of God, Bayelsa State has a governor,” he said.

Diri disclosed that now that the electoral battle has been laid to rest, the task ahead of him and his team would be to advance the course of development beyond where his predecessor left it.

On the rancour and tension generated by the power tussle within his party and across the state, Diri acknowledged that a number of persons have been aggrieved for one reason or the other but said his administration had set in motion reconciliatory moves to win back the hearts of such persons.

He pledged to work tenaciously on his programme of reconciliation to ensure that the people worked together for the common good of the state irrespective of party affiliation.

When asked about the reconciliation with his party with particular reference to the former Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Timi Alaibe, who is in court over the governorship primaries, Diri said that efforts were on to achieve reconciliation in that direction.

He described Alaibe as a brother and a boss with whom he worked for 10 years.

“It may interest you to know that Timi Alaibe is my brother. I also served him for 10 years. So we’ve come a long way and I think that we will continue to appeal to him to sheathe his sword and join us in building our state,” he said.

On reports of security threats in the state, Diri condemned the attacks launched against prominent members of the PDP including himself following the Supreme Court judgement that sacked Lyon.

He said that it was unfortunate that the APC and their supporters resorted to violence on a pronouncement made by the apex court in the country.

He said that the curfew imposed on the state had remained in force since then to forestall further breakdown of law and order.

The governor said that he will continue to work closely with the heads of security agencies in Bayelsa State to ensure that there would be no further breach of the peace.