By Emmanuel Abi Couson
Stakeholders from the Niger Delta region have recalled the alleged roles played by the Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, during the last Presidential election that produced President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, describing them as anti-people.
The stakeholders under the auspices of the Niger Delta Integrity Movement (NDIM) said Diri placed his loyalty to an inseparable friendship with former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar ahead of the national agitation for power shift.
NDIM in a press statement signed by its National Coordinator, Bassey Otom Bassey and made available to Journalists in Uyo Akwa ibom state on Thursday recalled that Diri even betrayed his brother from Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, who was then the governor of Rivers and presidential aspirant during the primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of his fondness for Atiku.
Bassey said even when Wike out of his love for the country’s unity risked his life to champion power rotation on the grounds of fairness, justice and equity, Diri was busy plotting a return of another northern President after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the Bayelsa governor took his battle against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to a disgusting level when he threw caution to the wind to support the wicked Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Bassey said: “It is on record that only Diri and his Edo State counterparts, Godwin Obaseki, from the Southsouth that went to the Supreme Court to join the suit in support of the Naira redesign policy.
“Diri supported it with his full chest despite the hardship and suffering the evil policy inflicted on ordinary Nigerians including the citizens of Bayelsa, whom he took oaths of office to protect.
“To Diri everything against Tinubu, every policy to frustrate his emergence was good even if millions of ordinary Nigerians would suffer and die from it. We can’t forget that inhuman, reckless and insensitive stance of Diri in his quest to foist another Northern President on us.
“It was heartbreaking to us because we saw how progressive governors of many states even those that were in PDP fought against that Naira redesign wickedness. To them it was politics taken too far. But for Diri it was an opportunity to frustrate the Jagaban”.
Bassey said his group would have kept quiet if Diri had not tried to deny a call on Atiku by another group, the Diri Angels, to make Diri his running mate in 2027.
He said: “We believe that Diri is simply denying the obvious. His link with Atiku is inseparable and at the right time the signs will manifest.
“Diri’s denial is simply for some immediate political gratifications. Once, he gets whatever he is looking for the Diri we know, will fully activate this his next ambition”, he said.
