I’m A Miracle Governor — Diri

Bayelsa Governor, Senator Douye Diri, has dubbed himself a miracle governor.

“I christen myself a miracle governor,” he told reporters in Abuja.

“I christen myself a miracle governor. At a point everybody gave up. We were the only party (PDP) the APC could not approach. We filed in court. The only place we had hope was in the judiciary.

“The case between APC and APC was thrown out. The APC applauded the Supreme Court and on Thursday February 13, 2020 the hammer came,” Diri said.

He added: “We were in the wilderness and a torturous journey but here we are a miracle governor. They attempted to use the so-called federal might to impose somebody on Bayelsa.

“There were those who said there will be no governor in Bayelsa State. To the glory of God Bayelsa State has a governor. I am indeed a miracle governor.”

Diri was sworn in as Bayelsa State Governor on February 14, 2020 following the Supreme Court’s disqualification of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, David Lyon and his deputy, Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, over alleged discrepancies in Degi-Eremienyo name.

On his agenda for the state, Diri said that he was part and parcel of the immediate past government in the state and did not need to be told where to start.

He noted however that principally, his administration would focus and re-energise the economy of the state to make it more vibrant.

He said that they would work to refocus Bayelsans from being civil servants alone.

Diri who assured that they knew where they were going said that education would also be top priority of his administration.

On the Supreme Court ruling that disqualified the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate David Lyon and his deputy Senator Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, he said that PDP did not take forgery case to court.

Diri said: “What we took to court was a case of false information. The onus was on him to prove how and why he had the multiple names. We did not institute a case of forgery. It was a case of false information.”

On his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpor, alleged to have falsified his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate, Diri claimed that there was no case.

The governor noted that NYSC misspelt the name of his deputy in the certificate issued him.

Ewhrudjakpor, he said, wrote NYSC to complain that the certificate issued to him was not his because his name was wrongly written.

He added that even the case Ewhrudjakpor instituted before they were inaugurated was dead on arrival “because he now enjoys immunity.”

Diri said that even before he was inaugurated, his message had been “reconciliation, reconciliation, reconciliation because we are all Bayelsans.”

On violence and destruction of property in the state after the Supreme Court ruling, he said that people in the state should appreciate the fact that “violence is an ill wind that blows nobody any good.”

He said: “Nobody has monopoly of violence. We will not be pushed to that. We have started with reconciliation. The Ijaw people are happy with the court judgement.

“Bayelsa is peaceful contrary to the false impression some are creating. In spite of provocation, Bayelsa is peaceful. The 120,000 votes APC claimed to have got from Southern Ijaw was not more than 30,000 to 35,000.”