Diri: Why I won’t force my deputy to join APC

The governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, says he will not compel his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, to join him in the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Diri formally joined the APC on November 3 without his deputy, fuelling speculations that Ewhrudjakpo has been penciled down for impeachment by the members of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, majority of who followed Diri to APC.

The deputy governor subsequently approached a Federal High Court in Abuja to restrain the lawmakers from the plot to impeach him for choosing to remain in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Speaking during the weekly state executive council meeting in the Government House, Yenagoa on Wednesday, Diri said: “As a matter of principle, I believe in engagement rather than confrontation; I will continue to discuss with my deputy.”

While admitting that it is difficult for both of them to be in different political parties, Diri expressed the optimism that ongoing engagements with his deputy would yield positive results.

The governor disclosed that the case filed by Ewhrudjakpo at a Federal High Court in Abuja to halt a purported impeachment plan had been discontinued after they discussed it.

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He urged the people of Bayelsa State to love one another and see politics as a means to bring development and not to pull others down.

Diri said: “Let me address an issue that had been a subject of speculation in the media. I do not intend to force people to join the APC but rather to appeal to them to see reason with me. I might have the power today but not tomorrow.

“It is actually difficult for the governor to be on one side and the deputy on another. But we will continue to talk and we might end up in the same party tomorrow.

“We must not heat up the polity. We are done with violence in Bayelsa State. We are brothers and we are one. Politics should be for the development of the state and not to fight one another.”

On the rumour of the arrival in the state of armed men from a part of the country, the governor dispelled it as fake news.

Diri however, assured that security agencies had been put on notice to check any threat in any part of the state.

The Star