Donald Duke is a jester who needs rehabilitation – Bayelsa Gov

Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has described former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke as a “jester and a pretender”, accusing him of using his 2027 presidential ambition to seek political rehabilitation.

Diri made the remarks while responding to Duke’s criticism of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, which the former governor said was financially impractical and difficult to construct across Bayelsa’s swampy terrain.

In a video posted on the Bayelsa Government New Media Facebook page on Thursday, Diri accused Duke of disrespecting him as a sitting governor during an interview on ARISE News.

“There is no councillor from PRP in your own ward, yet you pretend to be a presidential candidate so that at the end of the day, you will be rehabilitated,” Diri said.

Duke is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party for the 2027 general elections.

The disagreement followed Duke’s description of Diri as a “local champion” during the television interview, where he questioned the financial viability of constructing the coastal highway through difficult terrain requiring numerous bridges.

Diri rejected the criticism, arguing that his administration’s experience building roads and bridges in similar conditions demonstrated that such infrastructure projects were achievable.

He cited projects including the Nembe-Brass Road, the Sagbama-Ekeremor-Agge Road and the 630-metre bridge across River Nun at Angiama in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.

The governor said he was particularly disappointed that a former governor from the Niger Delta would make comments he considered dismissive of Bayelsa and its people.

“What I saw there was more of an insult,” he said, referring to Duke’s television appearance.

Diri also took exception to Duke’s reported remark that he did not know him, insisting that he was an elected governor whose office deserved respect.

“Donald Duke, hear me well, I am not ‘that fellow’. I am an elected, sitting governor of Bayelsa State,” he said.

“If you claimed you don’t know me, I don’t likewise know you.”

Defending his description as a local champion, Diri said his responsibility was to represent the people who elected him.

“I am a local champion because that is where I was raised. I was elected to serve the local people. I was elected to champion their cause,” he said.

The governor also questioned Duke’s handling of the Bakassi dispute during his tenure as Cross River governor, arguing that the former governor had failed to adequately defend local interests following the International Court of Justice’s 2002 judgment that awarded the peninsula to Cameroon.

Diri maintained that his response was not merely a personal disagreement but a defence of Bayelsa and its people.

“I will stand tall at all times to defend this environment and defend the people of Bayelsa State,” he said.

Duke denies dismissing coastal highway

However, Duke denied saying the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway was undesirable, insisting that his objection was based on its financial feasibility and the challenges involved in constructing the route.

“I never said the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road was not desirable; all I said was that, at this time, it is not financially feasible,” Duke said in a written response to the publication.

He argued that the subsequent decision to divert the road to connect with the East-West Highway supported his concerns about the project’s original route.

Duke said he understood Diri’s interest in promoting infrastructure development in Bayelsa but maintained that the existence of roads and bridges in the state did not resolve questions about the coastal highway’s cost, engineering requirements and economic justification.

He also rejected the allegation that he had disrespected Diri’s office.

“And how did I disrespect his office? By disagreeing with him?” Duke asked.

The dispute centres on the federal government’s proposed Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, which is planned to traverse nine coastal states.

While Duke has questioned the cost and practicality of constructing the road through Bayelsa’s wetlands, Diri has maintained that the state’s experience with infrastructure projects in difficult terrain shows that construction is possible.