Yenagoa—The APC Integrity Group, Bayelsa State Chapter, has accused the Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri of not doing enough to defend the Ijaw Nation.
The group wondered why Diri who is a product of the Ijaw National Congress (INC) and clearly understands the challenges facing the Ijaw nation is neither here nor there.
In a statement by its spokesman, Fred Ayabowei the group berated Diri for failing to defend the Ijaw Nation when the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike ridiculed Ijaw leaders, some of who, the group maintains, were instrumental to his emergence as governor.
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“Wike has no regard for any Ijaw leader including Diri himself. The public ridicule of the IYC and INC without any response from the Bayelsa State Governor whose duty is to speak for our people, yet chose to remain mute, leaves a wrong impression among a huge segment of Ijaw people.
“Bayelsa State has a governor who seems to be concerned only about his second tenure than providing leadership for the people. Rather than stand tall to defend the Ijaw nation, Diri attracts the insult of other Governor’s imposing their supremacist ideas on him and they donate some money to him for that insult.
“Just recently all those who supported and fought to ensure Diri became governor are now defecting to other political parties out of frustration and nothing is being done to reconcile them with the present realities on the ground. Needless to say that the Governor’s tactic of ignoring stakeholders is counter-productive,” the statement reads.
The group insisted that there is an increase in crime rate, bemoaning that the Diri-led “prosperity administration is yet to achieve any tangible result in security and other sectors.”
While calling on the governor to consciously defend the Ijaw Nation, the group also urged him to reshuffle his cabinet and place the state in the orbit of accelerated development.
“It is not an accident that the Ijaw Nation is the fourth largest in Nigeria. It is obligatory for any leader of Bayelsa State to defend the Ijaw nation in words and in deed,” the statement concluded.
