APC, PDP trade words over allege N2.9b car loan, rejection of Sen. Douye Diri as Bayelsa Governor

The All Progressive Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State yesterday threw caution to the wind and openly trade words over an alleged N2.9Billion loan approved by the State House of Assembly for the procurement of official cars to the State Governor, Senator Douye Diri and his Deputy, Senator Lawrence Erukhiakpor.

The PDP also castigated the APC for allegedly casting aspersions on the Justices of the Supreme Court over their verdict on the nullification of the party’s purported mandate and the rejection of the status of Senator Douye Diri as Governor of the State.

The APC, had through its Publicity Secretary, Doifie Buokoribo, legally, Douye Diri is governor of Bayelsa State, but in the hearts and minds of our people, he is illegitimate. He was not the one they voted for. He will bear the burden of illegitimacy throughout his tenancy at Creek Haven, Government House, Yenagoa.

The State Publicity Secretary, Doifie Buokoribo, in a statement issued yesterday through email in reaction to the PDP criticism of APC position on the Supreme Court verdict, stated that the party read with a sense of déjà vu a statement credited to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Bayelsa State Chapter, in which it claimed All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, helped the PDP win the Bayelsa State governorship election.

According to the Statement, “The APC in Bayelsa State considers the PDP position irresponsible, petty and provocative. It is a clear fact that the PDP did not win the Bayelsa State governorship election held on 16 November 2019. The APC won that election, fair and square”.

The APC also claimed that “His puppet,“Another confirmation of our position is the decision of Senator Diri to take a bank loan of NGN2.9 billion for the purpose of buying “operational vehicles for the governor, his deputy and other top government functionaries”. Coming less than three weeks as governor, this move is scandalous, unsympathetic and ungodly. Sadly, the Bayelsa State House of Assembly has approved the loan request”.

‘Diri is taking the loan at a time when civil servants and pensioners in the state have not been paid. This is a continuation of the frivolities of the PDP government of Dickson; a major reason the people of the state roundly rejected them at the poll. Unfortunately, Bayelsa State is in for another long haul under an illegitimate regime that does not feel any sense of commitment to the welfare and sensibilities of the people, This cannot be the government that the people of Bayelsa State deserve. It cannot be the government the people voted for”.

But the PDP in a statement through its Publicity Secetary,Barr. Osom Macbere argued that the position presented by the APC are baseless, infantile and bizzare,” the APC statement is yet another clear proof of the APC as a party with disdain for the rule of law and respect for democratic institutions.The APC has once again gone berserk in their conventional fashion, taking a swipe at the February 13 and 26, 2020 Supreme Court judgments that nullified the heavily rigged November 16, 2019 governorship election as well as the candidacy of its leprously blemished running mate, Sen. Degi Biobarakuma Eremienyo”.

“What irks the conscious mind is the audacity with which the desperate APC power-seekers cast contemptuous aspersions on the integrity of the Supreme Court, which did its final adjudicatory obligation in rationalizing upon the jurisprudential implications of bearing multiple names in multiple documents without proper reconciliation.Indeed, the Supreme Court was helpless to doing nothing else than nullifying the participation of the APC in that election. Ordinarily, in civilized climes, the APC and its blemished candidate should face the wrath of the law for the rogue benefits it enjoyed as this blemish is a dent on the Senate.”

“But instead of repenting and showing remorse, the party, its leader, Chief Timipre Sylva, has rather threatened the people with suicide so as to curry sympathy. We urge the IGP to prosecute Degi Eremienyo over the ruling handed down by the apex court.”

On the allegation that the PDP did not win the election, “the party asked: was the APC eligible to participate, talk less of winning an election in which its candidate was ab initio ineligible to participate? Why is it that they have failed to hide themselves in shame, even in the midst of the criminal dents they suffer and are still not sentient to avoid media publicity as though they were civic persons deserving of electoral participation?”

The PDP further stated were the INEC vehement in its stance on the APC candidates as a non grata type, the opposition party would not be displaying such unchecked rascality,”They (the APC) were, therefore, phony persons before the voters, wanting to conceal their ineligibility and benefit from their stench. Sen. Douye Diri therefore hazards no burden of illegitimacy for it was a rogue mandate recovered from a rogue participant, and the mandate by the Supreme Court is renewed in relation to Douye Diri like one with a new garment of righteousness”.

“The APC ought to know that even “an illegitimate regime can beget legitimacy” (Read the Madzibamuto vs Lardner-Burke case) and the legitimacy transferred to Sen. Douye Diri is now washed snow-white, as though, never before worn around the leprously blemished APC and Degi.”

On the allegation that Governor Diri collected a loan of N2.9 billion to purchase cars for top government functionaries, our response is that this is a very cheap and unintelligible blackmail for government has the resources to acquire all such machinery as would facilitate in the delivery of its obligations and need not obtain loan facilities to do so.

“It is more laughable when you recall that the APC while waiting to be sworn in in the state had already taken an N8billion loan, with which it purchased cars for persons not yet accorded official portfolios. Sadly, the APC and its structure always look puerile in their role as an opposition party and this calls for deep concern.”

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