Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has formally defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He was formally received into the APC on Monday
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Vice President Kashim Shettima received Mr Diri into the APC at a rally in Yenagoa, the state capital, on Monday.
Present at the rally were the governors of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno; Delta State, Sheriff Oborevwori, and his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa; the Governor of Ondo State, Orimisan Aiyedatiwa; Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, and a former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole.
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The Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, was among the dignitaries at the event.
Speaking at the welcome ceremony in Yenagoa, Governor Diri said his defection is not a “Bayelsa defection, but the Ijaw nation defecting to the APC”.
Mr Diri said he left the PDP because some ‘undertakers’ were bent on destroying the party, adding that he does not want his state “to be buried along with the PDP.”
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The governor also said he won’t allow members of the Bayelsa House of Assembly to be victims of the crisis rocking the PDP.
Mr Diri had, on 15 October, resigned his membership of the PDP, along with the state lawmakers and the local government council chairpersons in the state.
He was one of the last remaining PDP governors in Nigeria’s South-south region after his counterpart in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Eno, defected in June from the party to the APC.
READ ALSO: Why I’m joining APC – Gov Diri
Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State is now the only remaining PDP governor in the region.
Mr Diri’s defection to the APC has further depleted the number of PDP governors in Nigeria to eight.
Rivers, Adamawa, Bauchi, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba, and Zamfara are states where the governors are PDP members.
The ruling APC currently controls 24 states in Nigeria, and may have more governors join it.
At the moment the ruling party controls five out of the six states in the South-south.
Most of the governors who have defected from the PDP said they made the decision because of the party’s protracted leadership crisis.
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