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An erstwhile Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Yekini Nabena, says Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State will not be bringing any value to the party.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Friday, Nabena alleged that the governor is instead trying to destabilise the current leadership structure to have his way.
He disclosed that Governor Diri is expected to formally defect to the APC on Monday and is working to destroy the existing leadership of the party before jumping ship.
The APC chieftain stated that the governor’s planned defection would not yield the kind of political impact he might be anticipating.
Nabena also alleged that loyalists of the governor were stoking arrest rumours linking the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, with regard to an alleged coup plot.
He described the arrest rumours as a deliberate attempt to smear Ogbuku’s reputation and destabilise the existing leadership structure of the APC in Bayelsa State, allegedly to pave the way for Governor Diri’s planned defection to the party.
According to him, the Bayelsa governor will join APC empty-handed since most key figures in the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were not defecting with him, unlike what recently occurred in Delta and Enugu States.
The APC stalwart, therefore, urged Nigerians to disregard the fake reports about Ogbuku’s alleged arrest.
“Let me put it on record that we are not saying the Governor should not join the APC, it is a democracy and he has the right to join any party. The fact we will not take is for him to destroy some people and the existing leadership of the APC in Bayelsa state because he wants to take full control of the party.
“We have traced the recent happenings in Bayelsa state to Governor Douye Diri’s camp, especially the arrest rumours of NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku.
“The plan is to destroy the existing organs and prominent members of the party before he (Governor Diri) formally decamps to APC on Monday,” he said.
