Abuja, Nigeria — Bayelsa State’s political landscape has been thrown into sudden turmoil as Yekini Nabena, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has levelled serious accusations against the State Governor, Douye Diri, alleging a calculated plot to dismantle the existing party leadership and destroy the reputation of prominent chieftains, including the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, Africa Update reports.
The incendiary claims, made by Mr Nabena in a press statement delivered to journalists on Friday, link the Governor who has recently resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and is widely speculated to be decamping to the APC to a campaign of destabilisation within the ruling party’s structure.
Central to Nabena’s grievance is the purported spreading of a “fake” rumour concerning the alleged arrest of Dr. Ogbuku in connection with a controversial coup plot against the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Nabena was unequivocal in his rejection of the report: “Let me put it on record… 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 (PhD).” He stressed that the NDDC MD was never arrested, dismissing the entire narrative as baseless fabrication.
According to the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary, this rumour is merely a component of a grander strategy: “The plan is to destroy the existing organs and prominent members of the party before he (Governor Diri) formally decamps to APC on Monday.”
While acknowledging Governor Diri’s constitutional right to join any political party, Nabena issued a stern warning against using disruptive tactics to assume immediate control.
“The fact that 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,” he declared.
The APC chieftain questioned the Governor’s political weight and mandate for leadership, asserting that Governor Diri would be “joining the APC without any support base.” He contended that the majority of political bigwigs in the Bayelsa chapter of the PDP are not accompanying him in his defection.
Nabena further queried the Governor’s standing, claiming he has “no grassroots base” and is not in control of his own constituency, let alone his Senatorial District.
“This is a Governor that even some State House of Assembly members have rejected. About 90 per cent of the serving National Assembly members, including Senator Dickson and other high-profile lawmakers, are not on the same page with him,” Nabena elaborated, challenging Governor Diri to clarify his expected contribution to the APC.
The former APC official concluded by asserting that several key PDP figures are aligned with Dr. Ogbuku’s leadership and would only join President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda through the NDDC boss’s influence at an appropriate juncture.
The unfolding developments signal an intense political contest for the soul of the Bayelsa APC, ensuring that Governor Diri’s widely anticipated entry will be far from a seamless transition.
