Bayelsa poll: I’d have relocated my mother to Abuja if Diri had lost – Jonathan
…Timipre Sylva hits Jonathan over comments
Former President Goodluck Jonathan said he would have relocated his mother to Abuja if Governor Douye Diri, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP had lost.
Jonathan stated this when he visited Diri in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, on Friday.
“I was saying before this election that if Diri loses this election, I would have relocated my mother to Abuja.
“We don’t want to go into unnecessary crisis in the state. Results have been declared and we believe the election was conducted. We believe the governor won the election and we plead that people should accept it and work with the governor. Let all of us support him so that the state will move ahead.
“There should be nothing that will push the state backward. We should think about the development of the state starting from the issue of peace and security in the state which within this last period, three years plus, there are significant improvements in terms of cultism and kidnapping and so on and so forth,” he said.
The former president hailed Diri’s efforts at tackling insecurity, saying the governor’s re-election means the state would be a lot safer.
He said if Douye had lost, the gains made in curbing insecurity would have been lost.
Speaking on how his cousin was kidnapped and killed, Jonathan expressed optimism that with Diri returning as the governor of the state, the situation would soon be a thing of the past.
He said, “My cousin was kidnapped two times on one of those occasions, one of my cousins, Solo, was killed because they threw him into the river and he didn’t know how to swim,” he added.
“So, we’ve passed through hell in this state and we’ve seen a little light at the end of the tunnel. So, people should calm down, and allow Diri to focus on governance so that he will be able to propel this state forward so that we will benefit as citizens of the state.”
Diri had earlier in the day received his certificate of return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a second term in office. He will be sworn in for another four-year tenure next year.
‘You can’t take swamp out of hippopotamus’ — Timipre Sylva hits Jonathan over comments on Bayelsa guber poll
Timipre Sylva, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Bayelsa governorship election, says the comments by former President Goodluck Jonathan on the outcome of the poll is “unfortunate”.
Reacting to Jonathan’s comments, Sylva, in an Instagram post, said he “sincerely” hoped that the former president was misquoted.
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s statement is unfortunate,” he wrote.
“I sincerely hope he was misquoted. Let me just quote our respected Wole Soyinka: “you can take the hippopotamus out of the swamp but you cannot take the swamp out of the hippopotamus.”
