In light of congratulating Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, on his victory in the governorship election held on November 11, the former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, revealed that he would have relocated his mother to Abuja if Governor Diri had lost the election.
On Friday, Jonathan applauded Diri for “confronting” the security challenges in the state, stating that he would have relocated his mother to Abuja, the nation’s capital, if the governor had lost the election, Channels Television reported.
“We don’t want to go into unnecessary crisis in the state,” Jonathan revealed in a meeting with Governor Diri in Yenagoa on Friday.
“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,” he stated during the meeting.
“There should be nothing that will push the state backwards. 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.”
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The former president had in a meeting with leaders of Ogbia Local Government Area two days before the election endorsed Mr Diri for a second term.
Ogbia, which was won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019 flipped to the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.
In the final results of the election, Mr Diri won in six of the eight local government areas of the state scoring a total of 175,196 votes to emerge the winner while his closest challenger, Timipre Sylva of the APC came second with 110, 108 votes.
Mr Diri was declared the governor-elect by Faruk Kuta, a professor and INEC returning officer for the election, therefore solidifying his mandate.