*Photo: Governor Douye Diri*
Niger Delta ex-agitator, Endurance Amagbein, on Thursday, urged Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, to be father to all and resolve lingering crisis in the state’s chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Amagbein stated this in a statement made available in Abuja to congratulate Gov. Diri over his recent appointment as South-South Coordinator of the National Steering Committee for the Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme by President Bola Tinubu.
He also hailed President Tinubu for finding the governor worthy of the appointment.
Amagbein, the self-styled General, said the appointment would be a channel to bring development closer to the grassroots through sustainable projects and community-based interventions, improving living standards, creating jobs and deepening national cohesion.
He expressed optimism in Diri’s ability to deliver on the new assignment given to him; saying that “the Bayelsa State Governor is more concerned with grassroots development than politics.”
Amagbein, popularly known as Adaka Boro the Second, said Diri will ensure that the Renewed Hope Programme has far-reaching effects on every community in the south-south, and described the appointment as a square peg in a square hole.
According to him, this appointment will further strengthen Governor Douye Diri to deliver more dividends of democracy to the people of the grassroots because he has spent the five years of his administration taking development to rural communities in Bayelsa.
The ex-agitator said despite what anybody would say about Diri, they cannot erase the fact that the governor is not playing politics with the development of Bayelsa State.
He said Diri is so committed to completing the three senatorial roads in the state, so that every community can be accessed by road.
He also congratulated the governor for officially joining the APC on Monday, and urged him to reconcile every aggrieved member of the party in the state just as he did when he was in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“In 2019/2020, so many people were aggrieved and left the PDP, but when Douye Diri took over the leadership of the state and the PDP, he unified the party and the entire state, and those who vowed to never return to the PDP came back without grudges – that’s Douye Diri for you.
“In the APC, there are factions, and for the past few years, they have been running parallel leadership in the state with two party secretariats – not only that, the leaders of the party have been in court as well, with betrayals and victimisation, and the governor is aware of all of these things.
“Now that he has come into the party, his first move should be to call all the stakeholders together with a view to resolving all pending disputes – the same way he did in the PDP, so that there can be lasting peace and inflow of dividends of democracy to the people of our state,” Amagbein said.