Former President Goodluck Jonathan has hailed Governor Douye Diri\u2019s efforts at tackling insecurity, saying the Bayelsa leader\u2019s re-election means the state would be a lot safer.<\/p>\n
Jonathan, who is a former governor of the oil-rich state, spoke on Friday when he visited Diri in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, almost one week after the governor stormed to victory in a keenly contested poll.<\/p>\n
While congratulating Diri for winning the exercise, the former president said if Douye had lost, the gains made in curbing insecurity would have been lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t 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,\u201d he said during the gathering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was saying before this election that if Diri loses this election, I would have relocated my mother to Abuja.\u201d<\/p>\n
While recounting 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 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\u2019t know how to swim,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we\u2019ve passed through hell in this state and we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has hailed Governor Douye Diri\u2019s efforts at tackling insecurity, saying the Bayelsa leader\u2019s re-election means the state would be a lot safer. Jonathan, who is a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n