2019 Guber: Why I Abandoned Diri -Ayalla
John ODHE, Yenagoa
A former chairman of the Bayelsa State Environmental Sanitation Authority, Chief Robert Ayalla Enogha has confessed that he abandoned Senator Douye Diri when the governor needed his help most during the 2019 governorship election in the state.
Ayalla, a former lawmaker in the state house of assembly made the open confession when he featured in a radio programme in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital which was monitored by our correspondent.
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The business mogul recalled that during the build up to the 2019 gubernatorial election in Bayelsa state, he took a bitter decision that made him to leave his original Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief David Lyon, thereby abandoning Diri, who happens to be the present governor of the state.
He, however, revealed that his decision to leave the PDP was informed by the overbearing attitude of the then governor, who never respected internal democracy but wanted everything done in his personal interest alone.
Ayalla further confessed that he felt so guilty now that despite what he did to Diri in 2019 by withdrawing his support from him as the then PDP governorship candidate, the governor has continued to show him more love than ever and holding no grudges against him.
It could be recalled that Diri lost catastrophically in Ogbia Local Government Area where Chief Robert Ayalla hails from, because all PDP bigwigs in the LGA including Ayalla left the party or refused to support it due to what they described then as high-handedness on the part of the leadership of the PDP led by the former governor, now Senator Seriake Dickson.
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The PDP also lost the governorship election in five other local government areas but only won in Sagbama LGA and Kolokuma/Opokuma council area where Diri comes from, thereby losing the governorship seat to the opposition APC for the first time since 1999.
The PDP only miraculously got back its governorship position through a ruling of the Supreme Court which nullified the APC gubernatorial victory on the ground that its deputy governor-elect, Senator Biobarakumo Degi-Eremienyo presented irregular credentials to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
During the radio programme, Ayalla said following what he did to the governor, “a stubborn and careless politician can damn you and there is nothing you can do about it, but he (Diri) has showed me love all this time and even surprised me during my daughter’s marriage.
“When l went back to the house, l was extremely humbled. So, beyond the reasons l have explained, which are levelheadedness, respect for elders, respect for Bayelsa state, the management of his tongue and utterances as a person, he has won my heart. Governor Diri is one man I can say that I cleanly and clearly stand for.
“The governor’s second term election, for me, is a project. For every other election, Robert Enogha knows what to do as much as all of them have their intimidating credentials to contest whatever position they want to contest.”
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Ayalla, who described himself as a politician and elder statesman, however, advised his teaming supporters to through their weight behind the second term bid of Diri but vote their conscience in other elective positions during the forthcoming general elections.
The Ogbia born politician also revealed that he has decided to stay without a political party for now, adding that he wanted to contest for the Bayelsa East Senatorial District seat under the APC since an existing rotational arrangement favoured Ogbia LGA and his own constituency in particular but lost interest to contest when it became clear to him that the APC leadership in the state was going to jettison the rotation.
