After a long wait and speculations, the governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has finally announced his defection from the PDP.
Joining him to the new party are 19 members of the state house of assembly. His Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Alabrah confirmed this in a telephone conversation with TNN on Wednesday.
It was followed by a declaration on his facebook page. He did not give further details. But TNN had earlier reported that his deputy, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, as well as his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson, would not be defecting.
Sources in Yenagoa had informed TNN that Dickson would stay put in the PDP with the deputy governor for now, even though there are indications that the duo would leave the PDP for the ADC in the near future.
A few other members of the National Assembly who are either sympathetic to Dickson or the former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, are also not going to leave the PDP with the governor.
TNN learnt that the governor’s formal defection date would be made known on a later date. Since 1999, the state had been a PDP enclave, but with the defection of the governor, history has been made.
