Bayelsans in Calabar felicitate Diri over poll victory; berates fmr. president Jonathan for comment on 2023 off cycle elections

As indigenes of Bayelsa State, resident in Calabar, Cross River State have continued to celebrate the victory of incumbent governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Duoye Diri at the November 11, 2023 governorship elections, a prominent Ijaw indigene and maritime businessman, Chief Benson Fekumo has expressed reservations over former President Goodluck Jonathan’s call for end to mid-season elections in the electoral process after casting his vote in his Otueke country home in Ogbia over the weekend.

Fekumo in the company of Mr. Government Breyai while talking with newsmen in Ikang, Bakassi LGA on Tuesday congratulated Governor Diri for his victory at the poll but frowned at the comment of former president Goodluck Jonathan asking INEC to abolish staggered elections. He wondered why there should not be off season elections when an election is cancelled and tribunal and, or appellate court ruling disrupts normal election cycle in the country.

It would be recalled that Governor Duoye Diri who came second in the 2019 governorship poll won by David Iyon of the APC but overturned by the supreme court in 2019 over forged certificate presented by his deputy to INEC, hence warranting the off-season election in Bayelsa State. The same goes for Kogi and Imo States where elections were conducted simultaneously on Saturday, November 11, 2023 to elect governors after expiration of their previous mandates.

In the November 11 governorship elections, Diri defeated Timipre Sylva, the APC governorship candidate and immediate past minister of state for petroleum resources as well as a former governor of Bayelsa State.

By: Archibong Emmanuel
(Snr. Reporter)