Segun James

The organisers of the planned rally scheduled in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital in support of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, have dared Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State, vowing to go ahead with the rally, despite the governor’s opposition to it.

 During a meeting with Bayelsa elders and security agencies, on Wednesday, the governor had raised concerns that the rally could trigger violence.

He urged the security agencies and stakeholders not to encourage anything that could lead to the breakdown of law and order in the state.

But reacting in a statement, which his Media Assistant, Kelvin Loveday-Egbo, issued yesterday on his behalf, the South South Zonal Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), George Turnah,  who is the lead promoter of the rally, said arrangements for the programme were in top gear.

Expressing shock over the governor’s comment, Turnah said ethnicity has no place in politics, adding that the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly are constitutional.

He said the rally is planned in solidarity with President Bola Tinubu and the FCT minister.

Turnah also dispelled the governor’s notion that he was collaborating with a former governor to create instability in the state.

Turnah stated that he has no intention to politically destabilise Bayelsa or any other state, adding that he leads a grassroots political movement called New Associates aimed at mobilising support for Tinubu’s administration in the South-South Zone, devoid of ulterior motives.

In a promo flyer seen in Yenagoa, the promoters of the rally listed the Wike; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Samuel Ogbuku, among others, as some of the eminent Nigerians that will attend the rally.

He said: “The organisation is set to officially launch in Bayelsa on April 12, 2025, and the arrangements are in top gear to ensure a hitch-free outing, including formal notifications to relevant security organisations in the state as required by law.”

Turnah told Diri that the Ogbia leaders and elders he asked to call him to order were the same leaders who, in 2019, requested him not to support the governor’s ambition at the time, a request he said he ignored.

“I am not only a member of the PDP but also a serving Zonal Secretary of the party in the South-South; I wonder which other office the governor was accusing me of occupying if I am not a member of the PDP.”

Expressing concern over the governor’s anger regarding his personal choice of political association with Wike, Turnah noted his constitutional right to freedom of association.

He insisted that this is not the first time he had made personal political choices.

While acknowledging that the current disagreement within the PDP in the state is a family affair, Turnah assured that the issues would be resolved in no time.

He commended the governor on his many achievements and pledged his continued support for the prosperity administration led by Governor Diri.

He also called on the teeming youths, women, political class across party lines and divides, as well as all lovers of the president, to come out en masse and show their appreciation to President Tinubu and Wike for their special love for Bayelsa and the Ijaw nation.

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