It is that time of the year when different political figures are cast into molds for other people to throw stones at. For the governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, the latest of these casting processes has thrown his reputation into disarray. Unless the Governor takes drastic steps to prove his innocence, he might not be able to retain the confidence of some of his most loyal Bayelsans.
Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa have decided to throw new stones at Diri. The Bayelsan governor is the victim of a new package of accusations about the allocation of money to the Bayelsan people, money that has allegedly disappeared down the drain and must have been swallowed up by Diri, that is, according to the governor’s APC rivals.
Based on the reports, Diri and his cabinet received N100 billion as the share of Bayelsa’s people in the oil dividend from President Muhammadu Buhari. However, each of the local government areas in Bayelsa was given N3 billion of this huge amount. Interestingly, Diri’s APC opposers claim that some local government areas in Bayelsa do not have leaders (that is, chairpersons that oversee things) and that Diri and his people did not report that fact but somehow found a way to swallow N21 billion.
According to Diri’s accusers, even though Diri eventually found a way to report that the Federal Government had released the money for the local governments, they did not make a proper amount of how they spent it. Reportedly, they (Diri and his people) even went to their state assembly a month after the N100 billion allocation to take a loan. Where, asks Diri’s detractors, did the N100 billion go after barely 30 days of getting it?
Currently, more people are asking questions about Diri’s integrity and the man might be forced to provide answers as he has lost the initiative.
