By Kamil Opeyemi
Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri on Wednesday won the ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party for the state governorship election scheduled to hold in November.
Diri was the only aspirant cleared by the Philip Shuaibu-led PDP screening committee for the Bayelsa exercise in March.
The ad-hoc delegates were drawn from the eight local government areas of the state.
The PDP’s head of panel for the elective state delegates congress for the Bayelsa governorship primaries and governor of Osun state, Ademola Adeleke, declared Diri as the winner of the election held at the Gabriel Okara Cultural Centre, Yenagoa.
Adeleke said that the governor polled a total of 305 votes to emerge as the sole candidate of the party.
“Having satisfied the requirements of this election and having scored the highest number of votes, I, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke, by the power vested in me as the chairman, Chief Returning Officer, hereby declare Senator Douye Diri as the winner of the election.
“I, therefore, return him as the candidate of the PDP in the November 2023 election,” Adeleke declared
In his acceptance speech, Diri described the exercise as the best primaries in the history of PDP in Bayelsa state.
He noted that the primaries were a mere formality to fulfil the requirements contained in the Electoral Act, adding that his party was growing more potent daily.
Diri attributed his emergence as the only aspirant for the primaries to the understanding within the party.
“Some would have questioned that our governor is the only candidate, we don’t need this process, our governor can just continue and then we face whoever that will come from any opposition party here in the state.
“But the electoral laws do not permit us that way. It is therefore with this utmost joy and a very grateful heart to all of us in the Peoples Democratic Party, the leaders, the followers and all the allies, I do accept your nomination as the candidate of our great party to contest in the November 11 governorship election in the state,” Diri said
In a similar development, the National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, has also emerged as the party’s candidate for the Imo State governorship election.
His emergence followed the PDP primary election on Wednesday at the party’s secretariat along the Okigwe Road in Owerri, the State capital.
Organising Secretary of the party in the state, Lawrence Biado, said the seven-man electoral panel constituted by the National Working Committee(NWC) headed by Kenneth Okon was present to monitor the exercise.
Announcing the result, the chairman of the panel for the election, Okon disclosed that Anyanwu who is the sole aspirant for the election polled 802 votes which had 915 members as accredited delegates.
Speaking after he was declared winner, Anyanwu thanked members of the party and delegates for finding him worthy to be the party’s flag bearer in the governorship election scheduled for November, 11.
He assured of his victory in the forthcoming governorship election, noting that it will mark the beginning of a new dawn in the State.
He said, “People of Imo who have been subjected to several inhuman treatment should look up to PDP, we can’t wait to usher in a pursposful leadership that will salvage the people from insecurity and today marks the journey.”
It was however gathered that the former governor of the state, Emeka Ihedioha did not attend the exercise.
Ihedioha had weeks ago pulled out from the PDP governorship race.
In January 2020, the Supreme Court sacked Ihedioha as the governor of Imo State after barely seven months in office.