‘I would have relocated my mother from Bayelsa if Diri had lost election,’ Jonathan praises governor on security

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday expressed happiness at Governor Douye Diri’s victory in last weekend’s governorship election in Bayelsa State.

Jonathan, who visited the governor in Yenagoa, praised his efforts at tackling insecurity in the state.

He added that Diri’s re-election means the state would be a lot safer.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) presented the certificate of return to the governor in Yenogoa on Friday.

He defeated a former minister of state for petroleum, Timipre Sylva, to secure another term of four years in office.

The ex-president said: “We don’t want to go into unnecessary crisis in the state. Results have been declared and we believe the election was conducted.

READ ALSO: INEC declares Gov Diri winner of Bayelsa guber poll

“We believe the governor won the election and we plead that people should accept it and work with the governor. Let all of us support him so that the state will move ahead.

“There should be nothing that will push the state backward. We should think about the development of the state starting from the issue of peace and security in the state which within this last period, three years plus, there are significant improvements in terms of cultism and kidnapping and so on and so forth. I was saying before this election that if Diri lost this election, I would have relocated my mother to Abuja.

“My cousin was kidnapped two times on one of those occasions, one of my cousins, Solo, was killed because they threw him into the river and he didn’t know how to swim.”

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