Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has officially joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) after his exit from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Vice President Kashim Shettima welcomed him into the ruling party during a ceremony in Yenagoa.
Diri’s defection came nineteen days after leaving the PDP, marking a major political shift in Bayelsa.
At the event, Diri declared, “This defection is not a Bayelsa defection, it is the Ijaw nation defecting to the APC.” He emphasized that he made the decision to secure Bayelsa’s future, vowing not to let the state “die with the PDP.”
The governor accused unnamed figures within the PDP of acting as “undertakers” trying to destroy the party. He assured the PDP crisis would not affect Bayelsa Assembly members under his leadership.
With Douye Diri joining APC, the PDP now controls only eight states, signaling a continued realignment in Nigeria’s political landscape.
