By Simon Utebor, Yenagoa

Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri has rejected the reported overtures by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state for him to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He declared his total commitment to the PDP, saying he is going nowhere.

He said though he appreciated the APC for acknowledging that his administration is performing in Bayelsa in terms of development and good governance, the call for him to dump PDP is unfortunate, provoking and unwelcome.

A one-time Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Peremobowei Ebebi, had at the weekend, during stakeholders’ meeting of the APC in Ekeremor Local Government Area, called on Diri to take a cue from other PDP governors and dump the party which he described as a “sinking ship”.

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But Diri, through his Director-General, New Media, Mr Kola Oredipe, declared that the Governor remained a strong, committed and one of the leaders of the PDP in the country and had no reason leaving the party for another, now or in the near future.

Oredipe in a statement on Sunday described the call from the APC leaders as unfortunate, provoking and unwelcoming.

He said: “It will be political suicide to leave the only party that exists in Bayelsa State to join a party that has no root, structure in the state.

“Ebebi must be a joker. We know him for many acts of theatrics and at this time too, it is not different. He has confessed that the Governor is not doing badly meaning that the PDP is on the right track, why then go to join a party that has taken Nigeria many years back?”

The media aide wondered if Ebebi was not aware of high profile members of the opposition members who had since joined the PDP and aligned with the vision of the prosperity government for a united and greater Bayelsa State.

In a related development, an Ijaw religious advocate, Apostle Bodmas Kemepadei, said Ebebi’s overtures were capable of plunging the state into another phase of poverty.

He challenged Ebebi to rather use his influence to attract the Federal Government’s interventions in the ongoing construction of the Sagbama/Ekeremor Road that also connects his village.