Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has revealed that his fate in God made him became a governor.
Governor Diri’s spokesman, Daniel Alabrah stated this in a statement on Saturday.
The statement quoted the governor disclosing that he has paid $10,000 to marabouts from Kenya contracted on his behalf to spiritually facilitate his emergence as governor.
He however said he rejected the ritual.
According to while, Diri speaking during the KOLGA (Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area) Annual Day of Thanksgiving held in Sampou, his community on Friday, said his absolute faith in God earned him the sobriquet ‘Miracle Governor.’
He said Diri recalled that in 2020, a senior citizen invited him to Abuja and advised him to perform certain rituals if he wanted to be governor but rejected the the advice.
Diri, a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019 off-cycle governorship election in the state, had lost to the then candidate of th All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief David Lyon, but he challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaration of Lyon as the winner and eventually won at the Supreme Court.
Alabrah quoted Diri telling the crowd at the gathering that the senior citizen bought in some Senegalese marabouts to do the rituals when the matter was before the Supreme Court.
He said rejected the offer and the man demanded a refund of the money spent to transport them into the country and he had to pay him $10,000.
Diri said politicians should learn from his experience and trust God rather than in man, adding that the people of Koluama/Opokuma local government have reasons to be thankful to God given the level of development they have witnessed, and thanked the council for giving the thanksgiving day a legal backing through legislation.
