Assets Declaration: Group Denies Withdrawing Petition Against Diri

By Chibuzo Sunday

The Bayelsa Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability has denied withdrawing the petition it filed against Senator Douye Diri at the Code of Conduct Bureau that he failed to declare his assets as the deputy chief of staff to the governor of Bayelsa State between 2012 and 2015.

The group had in the petition alleged that the infraction vitiated his eligibility as a candidate in good standing in the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa State. Diri is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The group in a statement made available to GWG affirmed that Diri has been scheduled to appear before the Code of Conduct Bureau, to respond to the issues on Monday.

In a statement issued on behalf of the group by Kingsley Arthur, the group said:

“As a follow up and to clear doubts arising from the news making the rounds that the petition filed by Bayelsa Coalition for Good Governance and Accountability at the Code of Conduct Bureau against Senator Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has been withdrawn. We wish to affirm that this is certainly not true, the petition has not been withdrawn and it was defended by our Executive Director Joseph Ambakederimo on the 7th October, 2019. Senator Douye Diri is now expected to make his defence of the petition on Monday, October 14.

“We therefore wish to bring to the attention of the general public and Bayelsans in particular that we asked for an expedited investigation in our petition dated the 17th of September, 2019 and which was duly acknowledged by the Code of Conduct Bureau on which the subject petitioned would appear on Monday.

“We asked for expedited investigation and we have not seen that happen. We do not want to believe or think that some unscrupulous elements within and without the Bureau may be working in cohorts with agents of the Bayelsa Government to compromise the investigation and arraignment of Senator Douye Diri.

“The plan which has come to light is to deliberately delay the process of investigation and arraignment until the November 16th elections are held. This must not be allowed to happen under the leadership of Professor Mohammed Isah led Code of Conduct Bureau.

“We hold the Chairman of the Bureau to a very high esteem and we do not associate the Chairman to any nefarious and wicked plot to unduly delay or kill the flagrant disobedience of the rule of law by the Senator. Going further, the Chairman we know would not allow anyone impugn on his character and integrity nor that of the Code of Conduct Bureau under his watch.

“Any attempt from any quarter to derail this very important matter which we see as a rape on the constitution and a violation of extant laws shall be met with stiff resistance. There should be no cover-Ups within and without the Bureau. We also warned in our petition that this matter should not be politicized.

“We urge that everyone who is associated with this matter should deal with the facts of the matter that we have raised which are germane to all Nigerians.

“Again, for the information of the general public, we have filed new sets of documents amongst which are INEC Form C.F. 001 containing the personal particulars he filed under oath with INCE with the Bureau to corroborate the claims in our petition that Senator Douye Diri, deliberately circumvented the law and the mandatory declaration of his assets as required by law.

“Senator Douye Diri, was not just an aide to the Governor, he was Deputy Chief of Staff and principal Executive Secretary between 2012 to 2014, therefore for anyone to claim or peddle a defense that Senator Diri was just an aide to the Governor is only trying to trivialize an important matter and an attempt to ridicule the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“If we as a people are on the same page in the fight against corruption, this is the time for us all to give the fight against corruption an impetus to nip corruption in the bud. Therefore there is no better time than now for all well meaning Nigerian to join us and stop those who undermine the laws of the land to put themselves in position of power, this is the only way we can check and prevent corrupt tendencies and corruption from happening.”

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