Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in the 2023 Bayelsa off-cycle election, Engr. Udengs Eradiri, has accused state governors in the South-South of defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to evade accountability.

He said unlike former leaders like James Ibori, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, and Peter Odili who stood their ground because they had nothing to hide, the current crop of governors in the South-South are running to the APC after mismanaging funds from President Tinubu’s excess crude allocation.

Eradiri made the statement while speaking with journalists during a guest appearance at the Correspondents’ Forum, organised by the Federated Correspondents’ Chapel (FCC) of the NUJ, where he shared his views on key issues affecting Bayelsa State and Nigeria.

He said Nigeria operates between the North and South, and when it was supposed to be the turn of the South to lead, the North acted as if the South doesn’t matter. He also criticised some governors, saying they lack the ability to lead and have become a disgrace to good governance.

He said, “Nigeria as a country does North and South and it was the turn of the South, the North rob it on our face as if we don’t have head. The governors don’t have capacity, they are a disgrace to governance.

“The Ibori’s, Alamieyeseigha and Odili stood because they have no skeleton in their cupboards but this current set of governors, they have eaten the money from excess crude brought by president Tinubu, that is why they are running to join APC to hide.

“They have no confidence because they can’t defend those monies, they cannot even stand in one place and keep their heads high, putting our state in a mess and in a political quagmire.”

Eradiri noted that everything happening under Governor Douye Diri’s administration is just a fluke. He claimed the governor lacks the ability and strategy to lead effectively, pointing out that people are being killed in the streets and the government seems unconcerned.

“People are on the street killing people anyhow in this town, they are not even concerned, they want to be vise president to Atiku. They have never learn, all the people that have associated with Atiku have been doomed.

“Alamieyeseigha as he joined Atiku, he suffered until he died, Ibori went to prison because of Atiku, Okowa is owing Delta State heavily because of Atiku; Sim crisis in Rivers State is because of Atiku. This one now want to go and put himself in the same Atiku ambition that is not going anywhere.

“The economy is dying, if you know the numbers of shops that are closing down everyday because of no capacity to deal with issues. Bayelsa is in a mess, let’s stop deceiving ourselves.

“The way the politics is now, I don’t want to play oppositions again, I have joined APC because I see pepper for Labour Party, our people are too poor for oppositions, I went to every part of this state, poverty is the order of the day, on the day of election people voted otherwise because of poverty”, he stated.

Eradiri expressed his displeasure on the manner in which the disagreement between Sim Fubara and Wike was quickly labelled an Ijaw fight.

“I said it before that Sim with Wike fight are purely political issues that has no ethnic bearing, Ijaw people say they will do this, they will do that. Now that Sim is outside, where are they? All was just to cut Rivers money and join with Bayelsa money. That is why you are seeing all this unnecessary projects like the nine-story Secretariat when you have four-story building that the lifts are not functional, toilets are not working.

“Transparency building has some uncompleted buildings behind it, civil servants does not live in a good environment. Why not put that money into housing development so that people can move in there and stay but you said no because they want to siphon money to join Atiku in an election”, he said.