From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State governor, Senator Douye Diri, has ruled out reversing himself over the dethronement of the paramount ruler of Otuokpoti community in Ogbia Local Government Area, Chief Cousin Wongo.
According to him, despite protests from some quarters, the removal of the paramount ruler was irrevocable.
Diri had, shortly after being briefed by the freed Commissioner for Trade, Industry and Investment, Mr. Federal Otokito, announced the monarch’s dethronement as well as the removal of the community development committee chairman and its youth president, as a result of their complicity in the kidnap incident.
The governor who disclosed the fate of Wongo during his remarks at the commissioning of a Divisional Police Station constructed by the Ogbia Council Chairman, Ebiyon Turner in Otuokpoti said his action was in accordance with the Nigerian constitution and the laws of Bayelsa State. His words: “I did not depose your paramount ruler because I hated him. The circumstances that led to his dethronement are known to me and the Commissioner of Police. And that deposition stands. Anybody that is protesting, I am very sorry.
