EXCLUSIVE: Bayelsa Governor Douye Diri Orders Petitions to the SSS and Police for the Arrest of Secrets Reporters Publisher and Reporters to Unmask the Source of His Budget Leaks

Sources within Bayelsa State Government House have confided in SecretsReporters that Governor Douye Diri has asked that petitions be written to the State Security Services and the Nigeria Police for the arrest of the publisher and reporters of this newspaper, so as to force them to disclose where the leak behind the newspaper’s Bayelsa budget exposés is coming from.

Government House sources told SecretsReporters that the governor has held several meetings with trusted aides on the matter, and that the settled position inside those meetings is that opposition politicians are the ones feeding the newspaper with information to bring down the state government.

The reporting the governor is moving against is a series of exposés built line by line out of his own government’s budget and spending record, published by this newspaper one damning document after another while his administration said nothing.

On 5 May 2025, this newspaper reported that the Bayelsa State Government budgeted N4 billion under NG-Cares for its 2025 expenditure, with N500 million set aside for welfare packages alone, a provision that had stood at N50 million the year before.

On 7 October 2025, SecretsReporters reported that the General Services Bureau, the Governor’s Office, was allocated N25,089,252,853.99 in the 2025 budget, inside which anniversaries and celebrations carried N1,765,000,000 while the state’s youths roamed without work.

On 15 October 2025, this newspaper reported that the Ministry of Youth had approved N710,000,000 for the acquisition of non-tangible assets with no description anywhere of what those assets are, alongside N600,000,000 for research and development.

On 17 October 2025, SecretsReporters reported that the Office of the Accountant General budgeted N170,000,000 for software charges and licence renewal and another N7,000,000 for website hosting and domain renewal fees tied to a website that does not exist.

On 18 October 2025, this newspaper reported that the Bayelsa State High Court was approved N7,030,563,445.36 in the 2025 budget, with N905,448,000.00 going to welfare and N1,081,047,000.00 parked under miscellaneous expenses.

On 21 October 2025, in the report its readers named the Budget of Thieves, SecretsReporters reported that ministries across the state had allocated over N100 million to burials, marriages and frivolities inside the same budget the government christened the Budget of Assured Prosperity.

On 2 October 2026, this newspaper reported that the Governor’s Office was approved N31,999,928,159.11 in the 2026 budget and had burned N14,333,381,414.53 of it in just six months, two thirds of its overhead vote gone in half the year, while the state’s official award channel carried not one published contract award for 2026.

On 20 October 2026, SecretsReporters reported that the Deputy Governor’s Office carries N3,046,918,243.25 in the 2026 budget, N3 billion of it overhead and not one naira of capital, with N1 billion voted to local travel and another N1 billion to security services.

On 22 October 2026, this newspaper reported that the state voted N649.5 million for the treatment of its officials in foreign hospitals in 2026 and released N165,225,000 on international medical expenses in the first six months of the year.

On 4 November 2026, SecretsReporters reported that the office of the governor’s Special Adviser on State Security spent N7,783,715,002.51 in the first six months of 2026, against a capital vote of N12 billion behind which the governor’s own performance records name no project, no contract and no supplier.

It is this body of published reporting, drawn from the governor’s own budget and his own government’s performance records, that the petitions to the State Security Services and the Nigeria Police are now being prepared to answer, with the arrest of the publisher and reporters of this newspaper and the unmasking of a leak the governor believes is feeding it.

Unknown to the governor, SecretsReporters is published from the United States, where his arrest tools have no jurisdiction and where the criminal use of the Cybercrime Act does not reach.

SecretsReporters contacted the Bayelsa State Government for its response ahead of publication. The Bayelsa State Government gave no response as at the time of publishing this report.

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