Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State, Douye Diri has described how he and others popularised Timi Alaibe, a former managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Diri, who was interacting with members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Bayelsa State Council, on Wednesday in Yenagoa, said at the time they were preparing the people for an Alaibe governorship, he was not even known.
His words: “We know you, Douye, this man you are talking about, where is he? We have not seen him. Senator Felix Oboro, we know you, you are talking about Ndutimi Alaibe; who is he, where is he?
“We were in that sojourn for about 10 years, trying to see how we can make Chief Ndutimi Alaibe the governor. We are the people who even gave him that name, Principal.
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“But that didn’t work out, so at a point in one’s life you have to take your destiny in your hands. I decided, once again, to take my destiny in my hands. I finally parted ways with the Bison, New Vision that they called Alaibe.”
In his first media interaction since he began to run for the PDP ticket, he explained that he and others left Alaibe to forge his own political path and returned to the party to be appointed first as Deputy Chief of Staff and later Principal Executive Secretary by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson.
Media practitioners and observers see Diri’s statements about Alaibe as an attack on his former principal, an indication of a growing frosty relationship since the former Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Affairs challenged his victory at the party primary at the Federal High Court, Yenagoa last Friday.
The attack is coming at a time that the PDP is inaugurating a peace committee with a former member of the Senate, Inatimi Rufus-spiff as chairman, to resolve all lingering disputes from the September 3 governorship primary election.
Diri, however, called on all those who contested against him, who are still not happy at the outcome of the primary election to “sheathe their swords” and work with him to ensure a PDP victory at the November 16 governorship election.
He assured that he would continue with the legacies of the incumbent administration while reviewing certain aspects and blamed the current power outage in the state on the Federal Government since power is in the exclusive legislative list in the constitution.
While answering questions from journalists, Diri expressed dissatisfaction with the level of development of Bayelsa State after 20 years of PDP rule, but also defended the party, saying the state of development is much better than when the party came into power.
He deflected the question on who his running mate is, rather directing journalists to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) server as it is the duty of the election umpire to publish the name submitted by the party.
The issue of the running mate has been a sore issue within the party and according to him, it was only after the name submitted by the party has been published by INEC that he can publicly announce it.
