Tension In Bayelsa As Court Decides On PDP’s Guber Candidate, Today

There is palpable tension in Bayelsa State as a High Court in Owerri, the Imo State capital, will today, deliver judgement on the rightful governorship candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in the last November election, even as a body, the Kolga Economic Summit Group has called on Chief Timi Alaibe to sheath his swords and work with incumbent Governor, Senator Douye Diri to move the state forward.
Alaibe had approached the court to contest the emergence of Diri as the PDP’s governorship candidate, which eventually saw him as governor, even as the former is asking the court to declare him as the authentic candidate of the party in Bayelsa.
In a statement made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt, Convener of Kolga Economic Summit Group, Elvis Donkemezuo, said both Alaibe and Diri were from Kolokuma/Opokuma, an area he described as minority (in number wise) in the predominantly coastal state.
He further said before now, the Kolokuma/Opokuma Elders Forum had reached out to Alaibe to drop his ambition and state.
“You see this issue of the pre-election matter of the PDP has been put to rest during the last general election. Peace efforts have been made by some prominent sons of the area, including the King of Kolokuma/Opokuma Clan, who has called Alaibe to consolidate and reunite with Diri in order to have a Kolokuma son as the governor.
“But as it is now that the case is proposed to be adjudged today at the High Court in Owerri, we have no other option than to come out in the public. So, if anything goes wrong, we are saying that we have washed our hands off this issue because this is the climax of it all.
“We are saying that Kolokuma/Opokuma people are in the minority in Bayelsa State in terms of numbers, and we have suffered so much for the Niger Delta and the Ijaw struggle starting from the days of Isaac Adaka Boro who fought the 12-day revolution that gave birth to the creation of the old Rivers State, coming to the Kaiama Declaration that led to the invasion of Odi, then the creation of Bayelsa State and so on.
“So, we are saying that we have not had the opportunity to produce the governor of Bayelsa State all of these times. So, now that we have one in the person of Senator Douye Diri, we are all appealing to Alaibe to sheath his swords and work with Diri to achieve the development strides we want. What bothers us as Kolga SES is that what is being contested in court is pre-election matter, and is not asking the court to declare him the winner based on the votes’ margin between them, but asking for outright cancellation of the entire process.
“The main worry is that the suit in court doesn’t leave us with any opportunity of having the challenger declared winner. This is why Kolga SES believes that the case in court is not in the interest of Kolgans. Chief Timi Alaibe is a respected son of Kolga, and if he had emerged the flag-bearer, we all would have supported him just the same way we did for Douye Diri.

By: Dennis Naku