Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The move initiated by the national headquarters of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) through the Senator Bukola Saraki peace committee to broker peace within the Bayelsa chapter of the party especially with frontline governorship aspirant, Chief Ndutimi Alaibe over the outcome of the governorship primaries has collapsed.
After the initial belief that the Saraki committee was making progress, hope has fizzled out with the party chairman, Mr Moses Cleopas, launching a blistering attack on Alaibe blaming him for some defections that has hit the party.
Cleopas in a statement while dismissing the defections of those he called “passive members of PDP,” noted that the party was not under any threat from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He reassured Bayelsans that PDP as a party was stronger and more united as shown by the massive crowd of party supporters that have been attending its rallies across the state.
According to him, the supporters of Alaibe whose original motive was to support him on the platform of the ADC but were readmitted into the PDP with him in November were the ones leaving for their party.
“Alaibe’s supporters whose original objective was to support him on the platform of the ADC came to fight within the party and these are the purported party leaders who are leaving. They all came with him from the APC in November last year,” he said.
However, in a swift reaction, Enize Ogio, Special Assistant to Alaibe in a statement titled ‘Stop Further Self- Destruction,” said Clepoas “unreservedly lied to the public” when he blamed Alaibe for the defections PDP had suffered ahead of the November 16 governorship election.
Ogio who noted that Alaibe resisted pressures from all quarters to leave the PDP said instead for Cleopas and his sponsors to apologise for conducting a procedurally-flawed primary election “they are busy grandstanding and looking for who to blame.”
The statement read in part: “It is sad to note that at a time the national headquarters of the PDP has set up a committee to reconcile and bring aggrieved members of the party back to the political family after the defective primary election, the party leadership in Bayelsa State is embarking on further self-destruction -just three weeks to a crucial governorship election – by bandying falsehood against someone who could reinvent and mobilise the people against the already anticipated failure of the party at the poll on November 16. It should worry every member of the PDP that Chief Cleopas, instead of burying his head in shame that the party he was elected to lead is disintegrating under his watch, is noisily going about advertising his glaring incompetence by attacking someone whose public service records and leadership qualities are far beyond his imagination.”