Alaibe finally dumps APC for PDP with 6,200 supporters

Former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ndutimi Alaibe has finally dumped the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The APC chieftain decamped on Friday with 6,200 supporters, according to a Government House statement, and was received by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson in his conference room in Government House, Yenagoa.

BDSUNDAY reliably gathered that he had earlier deferred his defection for wider consultations on his future which is understood to be on the governorship in 2020 as the position has been zoned to his area.

Along with him were former Secretary to Bayelsa State Government, Gideon Ekeowei, one-time Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Keme Prefa and ex-Chairman of Sagbama Local Government Council, Barnabas Edure.

Among the decamped was one-time member House of Representatives, Nelson Belief and former Executive Secretary of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Rhodesia Whyte.

Governor Dickson stated that Alaibe’s defection along with his supporters spelled the end of APC in Bayelsa State and gave credence to the supremacy of PDP.

Dickson also stated that the defection had justified his earlier belief that the APC cannot win any election in the state as its leadership had brazenly demonstrated lack of interest in the welfare and development of the state.

He noted that Bayelsa remains the only PDP state that has re-elected its governor by defeating the federal might in 2015 after the party became an opposition party in the country.

He stressed the need for people of the state and Ijaw nation to embrace the PDP pointing out that no well meaning and decent person would identify with the other party because of the high level of criminality and falsehood associated with it.

In his words: “The APC in Bayelsa is a party of criminals, cultists and terrorists. PDP has the majority of the good and decent patriotic people. I used to say there are few APC members in Bayelsa that are good and patriotic. But now, imagine the few good ones have now left, so the APC in Bayelsa is completely a party of criminals, cultists and terrorists.

“When we come to campaign, we will wait for them to tell us the roads and bridges from Abuja that they have brought to this state, to show us the major appointments, benefits and patronage that they deceived this good and decent people to their dry party that doesn’t mean well for our people. The APC clearly is being folded up in Bayelsa with all of you leaving.”

Dickson congratulated Alaibe and his supporters for their decision to dump the APC and assured them of their full integration into the PDP and promised to organise a formal rally in their honour.

Continuing, he stated: “We are here to formally receive and welcome you back home to your party and I have told the chairman and the political desk working with your team that we will organise a formal reception and receive you because you are a big fish. You cannot come into the PDP and people will not know you have come. What is happening today is a  prelude to your formal reception.

“We were pained when you left at a time we needed you all the most, but all of that is history. What is important is what is ahead of us and I want to assure you that you are all valued leaders in the party once again.

Earlier in his remarks, Alaibe, a former Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta Matters, described PDP as home for the Ijaw people in view of the recognition the party has given to them.

Alaibe noted that all the political positions he held were facilitated by the PDP stressing that they could not be left out in what he called, the wilderness which informed his decision to come back to the PDP to support Governor Dickson for the progress of the state.

He saluted Dickson’s efforts and his administration’s dogged commitment to the cause of the Ijaw nation and the development of Bayelsa State while maintaining a disciplined PDP.

Alaibe stated: “PDP for me as an individual is home. My political life was defined by
the PDP. My political public service work and all the political positions that I have held were facilitated by the PDP and for a lot of us here, it was the PDP. So for us PDP is home. It is a good-come-back home.”

“I want to thank you for some of the grandiose projects and programmes you have implemented in Bayelsa including this state of the art office for the people of Bayelsa State. I want to thank you for the continuous commitment to the Ijaw Nation. The commitment that has inspired some of us to continue to remain as a people in the space called Nigeria.

“We want to assure you that at some point in the course of our political life, just like a child will not know the richness of his mother’s soup until he tastes his neighbour’s soup, we have gone out there and we have tasted our neighbour’s soup and we have made comparison and our own soup, the soup you pilot is sweeter. And that’s why we are here.”

Also speaking, Chairman of the State PDP, Moses Cleopas described Alaibe’s return as a show of patriotism and love for Bayelsa State assuring that he would be given a sense of belonging to enable him contribute effectively to the success of the PDP.

He stated: “We are receiving you with our spirit, soul and body. But one belief we have now is that you are coming to add value to this party and not with any fear that you shall by any way make the party less of what it is today because you are coming into a reformed PDP where everyone is on the same side.”

Samuel Ese, Yenagoa