The newly sworn-in Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Duoye Diri, on Monday, held a closed-door meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo,
Diri, who arrived Obasanjo’s Pent House within the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta around 5:45 pm, held a closed-door meeting for about 20minutes.
Though the Special Assistant on Media to Obasanjo, Kehinde Akinyemi, in a statement said Diri visited the former President on the occasion of his 83rd birthday sources hinted that the Governor actually used the occasion to passionately plead with the former President to broker a truce between him(Gov Diri) and former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission(NDDC), Chief Ndutimi Alaibe who is challenging the eligibility of Diri as PDP Candidate on the one hand as well as the legality of the primaries that threw Diri up on the other hand, while praying the Court to declare him Chief Timi Alaibe the valid, and duly elected, eligible and legally binding candidate of the PDP.
The implication of this development is that the last hasn’t been heard about the Bayelsa legal jig-saw puzzles as the future remains pregnant.
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Meanwhile, in the carefully couched Public Relations statement, Diri disclosed that the purpose of his visit was to come and felicitate former President Obasanjo on his 83rd birthday, which holds on Thursday.
The Bayelsa Governor was quoted as saying, “I have come to greet my father, our father, who is actually the father of Nigeria and Africa. I have come to felicitate him on his forthcoming birthday.
“And, I met him in good health and in his good elements. That is principally why I have come here today. And he also appreciated my coming. It is my prayer that he will enjoy more years to come and see in his lifetime, the Nigeria of his dream.”
The statement further read that the Governor said the political experience of the recent past had been put behind him.He declared “as earlier said on other occasions, there is no victor, no vanquished in my emergence as the Governor of Bayelsa State.
“The people should expect good governance and a governor that understands the challenges of the state and ready to proffer solution. I am a homegrown governor, the humble and miracle governor. I extend my hand of fellowship to my brothers and sisters of Bayelsa State in this journey.”
Recall that the Supreme Court had recently declared PDP as winner of the Bayelsa State governorship polls, which had Diri as its candidate in the November 16 governorship election. The Supreme court’s decision had invalidated Chief David Lyon of the All Progressives Congress (APC) election who was earlier declared as the winner and governor-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Bayelsa State governorship elections.
However, The New Diplomat gathered that the judgment that brought Diri into Office as governor has correspondingly triggered fresh political dynamics in Bayelsa State leading to intense tension and apprehension within the leadership of the PDP. This is as a result of the pending suit filed by for former managing director of the NDDC, Chief Alaibe, who is not only challenging the legality, constitutionality, and appropriateness of the entire exercise that threw up Diri but also calling for the voiding of Diri’s candidature on grounds that it was illegally procured, and urging the court to declare him(Alaibe winner) because he complied with the eligibility and legal requirements known to law and the party guidlines for emergence of governorship candidates.
Chief Alaibe who came second in the disputed PDP primaries that produced Diri as PDP candidate is generally perceived as a strong, authentic and solid material that may have been shortchanged by political racketeering allegedly engineered by former governor Seriake Dickson. A petition against Diri’s as the PDP’s flagbearer by Chief Alaibe is still on-going at the Federal High Court, Abuja fueling fresh permutations about the likely outcome of such a delicate, and decisive suit. Some legal and political analysts in Bayelsa believe that the last has not been heard about the whole legal matters about the Bayelsa governorship” hence they are running to Obj, to Jonathan, to Buki(Bukola Saraki, to Turaki(Atiku) to mediate so that Alaibe can go to the Senate with a likely caveat that in 2023 he can then run…”
But competent sources close to Alaibe, and the PDP hierarchy in Abuja hinted that the former NDDC boss has come under serious pressures from PDP bigwigs including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, ex-senate president Bukola Saraki, and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State to weigh options including accepting the Senatorial seat that has been vacated by Diri with the promise to wait for 2023 to take run for the seat again. But analysts blame Dickson for the political racketeering that allegedly threw up Diri.
Alaibe is said to predicate his case on grounds that PDP committed electoral, and constitutional illegality by blatantly allowing local government chairmen, councilors , and all shades of ineligible persons to vote during the PDP primaries in sharp contrast, and utter violation of the party’s guidelines which do not permit elected chairmen and councilors elected within 90 days to the election, to vote during governorship primaries.
Recall that Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, who was at that material time in question serving in acting capacity, had approved Chief Alaibe’s request for a transfer of his suit against Diri to Abuja for a variety of reasons.
Consequently, the presiding judge of the Federal High Court in Yenagoa, Justice Jane Inyang, had acceded to the directive of Justice Muhammad based on Alaibe’s request. Inyang had noted that Alaibe’s request was predicated on “security concern in the state. ”
Recall that Senator Diri who was backed by Dickson, had won the primary election. Diri scored 561 votes to beat Alaibe who polled 365 votes to come second position.
In a swift reaction then, Chief Alaibe’s campaign organization had described the process that threw up Diri as “flawed”, “manipulated” and that the people’s choice as reflected in the actual legal process was Alaibe, who was “brazenly robbed of victory”.
Alaibe and his team then proceeded to file a suit at the Federal High Court, Yenogoa, seeking, among other things the outright cancellation of the results of the PDP primaries that produced Diri because it is illegal, a violation of all known electoral laws, party guidelines and INEC were among the defendants in the suit.
In the originating suit filed pursuant to Order 3(9) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019, Alaibe is seeking to void Diri’s emergence as PDP candidate because it amounts to a clear breach of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act 2010, the PDP Constitution, and the relevant Election Guidelines.
Alaibe submits that going by the conduct of the Bayelsa State chapter of the PDP in the whole gamut of the Ward Congresses with its inclusion of local government council officials in the delegates list, and the process for the inclusion of three ad-hoc delegates, the entire primaries that produced Diri amounts to an illegality, and should therefore be voided.
