BAYELSA GUBER: ALAIBE IS DROPPING OBASANJO, BUHARI’s NAMES TO RAISE FUNDS – IJAW GROUP
Felix Okoye
The ambition of a former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Ndutimi Alaibe to contest the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa State may have turned controversial with a socio-cultural group, Ijaw Patriotic Front, accusing him of using the name of President Muhammadu Buhari and ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to raise funds in a manner that could embarrass the two leaders.
According to the group, Alaibe has been allegedly going round to some top executives in the banking and financial sector, soliciting for funds on the guise that both Buhari and Obasanjo had promised to back his governorship ambition.
Engr. Sotonye Amachree, the group spokesman said on Monday in Yenagoa that Alaibe’s action was likely to offend the sensibilities of the two leaders because it amounted to dropping their names in a bid to get some influential persons to buy into his governorship aspiration.
Amachree retorted that feelers from some highly placed persons in some quarters had already decried such behaviour which it said was not approved by both leaders.
His words: “Now, this is unbecoming and it’s unacceptable. We frown at Alaibe’s deceptive posturing which for all who are close to the incumbent and former president will certainly raise objection to it because it is an embarrassment to their esteemed personalities. Of course, it all shows Alabe’s desperation and unbridled quest for power.
“It is really a serious issue because in a situation where some respected persons in the society have drawn our attention to the fact that they were approached by Alaibe with the story that he was being supported by former President Olusegun Obasanjo for governor and only to find out that there is no truth whatsoever in such a claim is most embarrassing. It totally negates everything we stand for as Ijaw people”.
“The Ijaw nation is known and respected for its courage, uprightness and always standing for justice and truth. A highly placed Ijaw leader like Alaibe should know better not to denigrate these high principles and ideals that we hold dear”.
The group, therefore, cautioned Alaibe to desist from such behavior which it claimed was capable of “inflicting irreparable damage to his reputation and by extension the reputation of the average Ijaw man”.