Yenagoa- Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, on Monday, rejected a congratulatory message from Timi Alaibe following last Tuesday’s Supreme Court judgment which dismissed his appeal, describing the message as “half-hearted.”
Diri said that Alaibe, who was an aspirant in the September 3, 2019 Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship primary election that he (Diri) won, went too far in his bid to unseat him.
He denounced Alaibe’s felicitations while speaking publicly for the first time since the apex court verdict when he addressed the State Working Committee of the PDP, which paid him a solidarity visit in Government House, Yenagoa, on Monday.
Diri in a statement by the Acting Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, said Alaibe’s statement issued by his personal assistant, Enize Ogio, was “insulting and totally unacceptable.”
The governor demanded a new message from Alaibe, noting that in line with the Supreme Court verdict, nobody was bigger than the party, including himself.
He wondered why an internal process like the primary election, “which was transparent and guided by the party’s constitution”, was dragged to court by the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission.
Diri while expressing dissatisfaction with Alaibe’s action said, “It was an internal party affair, which ordinarily should not have gone beyond the shores of our state.
“We had a very transparent process, which was acknowledged across the country. From the nomination of delegates down to the primaries, everything was done according to the constitution of our party.
“I hereby reject that insulting message from one Enize Ogio. I hereby reject it in totality, and the PDP rejects it too. If they accept our olive branch, they should issue a new statement to let the PDP and the government of Bayelsa know that they are still members of our party.”
Diri, however, congratulated his party for being the vehicle for his emergence as governor.
