APC primary: Candidates hide delegates

By Edward Jaleyemi

A total of 19 aspirants will on Tuesday slug it out for the ticket of the All Progressive Congress in the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa   State.

However, intrigues continued to dog the contest till yesterday with revelations the a major candidate has camped most of the delegates in hotels outside Yenagoa to make them inaccessible to his rivals. The candidates were, however, not giving up on the chase.

Among the leading aspirants are former Governor Timipre Sylva; former Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC, Timi Alaibe; former Nigeria envoy to Japan, Ambassador Emmanuel Otiotio.

Surprisingly, in spite of the large number of aspirants vying for the party ticket, there has been relative calm at the party secretariat.

The relative calm in the party may not be unconnected with the intervention of the national leadership of the party in the crisis rocking the state over the alleged interference of the state executive in the list of delegates.

Although the field may appear rowdy given the number of the aspirants jostling for the party ticket, most of them could best be described as paper tigers without any tangible structure on ground to be taken serious.

However the trio of Alaibe, Sylva and Otitio towers above the other aspirants in terms of popularity.

Sylva

Timi Alaibe

Chief Timipre Sylva, as the immediate past governor still wields enormous political influence in the state. His strength lies in the fact that he helped to lay the foundations of the party in the state and is instrumental to the emergence of most of the party officials at the state and local government level, from where the bulk of the votes on Saturday would be drawn. That is despite the fact that he joined the contest very late and after he had assured many of the other aspirants that he would not be contesting.

Timi Alaibe

Alaibe, a former PDP chieftain, took the state by storm in the build up to the 2003 governorship and almost wrestled the ticket from the then governor, DSP Alamieyeseigha. He did a similar act against Governor Goodluck Jonathan and at the last minute withdrew. Another bold attempt to contest in 2011 on the platform of Labour Party was scuttled after the court shifted the election.

Grassroots support

Alaibe, charismatic and sagacious with a robust grassroots support, Alaibe ordinarily should be a major challenger for the ticket.

Amb. Emmanuel Otiotio

Otiotio has also always nursed the ambition of governing Bayelsa State. Highly principled and a fervent Christian, Otiotio is regarded as a dark horse in the race. It is generally believed that he defeated Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha in the PDP primaries in the run up to the 1999 governorship polls but was allegedly schemed out by some forces in the party.

Austin Ogionwo

Timipre Sylva

A former commissioner for Lands and Housing, Ogionwo was one of the primary leaders of the PDP from 1999 and had hotly challenged Governor Dickson for the PDP ticket in the race leading to the last election. He is depending on his network of associates and past IOUs to pull through.

Others listed to have picked up the forms to contest the APC primaries are former state PDP chairman, Col Sam Inokoba (deceased) , former member of the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Warman Ogoriba   and former Secretary to State Government, Senator Felix Oboro.

Others include   former Commissioner for Local Government, Chief Godknows Powell, former Chief of Staff to Gov. Seriake Dickson, Chief Dikivie Ikhiogha, former member, House of Representatives, Christopher Enai and the immediate past senator representing Bayelsa East Senatorial district, Senator Clever Ikisikpo, Mrs Aperela.