ALAIBE PICKS LP GUBER TICKET

•Alaibe
Security has been beefed up around Mr. Ndutimi Alaibe as he formally emerged the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for the 2011 elections in Bayelsa State.

The tight security around him since the violence that marred his home coming reception recently was stepped up with his emergence as the governorship candidate of the LP to ensure that nothing untoward happened to him.

Alaibe who was returned unopposed in the governorship primary election held at the LP secretariat, Okutukutu amidst tight security provided by a combined team of State Security Service (SSS), Joint Military Task Force (JTF) and the Nigeria Police declared in his acceptance speech that he was on a mission to rescue Bayelsa State.

The anti-bomb squad of the Nigeria Police was at LP secretariat as early as 7 am to sweep the venue of any explosives and their arrival was followed by a detachment of mobile policemen and soldiers who took positions in strategic locations in and around the LP secretariat.

The Commissioner of Police, Musa Aliyu was also at the venue to ensure that the security on ground had not been compromised.

Quoting from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, in a speech titled: The Bayelsa Rescue Agenda, he said the time was ripe to rescue and repair Bayelsa State.

Alaibe who bemoaned the state of affairs in Bayelsa State under Governor Timipre Sylva pointed out that 'every well meaning Bayelsan feels some shame when he or she thinks of how the state has been misgoverned.'

While disclosing that the Sylva administration had saddled Bayelsa with a debt burden of about N100 billion, he explained that when he becomes Governor on May 29, his mission would be to empower the people and rekindle their enterprising spirit.

Listing aggressive economic development of the state, security and social harmony, education and skills acquisition including health care as his major priorities, Alaibe maintained that all his working life he had worked to see that development came to Bayelsa.

'All my working life, I have done all I can to bring development to Bayelsa State. Today a substantial chunk of the development projects in our state is attributable to my previous service to our motherland in various spheres including my service in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

'You know these projects; they are in your villages, neighbourhoods and towns.

As the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, I worked round the clock and even took risks to rid our state and other states in the Niger Delta of militancy and I'm proud to say that we have paved the way for a better future for these our brothers and sisters who are currently in first class skills acquisition centres across the country and abroad.

As governor of Bayelsa State, I shall, by the grace of God, do much more.' he said.