PDP BAYELSA GUBER: ALAIBE, BRUCE SUBMIT FORMS

ABUJA - FORMER Managing Director of Niger Delta Develop-ment Commission, NDDC, Chief Timi Alaibe, yesterday, submitted his expression of interest and nomination forms for Bayelsa governorship ticket of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ahead of the primaries, with a vow that getting the waiver was his entitlement as a founding member of the party.

Fielding questions from newsmen at PDP national secretariat after submitting his forms, Alaibe, who was the governorship candidate of Labour Party, LP, in the last Bayelsa governorship election, said: 'We came here today (yesterday) to return the expression of interest for the gubernatorial contest of Bayelsa. I have applied for waiver and expect that the waiver will be granted.

'It is not true that I had not been granted waiver. We have some fake local government chairmen. When you hear news from them come and confirm from the PDP register.

'As you know, I have always been a solid member of this party; one of the builders of this party. So you cannot ask me not to come back to my house. I have returned to my home and that is where we are. You should remember there was a time when people left this party before and even spent time abusing the party. Timi Alaibe never did that.

'We even worked for this party at the presidential level. So it is our entitlement to get appropriate waiver. We believe the National Working Committee, the NEC of this party, will grant us that waiver.'

Also, yesterday, former Director-General, Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Mr. Ben Murray Bruce submitted his forms, stressing that Bayelsa State needed a businessman to turn round the economy of the state. He added that his concerns for the state was to engage in total transformation of the state.

Bruce, who is Chairman, Silver Bird Television and Rhythm FM said: 'I am here to submit my form to contest for the governorship race in Bayelsa. I think at this point in the history of Bayelsa, the state needs a businessman to turn the economy around.

'There is high level of unemployment. We need to create jobs; the educational system needs to be readdressed.

'I think if we do this right, Bayelsa State can be the best state in the country. But we need to solve the fundamental problems in the state.'