Alaibe Hunts Timipre Sylva: Scrambles For APC Guber Ticket

Barring any last minute change of strategy, Mr. Timi Alaibe the former NDDC boss, according to informed sources, is scrambling to take the Guber ticket of the All Progressive People’s Congress, APC in Bayelsa State. Information available at our disposal says Timi Alaibe is locked in a clandestine titanic battle with former Governor of Bayelsa State Mr. Timipre Marlin Sylva, who now claims to be the de facto leader of APC in Bayelsa State.

Political Watch also gathered that Timi Alaibe is also responsible for compounding the problems of Mr. Timipre Sylva at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. An insider source disclosed that the consolidated 50 count charges levied against the former Governor of Bayelsa State for the second time was the contrivance of Alaibe, who want Timipre Sylva out of the way so he could obtain the APC ticket without any serious opposition. The stage, according to a close aide of Alaibe is set to go for the soul of APC. There are strong indications too that Timi Alaibe is at the verge of decamping to the APC to add teeth to his fight for the APC ticket.

Another source close to EFCC gave the hint that there has been a long-standing relationship between Lamorde - the EFCC Chairman and Timi Alaibe and this relationship was consolidated when the latter was Chairman of NDDC. The same source disclosed that when the former NDDC boss ran into trouble with the anti-graft agency, it was Ibrahim Larmode who found an exit route for Alaibe. Since then the EFCC boss became a stakeholder in NDDC, doing contracts worth hundreds of millions of Naira.

This informant probed further why EFCC would allow itself to be used in such a manner and it was revealed that the EFCC boss is bent on shutting out the Okpoama born politician out of the Governorship race to allow Alaibe hijack the APC machinery to contest against the incumbent Governor.

There is no gainsaying the fact that that in the past, most people had erroneously pointed accusing fingers at former President Goodluck Jonathan as the cause of Sylva’s travails.

However, if President Jonathan was involved in the Sylva-EFCC drama, Sylva would have been spending time in jail, but Mr. President was innocent. Expectedly, as we inch towards the governorship elections in Bayelsa State, the public should expect more of such revelations. If what is happening is anything to go by, then APC in Bayelsa State may be headed for total factionalization as the two political heavyweights may want to pull their strings, in what may appear as a popularity test, in a bid to capture the APC guber-ticket. The aim, Political Watch, gathered was to change the political dynamics of Bayelsa State and ally with forces outside the State to take power by any means necessary.

This division may not be unconnected with the suspension of seven members of APC, including the former Special Adviser on Security to former Governor Timipre Sylva Chief Perekeme Kpodoh. The Bayelsa Chapter of APC is yet to give any cogent reasons for the wanton expulsion of the seven persons.

What is clear however is that whereas APC is struggling to gain a foothold in Bayelsa State, the looming crisis is likely to cause a huge division in the Party? It might take conscience, will power and commonsense for the APC leadership to settle the brewing power tussle in the Party.

In the unfolding scenario, it does appear that Timipre Sylva – the hunter is fast becoming the hunted, but whether events will play out otherwise is yet to be fathomed. In the circumstances, only time will tell.