2012: ALAIBE MEETS WITH LOYALITS, LP LEADERS

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Bayelsa State, Mr. Ndutimi Aliabe has met with his loyalists and leaders of the LP over the 2012 governorship election in the state.

In the 2011 elections, out of the eight seats in the National Assembly, the LP could not win anything and only managed to win one seat in the House of Assembly.

Alaibe, a former special adviser to the president on Niger Delta matters, worried about the lukewarm attitude displayed by some of the party members on the last elections in the state was said to have convened the meeting to discuss strategies to wrest the state from the grip of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Sources at the meeting said issues discussed bordered on the dismal performance of the party in the 2011 elections and modalities to ensure that LP did not allow the PDP to have its way with the governorship election in the state.

According to sources, the meeting reviewed the outcome of the state and National Assembly elections and deliberated on the way forward.  Contributions from leaders of the party in the eight local government areas of the state who attended the meeting blamed the poor performance of the party on the alleged inducement of voters by the PDP and manipulations by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

At the end of deliberations, it was agreed that the party should engage in aggressive mobilisation and sensitisation of Bayelsans to sell the party to them as an alternative to the PDP.

Part of strategies to be adopted by the party are the visit to all the wards and local government areas of the state to confirm to Bayelsans that the party was still very much in the governorship race.

The Chairman of LP in Bayelsa State, Bobo Adou, in an interview, confirmed that they had been holding series of meeting towards the 2012 governorship elections.