LAGOS FEBRUARY 10TH (URHOBOTODAY)-Palpable tension is reported to be rising among members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State over a plot to remove chairman Col. Sam Inokoba (rtd.), over his alleged diversion of N70m provided by Nigeria’s Minster of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, to support the party in hosting the Presidential campaign.
Sam Inokoba, Alhaji Ahmed Mohammed Gusau of the PDP National Headquarters, Governor of Bayelsa State, Hon. Seriake Dickson and his Deputy Inokoba, who collapsed during the PDP presidential rally in Yenagoa has reportedly diverted N40m out of the N70m, and also took a substantial share from the remaining N30m, unknown to the members of the State Working Committee of the party.
The motion to remove Inokoba is already creating tension among his loyalists and aides of the state governor, Seriake Dickson. Some of those calling for the removal of the accused PDP chairman, as our sources reprort, attribute Inokoba’s collapse during the presidential rally to the pressure created over the alleged fund diversion.
The discovery that the sum given to the party was N70m and not N40m was made during the PDP Presidential rally, which Minister Alison-Madeuke attended.
Attempts to get the state PDP publicity secretary, Barr. Osom Macgbere, and the personal media aide to the Party Chairman, Mr. Nelson, proved abortive as they refused to respond to text messages or telephone calls.
It was gathered that the plot to remove Inokoba has received the endorsement of the state governor, Seriake Dickson. The governor, according to sources, has had a difficult time with party leadership under Inokoba, especially during the party’s recent primaries in the state.
Col. Inokoba, according to some aides of the state governor, is accused of questioning Dickson’s leadership during the State and National Assembly primaries, which led to the upholding of the policy of zoning initiated by Dickson.
Though the governor successfully won with his ‘restoration boys’ winning party tickets, the actions of the party chairman then exposed him to ridicule. Inokoba and Dickson were reported to have traded words over the choice of candidates during the party’s primaries in the state.
Inokoba’s alleged action, according to our source, led to the positioning of King Serena Dokubo-Spiff as the deputy chairman of the party. The former deputy chairman allegedlt was lured away from his position within the party with the State Assembly ticket of the Nembe constituency.
According to the party source, the newly-appointed deputy chairman of the party, Dokubo-Spiff, would be expected to emerge as acting chairman of the party if Inokoba is removed.
Dokubo-Spiff is a well-known legal practitioner and the lawyer that delivered the landmark judgement which led to the sacking of former Bayelsa governor D.S.P Alamesiegha in 2005. Dokubo-Spiff recently launched a campaign organisation known as Brass Restoration and Actualization Vanguard (BRAVO) to support Governor Dickson’s administration in the state.
Saharareporters