Former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Mr. Timi Alaibe has stated the former Chairman of the Bayelsa State Chapter the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Col. Sam Inokoba (Rtd) did not die in his house.
He also denied having any meeting with the deceased in his Lagos residence within the week.
In a statement personally signed by him in Abuja yesterday, Alaibe who is a governorship aspirant in Bayelsa State on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC said that he has never discussed the forth coming APC governorship primaries with the late chairman who recently defected to the party.
Regretting some online reports that have linked him to a meeting with Inokoba in his Lagos him before his death, Alaibe said that he had been in Abuja since the week and never visited Lagos.
Alaibe who also expressed regrets on the death of the chairman who he described as “a respected party leader who inspired confidence in members of the party”, also denied giving N5billion to a former governor of the State to step down for him in the primaries.
He urged Journalists to always adhere to the ethics of the profession before publications.
The statement read: “My attention has been drawn to a fabricated, wicked falsehood published online by www.africanexaminer.com on the report of the unfortunate death of Col. Sam Inokoba (Rtd); our beloved former Chairman of the Bayelsa State Chapter the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who recently defected to the All Progressives Congress.
“Col. Inokoba reportedly died in Lagos during the week.
“But to my greatest shock today, online publishers started flooding my telephone line with calls on the veracity of the report that they had had concerning the death of Inokoba at my residence in Lagos.
“To those who tried to verify, we salute their deep sense of professionalism.
“I want to categorically and honestly state here that I have been in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja since the beginning of the week and I neither invited our beloved chairman to my house nor anywhere in Lagos State for that matter for any discussions or negotiations about the impending gubernatorial primary of our party in Bayelsa State.
“This is part of the figment of the imaginations of those who see my entry into the governorship race in my state as a big threat to them.
“Indeed, they should be worried because Bayelsa State had been held under the clutches of characters who believe in the continued subjugation of the teeming members of the public, treating them as vassals and slaves.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Chief Inokoba was a respected party leader who inspired confidence in members of the party. His loss is a great misfortune to our party
“Relying on the age-old tradition of values and ethics, I urge journalists to engage their job with a deep sense of fairness, balance and conscientious display of professional underpinning with a view to joining hands to build a society where the just shall always excel and not capitulate to the whims of those whose only stock in trade is to destroy others with blatant falsehood.
“Only earlier this week, a similar wicked story was carried by the same www.africanexaminer.com to the effect I offered a former governor of Bayelsa State N5 billion so that he could step down to clear the way for my governorship ambition.
“It is becoming clearer that having lost face with professional and conscientious journalists in the mainstream print and broadcast media, enemies of progress have resorted to some online publications where honesty, fairness and ethical standards are alien.”
