Former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, gubernatorial candidate in the coming governorship election in Bayelsa state, Timi Alaibe, has debunked news making the rounds that a former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state, Sam Inokoba, a retired Colonel, died in his Lagos home.

Alaibe made this known in a press statement released on Wednesday, saying he had been in Abuja “since the beginning of the week”.

Inokoba recently left the PDP for the APC, and had picked the governorship nomination form for the forthcoming election in Bayelsa State and was expected to face Alaibe and other candidates in the primary to choose who will represent the party against Governor Seriake Dickson.

“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,” Alaibe said.

He blamed the allegation on those “who see my entry into the governorship race in my state as a big threat to them” and urged journalists to always balance their reports.

Reports in the media had alleged that Inokoba died on Tuesday in Alaibe’s home in Lagos after a heated argument ensued between the two politicians. The argument was ostensibly connected to who would step down for whom among the two politicians who both come from the same local government.