The governorship campaign organisations of the All Progressive Congress(APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State have engaged in an exchange of words over an alleged attempt by some yet-to-identified men to kill the Special Adviser to Governor of the State on Youth Matters, Mr Bobolayefa Owoupele, yesterday.
While the Senator Douye Diri Campaign Organisation through its Director, Media and Publicity Committee, Hon. Jonathan Obuebite alleged that the suspected assassins are loyalists of the opposition party, the Secretary of Media and Publicity of the Chief David Lyon Campaign Organisation, Mr Doifie Buokoribo, denied the accusation and describes the accusation as reckless, irresponsible and provocative.
According to the APC, the allegation of the PDP is unthinkable, saying no true APC member wearing an APC-branded T-shirt and cap could not embark on such a nefarious act in broad daylight on the streets of Yenagoa and at the full glare of the public.
The PDP Campaign Organisation, in a statement by the Director, Media and Publicity Committee, insisted that the armed men are APC thugs that were sent to launch a ferocious attack on Owoupele at a car park in Opolo, around 8 am, Thursday morning in Yenagoa.
The Campaign Organisation said that the thugs who, obviously, did not want to attract the attention of people to their nefarious plot inflicted deep bottle injuries on the head, neck and arm of the Governor’s influential aide while threatening him with a gun.
The Organisation expressed deep worry over the penchant of the APC leadership and their supporters in Bayelsa for violence and bloodletting, claiming the Governor’s aide is lying critically ill at a hospital in Yenagoa.
The Campaign Organisation in the statement called on the Nigeria Police, the Directorate State Service and other security agencies to investigate those behind the dastardly act with a view to bringing the perpetrators to book.
The Campaign Organisation stressed that the only way to ensure sanity in the political campaign and contest in Bayelsa was a firm resolve on the part of the security agencies to prevent unnecessary violence and criminality in the state.
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The Organisation said that those who witnessed the attack can attest to the fact that the thugs who attacked the Adviser on Youth Matters were putting on face caps and T-shirts belonging to the APC.
Thought the APC is yet to issue an official statement, the PDP further claimed that the alleged APC assassins asked the aide they had injured if he was the particular aide to the Governor on Youth Affairs involved in mobilising youths against the APC, before freeing when bystanders attempted to intervene.
“The Senator Douye Diri Campaign Organisation has received with shock the unprovoked attack and attempted assassination on our member and Special Adviser to Governor Dickson on Youth Affairs, Hon, Bobolayefa Owoupele by Armed thugs working for the APC.
“The armed thugs numbering five who were wearing branded t-shirts of the APC, and the party’s face cap, laid an ambush for Owoupele at a car wash at Opolo, Yenagoa, where he was attacked around 8 am on Thursday.
“We wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms, the primitive penchant of the APC in Bayelsa State for needless aggression and violence as their strongest point in the ongoing political contest in the state.
“A political party with a genuine desire for the development of the society would place the requisite emphasis on the sanctity of human life rather than the execution of a barbaric plot to spread paranoia in the society a month to the gubernatorial election.
“It is indeed worrisome that the APC in Bayelsa has once again confirmed our repeated warning to the watching Nigerian society and the International Community that they a nest of angry politicians stockpiling arms for thugs to slaughter the innocent in their desperation for political control.
“It is becoming clearer as we move closer to the date of the election that the APC has failed to see the bold line between self delusion and the reality of the crushing defeat awaiting them at the poll come November 16, 2019.
“As the party of the Bayelsa people, we shall not join this disgusting invitation to anarchy and needless violence which the Bayelsa APC is reputed for. The killing and maiming of our people because of desperation to win an election cannot be an option to the decent mind. We shall not join them to commit the sacrilege of the waste of lives of the Bayelsa people.
“The descent to the horror of impunity in a political contest cannot be a standard in a civilised society.
“We hereby call on the police, the DSS, and indeed all security agencies to be proactive in the onerous task of securing the state during this testy period by intensifying intelligence and rapid security response in the state,” the statement further read.
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