Ahead of the November 16, governorship election in Bayelsa state, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Youth Group, under the umbrella of “PDP South-South Youth Vanguard” has alerted the nation’s security forces on the need to be vigilant for a hitch-free poll in the state.
In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja by its National Chairman, James Efe Akpofure, the group stated that the call became necessary as some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were already recruiting political thugs into the state to cause mayhem and rig the election in their favour.
It pointed out that even the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had confirmed the ugly development at stakeholders meeting ahead of the poll last week, hence, the need for the security forces to be more vigilant to thwart their plan.
The group alleged that the APC would not support the Ijaw struggle and as such, would do everything to win the state because of its oil.
According to the group: “APC is not interested in the development of the state, their only concern is to lay their hands on the oil in the state.
“APC has always been looking for a way to get at least a state from the oil-rich region, that was why they caused mayhem during the last governorship election in Rivers state.
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“Bayelsa people are wiser, they will resist any antics of the APC in whatever guise it comes, enough is enough.
“We are ready to face anything the APC wants to introduce during the election. Bayelsa is PDP state and we are not going to fold our arms and see what belong to us taking away from us.
“We know their plans and we are ready to counter them. We are prepared for the election and if they are not ready they should tell INEC to declare PDP as the winner of the election.
“We will not allow what happened in Rivers state to happen in Bayelsa where the election was turned to a theatre of war. Ours is a peaceful state and we will not allow outsiders to turn our peaceful state to a war zone.
“We are warning the bandits, or whatever machineries they want to hire to assist them during the election to keep away from Bayelsa state because we are ready to face anybody during the election.
“We are using this medium to tell Bayelsa people to vote wisely and support the development stride of Governor Seriake Dickson by voting the PDP candidate, Diri Duoye.”
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Manhood Yakubu, had last week raised the alarm that politicians across the parties were recruiting thugs into both Bayelsa and Kogi states ahead of the governorship elections in the two states.