AS the nation prepares for governorship and state assemblies elections on Saturday, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the Presidency and the acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu to take a special interest in Bayelsa and its special crime bursting unit, Operation Doo Akpo.
Addressing journalist in Abuja, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Yekeen Nabena alleged that the security outfit has since become a tool in the hands of the Bayelsa state governor to intimidate and harass members of the opposition party in the state. Tribune Online findings revealed that only state assembly election would be conducted in the State on Saturday.
The APC deputy national publicity secretary pointed fingers of scorn at the Operation Doo Akpo, a creation of Bayelsa state governor for the violence that trailed conduct of last Saturday presidential and National Assembly elections in the State.
Nabena called on the acting IGP to ensure the security of lives and property in Bayelsa as he further alleged arms build up by the PDP in the State.
He said: “The Seriake Dickson PDP administration has become very unpopular and stands rejected in Bayelsa state. The governor in desperation has turned to violence and manipulation of the elections to suppress the people and keep PDP in power in the State.”
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“Stakeholders in Bayelsa State have received security reports which indicate arms build up by the Governor of Bayelsa State ahead of Saturday’s election. The report uncovered how the governor is hiring, arming political thugs and dressing them in police and army uniforms for the election.
“The governor’s dummy is to constantly and publicly cry foul while he colludes with security agencies and armed thugs to hijack election material and perpetrate violence that characterised the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the State. The governor should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the coming elections.
“Bayelsans watched in horror how Governor Seriake Dickson deployed the state security outfit, Operation Doo Akpo to shield PDP agents as they rigged and unleashed violence in the state during the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the State. The governor is already plotting to use Operation Doo Akpo again for Saturday’s election.
“The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu must as matters of urgency investigate the illegal activities of Operation Doo Akpo.”
But the Bayelsa governor, Seriake Dickson in his reaction, dismissed the claim of Nabena.
Speaking through his Special Adviser, Media Relations Fidelis Sowerei, Governor Dickson described as falsehood, the allegations raised by the APC chieftain as he accused the ruling party and its chieftains of instigating violence during the conduct of presidential and national assembly elections.
He said: “First, the Governor is not contesting any election. For people like Nabena who are averse to reading the papers, the Governor’s tenure comes to an end on February 14, 2020.
“One would have been surprised if Nabena and his political leaders whose greatest credential in the political contest in Bayelsa is violence had not come up with this swan song that precedes the usual rejection of the APC by the discerning Bayelsa citizenry.
“We are aware that this is an indication of yet another plot to kill the Bayelsa people during elections after Nembe Bassambiri and Southern Ijaw.
“It has become the refrain for Nabena whose political presence in Bayelsa exists only on the pages of newspapers to make wild allegations as a cover up for their acts of brigandage and violence against Bayelsa and her people.
“We wish to refresh your mind that this same so-called Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC with no political root in Bayelsa, Nabena, was arrested by soldiers with arms in Odi on the day of the last election and was held down for 30 minutes before a telephone call released him to move to Trofani.
“The State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Moses Cleopas, raised the alarm in a statement to call the attention of the security agencies to the criminality being perpetrated by these breed of desperate politicians against our people.
We ask Nabena and his ilk to tell the public those being arrested and detained by the Police Headquarters for the perpetration of extreme violence in Nembe Bassambiri and Brass Local Government Area that almost led to the beheading of the Deputy Police Commissioner in charge of Federal Special Anti Robbery Squad, Mr Kola Okunola.
It is indeed important to remind Nabena that the Police and other security agencies are in the trail of those who killed Seidougha Taribi, a leader of the PDP in Southern Ijaw and left grave injuries on the Government House Photographer, Reginald Dei, on the day of the last election.
Nabena whose greatest credential is his putrid vituperations against the Governor should be reminded that while APC is built around violence and violent men, Governor Dickson does not believe in the extermination òf Bayelsans to provide leadership to them.
It is a fact beyond contestation Dickson has provided quality leadership and has taken Bayelsa to a realm of development beyond the imagination of the leaders of the APC who in their desperation, have embraced violence as the most potent tool rather than persuasion to wrest political control in Bayelsa.
Dickson is a man of peace who has built a reputation of peace across Nigeria. The APC in Bayelsa is a party of violence. This country came close to losing a police officer in the rank of a DCP, Kola Okunola, in the hands of APC thugs. The police leadership and the well-meaning Nigeria public still shudders at the extreme barbarism displayed by the unholy alliance of APC thugs and their security collaborators.
Nabena should look well and it will not take him long to discover that those arming thugs and orchestrating violence, slaughtering innocent people out of political desperation are his political godfathers in the APC. Governor Dickson and his APC leaders in Bayelsa cannot be grouped together. Violence is the other name for the APC in Bayelsa.
For those the APC thugs have murdered, Nabena and those gloating on the graves of the innocent victims should be reminded that time does not run against the state. The wheel of justice might be rolling slowly surely but it shall surely come.
A political ideology that tells you to kill your people all in the bid to provide a so-called leadership for them is destructive! Leave Governor Dickson our of your evil plot to eliminate your people to please your overlords in the name of elections.
The public is discerning enough to know that the so-called security report cited by Nabena is a failed campaign of calumny against the governor. Such a report that fails to capture the orgy of violence perpetrated by the APC in Nembe Bassambiri, exists only in the imagination of Nabena.”
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