BREAKING NEWS, Politics
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NO fewer than 13 people, including eight policemen, were reported to have been killed during the gubernatorial election which held in Bayelsa State on Saturday, December 5. The victims were allegedly killed by the bullets of the suspected thugs of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
On Tuesday, December 8, the decomposing corpse of Ebiwei Emmanuel Bereda, one of the victims of the last Saturday’s political disturbance, was recovered along the creeks of Southern Ijaw LGA. The corpse has since been deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.
An eye witness account stated on Wednesday, December 8, that the boat in which the victim was travelling was sunk by the members of the APC between Aguobiri and Angiamagbene communities in Southern Ijaw.
But the Bayelsa State Police command were said to have decided to keep the matters under complete secrecy, to give the impression that no police officer died. Sources said there were plans to convey the corpses of the eight dead police officers to their families for a secret burial.
Ambrose Pamowei, executive director of the Bayelsa Security Network, an independent security organisation, in a statement issued in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State, on Wednesday, December 9, alleged that while four of the dead police officers were shot dead during election duty in Oporoma, the boat conveying the remaining four officers to Foropa and Ezetu was said have been sank and drowned by a notorious group led by an ex-militant leader allegedly working for the APC.
Pamowei said: “Even though the affected police officers put up fierce resistance, they were overpowered by the superior fire power of the suspected militants. Findings by BSN revealed that the suspected thugs laid ambush for the unsuspecting victims along the creeks of Southern Ijaw LGA and subsequently trapped them by pretending to be soldiers on election duty.
“This development was contrary to the argument of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) in charge of the conduct of election in Bayelsa State, who described the conduct of election in the state as peaceful and that no life was lost. Despite the protest which was in public domain, the APC claimed that there was no protest.”
He also accused the deputy inspector general of Police not saying the truth about the situation in the troubled area. “It is wrong on the part of the security operatives to be taking sides in any political situation. The report we had shows that some senior security operatives aided the killings and massive electoral fraud recorded during the last Saturday’s re-scheduled governorship election in Southern Ijaw LGA of Bayelsa State,” he said.
The group, therefore, called on Solomon Arase, inspector-general of Police, to order the redeployment of a new set of policemen to monitor the yet-to-be re-scheduled governorship election in Southern Ijaw LGA.
Pamowei argued that such measure would be the only way to ensure free, fair and credible election because policemen on ground have compromised standards.
— Dec 9, 2015 @ 16:50 GMT
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