TWO aides of Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, Messrs Godswill Ziriki and Adolphus Ofongo, on Wednesday escaped death following an armed invasion and disruption of a stakeholders’ meeting.

The meeting was organised by the Peoples Democratic Party for House of Assembly aspirants in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

The meeting, which was convened by the Acting Chairman of SILGA, Mr. Kia Nigeria, and held at the Latik Hotel on INEC Road, Yenagoa lasted for over an hour before thugs allegedly loyal to a member of the State Assembly disrupted the gathering.
The miscreants were said to have thrown chairs and threatened to kill some persons.
Some PDP members, who attended the meeting, claimed that the targets of the thugs were Ziriki and Ofongo, who are the Special Adviser on Tertiary Education and the Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission respectively.
It was learnt that though the meeting was convened to interact with over 14 state Assembly aspirants for the seat of Constituency 3, the critism by some aspirants against the planned return of a member of House of Assembly, David Igali, led to the violent action by the thugs.
Ziriki was reported to have questioned the decision of Igali to seek another term in the state House of Assembly.
It was gathered that many of those who attended the meeting gathered and provided protection for Ziriki and Ofongo to avoid being beaten by the armed thugs.
It was also gathered that the stakeholders were angry at the conduct of the accused Assembly member.
An aide to the accused Assembly member, David Igali, who pleaded anonymity, denied the allegation levelled against his boss.
“It is not true that the Assembly member sponsored the disruption. He has delivered on the mandate and the people of his constituency love him to come back,” the aide stated.

(NAN)Aug. 15, 2018 @ 18:25 GMT |