BREAKING NEWS, Featured, Politics
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The political situation in Bayelsa State remains tense as interest groups engage in violent acts ahead of the governorship supplementary election scheduled for Saturday, January 9
AS the people of Bayelsa State brace up for the Saturday, January 9, governorship election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area there have been reports of violence in some parts of the state.
On Friday, January 8, the home of Benson Friday Konbowei, speaker of the State House of Assembly, Korkosei, was bombed at about 4:00am.
There was no report of any loss of lives and those responsible for the act. The incident came after Beinmopre Jonah, brother of the deputy governor of Bayelsa State, escaped death by the whiskers as thugs allegedly working for the All Progressives Congress, APC, the leading opposition party in the state, allegedly invaded his residence in Ekeki, Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state, on Thursday, January 7. He suffered severe machete cuts and was left unconscious by his assailants.
The thugs had stormed the area, brandishing dangerous weapons, including machetes, cudgels and headed straight for his residence.
The raid threw the entire area into panic, as the suspected thugs threatened to shoot, maim and kill anybody that may put up resistance or call security operatives.
The invaders were said to have overpowered Jonah’s guard, broke the security lock of the gate and headed straight to the living room, where he was with members of his family and attacked him, inflicting machete cuts all over his body and left him for death.
The operation, which lasted for close to two hours left the entire neighbourhood in a state of pandemonium, as they were made to stay indoors.
The victim was later taken to the Government House clinic, Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State, for treatment.
Reacting to the incident, Jonathan Obuebite, director of publicity of Restoration Campaign Organisation, described the attack as barbaric and a sign that the APC was not ready for election in the state but war.
As if those were not serious enough, the PDP in Bayelsa State raised the alarm that more 1,000 illegal mobile policemen had been deployed Ekeremor LGA by Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for Agriculture, as part of a grand plot to rig election in the area.
One of the mobile police men (name withheld), said he along with a number of his colleagues were not told the nature of the assignment they were called to undertake.
According to him, they were also not told where they were being deployed to until they got to Bomadi Waterside enroute to Ekeremor.
Some eye witnesses at Bomadi Waterside who confirmed the movement of armed policemen in hired speed boats, said they saw the policemen in the company of Jonathan Lokpobiri, a younger brother to the minister.
Obuebite, has thus, called on Solomon Arase, inspector-general of Police, to take urgent steps to arrest the situation.
Governor Seriake Dickson, candidate of the PDP, is leading Timipre Sylva, a former governor of the state, who is also the candidate of the APC, in the already conducted election.
— Jan 18, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT
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