News Desk
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has pointed fingers at the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, for the recent attacks and killings in Opu-Nembe, Bayelsa State.
The party went further to claim that there are already allegations in the public space that some high-ranking police personnel are aiding the scheme to use violence to forcefully gain control of Opu-Nembe so as to grant the All Progressives Congress (APC) the ground to massively rig the November 11, 2023, governorship election in the area.
In a press conference on Tuesday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Hon. Debo Ologunagba, condemned the invasion, killing, and maiming of innocent citizens in Bayelsa State communities, particularly Opu-Nembe in Nembe Local Government Area, by thugs allegedly recruited, sponsored, and armed by Sylva.
The party explained that the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has already envisaged defeat in Nembe, hence his resort to violence so as to freighten the electorate, trigger voter apathy, and use the opportunity to manipulate the result in his favour.
The PDP said, “It is clear that the intention of the APC in this invasion and killing in Nembe is to intimidate and instill fear in the people so as to prevent them from freely exercising their democratic right to vote for a governor of their choice, having realized that there is no way their candidate, Chief Timipre Silva, can win in a peaceful, free, and fair election in Bayelsa State’.
The PDP stated that it is alarmed by the pictorial and video evidence of the gruesome murder of promising Nembe youths, including the only son of a widow, by the APC thugs allegedly led by one Kojo Sam, who on February 15, 2023, killed three youths in the bid to subdue the community for openly expressing their rejection of Sylva for neglecting and allegedly unleashing violence on their communities over the years.
“Reports in the public domain have it that the thugs are usually lodged in a hotel allegedly owned by Chief Timipre Sylva’s ally, from where the assailants periodically launch gun attacks on the communities for rejecting the APC”.
He said that Nigerians have already seen the videos of Opu-Nembe women crying, protesting the invasion and killings in the community by the thugs, while insisting on their resolve not to support Sylva for allegedly unleashing terror on their community at every election circle.
The PDP noted that the recourse to violence is a deliberate pattern by Sylva, who was alleged to have engaged in such heinous activity in previous elections in Bayelsa State, including the 2019 governorship election, when similar violence was allegedly unleashed by his thugs on the peace-loving people of Nembe with the connivance of certain high-ranking security operatives.
The PDP said that it is disturbed by the reported connivance of certain security operatives in these attacks on Nembe, especially thugs adorning themselves in military attire to carry out their evil deeds, as evidenced in the video of one of the thugs, Telimoye Awululu, who was captured wearing a military uniform.
According to the PDP, a policeman and Civil Defence personnel were reportedly arrested at a military checkpoint in Otakeme in Ogbia Local Government of the State for allegedly accompanying armed men to Nembe.
The PDP said that Sylva ought to have realized that he is fighting a lost battle, adding that no amount of violence can subdue the will of the people of Opu-Nembe and Bayelsa State in general to massively vote for Governor Douye Diri, who is a bastion of hope and development in Bayesla State and for which he has earned the sobriquet of the “Miracle Governor.”
Agency Report
