….Thugs sack Nembe Bassambiri as Opu-Nembe women call on Buhari to suspend election in thier community
The Government House Photographer, Reginald Dei, who was shot by men in Army uniform in Oweikorogha, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, during the last Presidential and National Assembly elections has died.
A statement by the Director Corporate Communications, Governor’s Office, Chief Nathan Egba-Ologo, stated that the photographer died after battling to survive the lethal wounds from the gunshots in a Yenagoa hospital on Sunday night.
Dei was shot alongside the leader of the PDP in Oweikorogha community, Mr. Seidougha Taribi, while the duo were waiting for the outcome of the election in their ward at the politician’s residence.
While Dei who was initially taken for dead survived the attack until Sunday night, Taribi died on the spot.
Egba-Ologo called on the relevant security agencies to investigate the activities of the various security agencies in order to bring the culprits of the dastardly act to book.
He added that while the state was mourning the unfortunate murder of Taribi and Dei as a result of the brigandage that rocked the parts of the state during the Presidential election, thugs working for APC chieftains have been allowed to wreak havoc in Nembe Bassambiri.
He said further that the rampaging thugs have sacked the mobile policemen and the operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps on deployment in the besieged community.
He lamented that the rampaging thugs have dug military fashion trenches in Bassambiri with barricades to harass PDP members in the community and prevent those who fled the community from returning.
He called on the leadership of the Nigerian Army and the other security agencies to prevent brigandage and a breakdown of law and order in the area ahead of the next elections.
He urged the security agencies to adhere strictly to their constitutional responsibility to ensure the provision of security and indeed the requisite environment in the next election.
……Opu-Nembe women call on Buhari to suspend election in community
Women in Opu Nembe in Nembe Bassambiri have cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Independent National Electoral Commission to suspend the forthcoming election in the troubled community.
Spokesperson of the Women, Mrs. Sotonye Samuel-Johnson, said in a statement on Monday that the call to postpone the election in the violence ridden community was necessary to safeguard the lives and properties of women and children in the area.
Samuel-Johnson said that women and children who fled the community to nearby Ogbolomabiri and Yenagoa have not been able to return to their community because of the violence being perpetrated by thugs backed by the Army led by Major A. Modibbo Commander of JTF in Nembe.
She urged the President to direct urgent investigations to the activities of the thugs and their Army collaborators which according to her had assumed a frightening dimension.
Samuel-Johnson said that the thugs had become so emboldened to the extent of sacking detachments of Mobile policemen and operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence deployed to maintain order in the community.
She stressed that it had become clearly unsafe for the women folks and their children to return to Nembe Bassambiri during the tensed election period.
She stated further that the Army which was equipped to deal with such instances of violence had looked the other way for the thugs being led by one Sam Kodjo, an oil surveillance contractor, to subject the community to violence.
She argued that it would be fool hardy on the part of the women, and their families to return to the besieged communities without being guaranteed of their safety by the security agencies especially the Army which she said has become compromised in the area.
She said, “We the Opu Nembe Women are making this frantic appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari and the Indepedent Electoral Commission to postpone the forthcoming House òf Assembly election in Nembe Bassambiri as a means of safeguarding the lives of women and children in the area.
“Several women and children have been displaced in Nembe Bassambiri by the thugs led by Kodjo under the directive of former Governor Timipre Sylva,
“We are constrained to say here that the APC thugs who enjoy the support of the Army have driven many voters out of the area.
“As things stand, it is virtually impossible for our people to return to Bassambiri if the security agencies cannot guarantee their safety.”
.……PDP accuses Sylva of sponsoring thugs involved in crisis
The Peoples Democratic Party In Bayelsa has alleged that thugs led by an Oil Surveillance Contractor, Kodjo, operating at the behest of former Governor, Chief Timipre Sykva have sacked the mobile policemen and operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp in Bassambiri, Nembe Local Government Area.
The State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Moses Cleopas, alleged in a late night statement on Sunday that the thugs aided by soldiers had dug trenches and mounted barricades in Nembe Bassambiri to harass innocent people.
Cleopas said that it was rather frightening that the thugs working for a Bassambiri-born APC Chieftain, Sylva, could be allowed to sack members of the community who are not supporters of the All Progressives Congress.
He further alleged that the thugs were mounting illegal road blocks with a view to scaring away supporters of the PDP with a view to hijacking electoral materials for thumb printing as was the case in the area during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
He said that the current siege on Bassambiri had created a sad situation where thousands of innocent residents have become Internally displaced persons seeking refuge in Yenagoa and the nearby Ogbolomabiri.
Cleopas said that the former Governor had turned Bassambiri to be the headquarters of his illegal militia for the purpose of rigging elections.
He said, “An Oil Surveillance Contractor, Kodjo and his thugs acting at the behest of Chief Timipre Sylva have sacked the mobile policemen and the civil Defence men that were sent sent in to maintain order in Bassambiri,
These people have dug a military type of trench and are mounting illegal road blocks with barricades and stopping the police and the civil Defence operatives sent to maintain order in the community.
“They have been shooting all these days scaring and driving every person who is not their supporter away from the community. So thousands of people are IDPs now in Yenagoa in Yenagoa and Ogbolomabiri.
“Their aim is to keep every person who is not supporting APC out of the community so that they can have an opportunity to produce fake results; so that they can write figures as they did, and sadly, you have the military working with them.
“The mobile policemen and the civil Defence have been driven away at the behest of Sylva who has turned Bassambiri to his illegal.”
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