PDP protests as thugs attack Dickson’s aide, three others in Bayelsa; DSS invites Speaker, others

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bayelsa State, on Friday, protested over the invasion of the South-South state by thugs suspected to be working for the All Progresssives Congress (APC).
The Special Adviser to Governor Seriake Dickson on Inter-Party Matters, Austin Adigio, and three other PDP members in Okpoama and Eweama communities of Brass Local Government area were on Friday macheted in a bloody attack ahead of the election.
Journalists were informed that Adigio, who served as Personal Assistant to Chief Timipre Sylva and recently decamped to join Dickson’s administration, was attacked by several armed youths believed to be working for APC.
Sources said that other PDP members in the area were attacked with machetes by suspected supporters of APC. The source claimed the attackers warned those who are not members of APC to leave the community and forget the election holding on Saturday.
Confirming the development, the Director of Media and Publicity of the Restoration Campaign Organisation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon. Jonathan Obuebite, told journalists that the attack in Okpoama and Eweama “is one among the series of attacks unleashed by the APC against the members of the PDP across the state”.
Said Obuebite:”We condemn the attacks on our members in Eweama and Okpoama communities. We call on relevant security agencies to investigate the incident and bring the culprit to book. Nobody has the monopoly of violence. If the APC-led Federal Government fails to put a stop to this wanton display of federal might and sheer brigandage and violence being unleashed on us by APC in Bayelsa State, we will be forced to defend ourselves”
“We will be helpless if our members resort to defending themselves. And in that circumstances, the outcome will be too disastrous for the federal government to handle. The Federal Government should be alive to the responsibility of ensuring that nobody, no matter how highly placed, should take laws into their hands.”
Also, the PDP raised the alarm over the invitation of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Kombowei Benson, top government functionaries and party chieftains by the Directorate of State Services (DSS) barely 24 hours to the conduct of the governorship election.
Obuebite, in a statement in Yenagoa on Friday, described the sinister invitation of the major key players of the PDP-led state government as a prelude to the plan of the federal government and the APC to take key supporters of Dickson out of circulation on Saturday so as to rig the polls with ease.
The statement, therefore, condemned the act, “ because it is evil and antithetical to the rule of law and fairness which the APC claims to champion
“This latest intimidation of key PDP leaders has vindicated our earlier position that the federal government was planning to arrest Governor Dickson’s supporters before the election”
While promising to resist the rigging of the polls, Obuebite urged on the federal agencies to be neutral and not allow themselves to be drawn into the arena of politics.
He also called on Bayelsans not to be intimidated by the presence of security agencies because there are deployed in the state to protect you before, during, before and after the election.