Kinsmen of former President Goodluck Jonathan have raised the alarm over the attack on members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
They have vowed to send a petition to the Inspector General of Police on the development to prevent a breakdown of law and order in the area.
The kinsmen under the auspices of the Ogbia PDP Renaissance (OPR) in a statement by their chairman, Mr Obhioru Mitanoni, noted that with 20 days to the election, PDP members were being attacked, harassed, and intimidated in different parts of the local government area.
Mitanoni fingered a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the area in the area for being responsible for the attacks because of fears of losing the election.
While calling on security agencies to urgently wade into the issue and arrest the situation as the attackers mostly youths have been allegedly armed with sophisticated weapons to harass PDP members, OPR expressed dismay that Jonathan’s local government area would come under attack by the APC and PDP leaders in the area would feign ignorance.
The statement read in part: “We are now confronted with one of the worst political violence in Ogbia local government. On a daily basis, thugs loyal to the APC candidate are brutalising our members. We have it on good authority that the APC candidate Mr Samuel Ogbuku procured all manners of arms to cause mayhem before and during the election. This is because he knows that he will fail. We are, however, shocked that despite the ugly development, some leaders of our party, the PDP, are giving tacit endorsement to the candidature of the APC and even sponsoring his rascality in the area. This is indeed sad. It has confirmed our earlier position that the APC candidate enjoys the support and backing of our former leader alongside his wife.”
However, Ogbuku in an interview denied all the allegations by OPR noting that the group is spreading lies by repeating all the allegations it had earlier made against the Jonathan family.
According to him, the group has nothing new to say aside its old allegations and the public should disregard anything coming from its members.
