The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena has hailed President Muhammadu Buhari’s tough stance against election riggers ahead of next Saturday’s rescheduled presidential election.
He said the marching orders given to security against individuals planning to rig the forthcoming elections through violence ballot box snatching and other criminal means is in order.
“Any plot to subvert the will the people must be met with the full weight of the law. Our votes must count,” he said.
The APC chieftain also accused agents of the Bayelsa state Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson of stockpiling arms in different Local Governments of the state ahead of the General Elections.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, Nabena said the alleged arms buildup could be traced particularly in Brass, Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw areas of the state.
The Bayelsa-born APC Chieftain said “While it is sad to imagine that a seating governor at the tail of his second tenure has exhausted public acceptance for both himself and his party to the level he has dissolved his entire campaign strategy to propaganda and violence, it should be remembered that the high level violence Mr Dickson is banking on is not alien to him. He has, infact, been a direct beneficiary of violence in all his years in politics.
“He became a governor in 2011 by propaganda and violence, in 2015 he forced his reelection by the barrel of a gun, assisted, of course, by some corrupt staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“In that election, which is regarded as the most violent in Bayelsa state history, thugs loyal to Governor Dickson attacked the residence of the Minister Of State for Agric And Rural Development, Senator Heinekken Lokpobiri, engaged in a shootout with his security details in a bid to kill the Minister, the thug who led that attack was later appointed Caretaker Chairman by Governor Dickson.
Nabena said that during the last governorship election, both Brass local government area and Southern Ijaw LGA were engulfed in violence, adding that Governor Dickson rewarded violence, by appointed the key actors of that violence as Local Government chairmen.
“Under Dickson, APC rally has been shot at by hired thugs, killing two persons about two years ago. APC members have been killed in Brass and Nembe, just weeks ago an APC member loyal to the APC candidate for the Bayelsa West Senatorial District, Captain Karimo, was stabbed by thugs loyal to Dickson.
“We are calling on the Police, the Department for State Security, the civil defense, the military and the security community in general to critically investigate the stockpiling of arms in Bayelsa state ahead of the imminent elections,” he said.
