From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

 

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are at loggerheads over the recent attack by militants at the APC secretariat in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State during the inauguration of the acting Chairman of the party, Joseph Fafi, in which two persons were killed and several others injured.

The PDP, in a statement by its Chairman, Cleopas Moses and Publicity Secretary, Osom Mackbere slammed the APC over repeated cases of violence during its political gatherings.

It stated that acts of violence have continued to characterise APC activities and has become an embarrassment to the people and a threat to grassroots democracy.

Moses expressed concern over the repeated cases of violence which had resulted into loss of innocent lives and destruction of property.

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The statement read in part: “That extreme violence has become a recurring decimal in almost APC activities in the state viz-a-viz APC 2015 gubernatorial primaries, 2017 non-elective congress and the attempted inauguration of its acting chairman on August 18, 2017 all of which has been bloodletting. I want to remind  Bayelsa people of these same characters for their unrepentant, predominately evil nature even as it played out in the last gubernatorial election in the state where innocent people were killed in Southern Ijaw, Ekeremor and Brass local government areas”

However, the APC, in a statement by its acting Chairman, Joseph Fafi, argued that though the violent attack on the secretariat of the party was condemnable, the attack was sponsored with the obvious intentions to distract the inauguration of the new party structure of the party.

Fafi, who disclosed that preliminary investigation showed that the intention of the sponsors and attackers of the secretariat was to distract the inauguration with shooting and to cause pandemonium, said they were overpowered by security operatives and resilient party supporters.

“Though, in the end, two people lost their lives, it goes without saying that politics should be devoid of bitterness, rancour and acrimony. Those who sponsored these hoodlums to take lives and destroy property are themselves equally culpable of these dastardly and nefarious acts.

“Bayelsa indigenes, at all levels, are enjoined to be vigilant while security agents and law enforcement agencies are to equally step up their acts towards the arrest, prosecution and the protection of lives and property.

“The newly inaugurated acting chairman and the executive members will give Bayelsa people and all those living and doing business in Bayelsa a new lease of life. This is a new dawn. It is no longer business as usual. The old, corrupt and mundane order must give way because change has come to stay,” the APC said in the statement.