The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has threatened to drag the Bayelsa state governor, Hon Seriake Dickson before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for embezzling parts of over the N1.3 trillion naira accrued to the state from the federal government in the past seven years of his administration.
He also debunked claims by the governor in a press briefing recently that he is planning to unleash violence in the state during the forthcoming general elections in collaboration with security agencies.
The minister made the accusation on Tuesday in a press statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media Mr George Oji in Yenagoa.
The statement reads in part: “Communities in Bayelsa state are called upon to begin to interrogate the impact and value addition (if any) of the Dickson’s government in their various communities. This no doubt, will expose the governor’s incompetence in office.
The security agencies should be on the alert to checkmate the activities of Governor Dickson, particularly on political thuggery and violence, vote buying, ballot snatching and other political and election malfeasance. The people of Bayelsa deserve to be given the opportunity to exercise their franchise at the polls under a violent free atmosphere. The free reign of terror by Dickson in Bayelsa State must be put to a complete stop.
Governor Seriake Dickson has continued to fabricate unfounded and unsubstantiated lies against the leadership of the APC in Bayelsa State as sponsors of political violence in the state. The latest of such lies was during a press briefing on Monday, February 18, in Yenegoa, wherein the governor alleged that, “the minister of State, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri (PhD) and former governor Timipre Sylvia, leaders of APC in Bayelsa State are known violent persons who deploy political thugs to create panic and rig elections in the state.”
As the mastermind and architect of political violence in Bayelsa state, it is pertinent to remind the governor that he was the one who mobilized political thugs and killers led by Tolu Amatu and Aboy Muturu to the residence of the Honourable minister in Ekeremor during the 2015 gubernatorial elections with the sole brief of assassinating the minister. It is also a known fact that during the same 2015 governorship elections, Dickson deployed political thugs in the major communities of Toro-Orua, Ebedebiri, Angalabiri, Sagbama, Akede, Toro-ebeni, Okunbiri, Ekeremor, Peretorugbene, amongst others to intimidate the voters and engage in ballot box snatching. As we speak, Tamarauebi Babofa, a victim of the mayhem unleashed in Sagbama that year, still sadly lives with the agony of his two legs chopped off by Dickson’s political thugs who perpetrated the dastardly act.”
