48 hours to Supplementary election: Bayelsa Speaker’s home bombed
Barely 48 hours to the supplementary election in seven Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State, suspected thugs on Thursday wreaked havoc on the country home of the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Konbowei Benson in Korokosei community of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state with improvised explosives suspected to be dynamite.
The development is coming on the heels of the commencement of distribution of sensitive election materials for Saturday’s supplementary poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as well as the deployment of three National Commissioners to supervise the election in the affected areas in the state. The bombing of the country home of the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, which occurred at about 4am on Thursday, is however one of the series of attacks recorded between the loyalists of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the Saturday’s re-run election in Southern Ijaw and other 101 units of Ekeremor, Nembe, Yenagoa, Ogbia and Sagbama Local Government Areas of the state.
The Speaker, Kombowei Benson, while confirming the incident on Thursday on a live telephone programme, accused the APC of hiring thugs that attacked his house. According to report, though no life was lost, as the Speaker’s family was still in the state capital, however, the explosives suspected to be dynamite caused huge damaged to the building. Confirming the incident, Benson said he got wind of the development around 4am when he received calls from his home town about the attack on his country home. “I was asleep in my house here in Yenagoa and around 4am, my wife’s phone rang and a message was sent to us that they have gone to dynamite my house.
“It is not something unexpected because they have always been promising to attack, to kill or assassinate me or my family members. “During the last election, about fourteen persons of my community and family members were kidnapped and taken to Ologbobiri and assaulted. They have decided this time again to do the worse and they have started with my building. They went there and plant ed dynamite and then it was a big explosion and a lot of places in the building got damaged.” Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday said it had commenced distribution of sensitive election materials for Saturday’s supplementary poll in the state.
The Commission’s Public Affairs Officer in the state, Mr. Timidi Wariowei, made this known in an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa. Wariowei said the Commission received the sensitive materials on Wednesday and distribution had commenced in Ekeremor Local Government Area on Thursday. He added that “all the materials are now in our custody; the materials include ballot papers and result sheets. “On the distribution process, we intend to dispatch that of Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area early morning of Saturday. “You know that the real focus is the Southern-Ijaw and we do not want what happened on December 5, 2015 to repeat itself in that area.
“INEC is prepared to conduct free, fair and credible election for the betterment of the people. “We have over 100 polling units in the state to conduct the election and SouthernIjaw; so, we are ready to conduct credible and acceptable election.’’ On the use of ad hoc staff, Wariowei said the Commission resolved to use some of them that participated in the December 5 gubernatorial election in the state. He, however, added that some of the ad hoc staff had been changed, especially for the Southern-Ijaw, stressing that efforts were made to ensure that the election was conducted freely. He said “INEC is on top of the game. On security, we have been working with security agencies because without them, we cannot conduct the election. “We have been collaborating with the Police and Army to ensure peaceful election in Bayelsa.’’
Also, INEC on Thursday said it would be deploying three of its National Commissioners to supervise Saturday supplementary governorship election in Bayelsa State. INEC Deputy Director of Publicity, Mr. Nick Dazang, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja. Dazang added that the commission would also deploy a technical team to each ward where the election would be conducted. “The technical team would be deployed to intervene in situations where there are technical challenges as regards the use of card readers,” Dazang said.
He said that no fewer than 834 ad hoc staff, comprising of four staff in each of the 431 polling units, would also be deployed to conduct the election. Dazang said that election would be conducted in 425 polling units (PUs) and five voting points in Southern Ijaw local government area of the state. Besides, he said that the supplementary election would also hold in 101 PUs in three other local government areas of the state where election were cancelled.
