The Bayelsa State Police Command has summoned ex-militant leaders and supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to a meeting tomorrow in Yenagoa ahead of Saturday’s rerun governorship election in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state and a few other polling units.
The invitation is already generating tension in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) whose supporters are left out of the planned meeting.
The police in a copy of the invitation letter dated December 31, 2015 and sent to one of the ex-militant leaders, Eris Paul, popularly known as Ogunboss, asked the former agitators to appear on January 4.
The meeting was summoned by the police command through the office of the State Intelligence Bureau led by one Deputy Superitendent of Police (DSP), Ondo Gbekumo.
The letter says attendance to the meeting is compulsory.
It said: “The attendance to the meeting by ex-militant leaders is mandatory as issues bothering on threat to security on the January 9th election will be discussed.”
Also invited to the meeting is General Africa who openly supported President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 Presidential election.
But the summoned ex-militant leaders accused the state police command of bias toward the PDP.
They called for the overhaul of the present structure of the state police claiming that the state police command as currently constituted lacks the discipline to ensure a free and fair election in Southern Ijaw.
They alleged that Gbekumo who signed the invitation letter is an apologist and relation of the PDP candidate and Governor of the State, Mr. Seriake Dickson.
Ogunbos said:”When did we become members of the state security agencies to be invited to security meeting? Nothing annoys me so much as receiving the invitation from a relative of Governor Seriake, Ondo Gbekumo.”
Te Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Astimin Butswat, confirmed that the ex-militant leaders were formally invited as stakeholders to contributed to a violence – free election in the Council.
“We have invited them for discussions. We are exploring every medium available to ensure a hitch free election,” he said.
