ORJI DISMISSES PPA BOMB ALARM, RIBADU WANTS PROBE INTO BAYELSA BLASTS

THE claim by some Progressive People's Party (PPA) members in Abia State that a bomb was thrown at their rally at the weekend 'is certainly a hoarse geared towards attracting sympathy on one hand and a smokescreen of their intended actions of replicating their handiwork of violence as elections draw near,' the Orji administration said yesterday.

In the meantime, the Nuhu Ribadu Campaign Organisation has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to 'unravel the people behind the incessant bombings, explosions, and killings in Bayelsa State.'

A statement by Ike Ben Onyechere, media adviser to Governor Theodore Orji, dismissed the PPA alarm, saying: 'This false alarm is coming on the heels of the discovery of plans to destabilise the polity by the immediate past governor of the state who is relentless in bringing about woes and discomfort to the people of Abia State having failed in the act of kidnapping.

'It is sincerely childish and more so criminal for anybody for that matter to accuse the PDP which is the party in power of harassing the people it is ruling when in the actual sense, it is a gimmick by the opposition to unleash mayhem on the citizenry of Abia State. While the government has put all security paraphernalia on red alert the government does lose sight of the capacity of the ex-governor believed to be the brain behind the evil plans of different diversions.

'The Abia government therefore wants to assure its citizens that it is equal to the task of protecting lives and property in the state as we can not allow the peaceful situation we currently enjoy to slip back to the days of terrorism in the guise of kidnapping. Come to think of it, why on earth would the government with all of its structures haunt a scanty opposition that is merely playing to the gallery to attract the governor's attention?

The rally organised by a House of Representatives does not affect governance in any form. The Abia State government is responsibly focused on improving the lives of Abia people for which it took a risk of seizing the bull by the horn and liberating the people of Abia.  I can bet my life, says the Governor that he means well by connecting the state to the National grid where Abia people will get a fair share of the national cake.

It added:  'Currently, the government is reconstructing about 30 roads which were poorly executed by the last government.  The people must be told that most of the roads we are doing now which will shall show the people soon are roads that had been done before in the recent past which merely collapsed after little usage.  The determination of the government to begin a standard refinery in conjunction with the Federal Government is meant to bring about total turn around of the Abia economy by first making sure that no body will remain unemployed before the end of this year.  In as much as we don't intend to blow our trumpets, it is important to note that the fear of God is the foundation and the bed rock of any government that intends to bring happiness to its people which is a virtue our common opponents cannot boast of as is evidently clear to all and sundry.'

The Ribadu organisation, in a statement yesterday in Abuja by it Media and Communications Director, Ibrahim Modibbo,  asked the President to order security agencies to immediately commence investigations into the perpetrators of the acts and their sponsors.

'The continuous violence against lives and property in Bayelsa State proves the incompetence of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to guarantee the security of lives and property of every Nigerian.

'With the Nigeria Police, the SSS and other security agencies directly responsible to the President, how can he justify the continuous bombings and killings in his home state of Bayelsa?'  Modibbo asked.

Apart from the explosion which rocked a Labour Party secretariat in President Jonathan's own local council yesterday, there had been several explosions in the state last year, and killings of Nigerians, most of which were targeted at the opposition.

Modibbo observed that security agencies must do everything to ensure that they protect the lives and property of all Bayelsa residents  particularly members of the opposition in the state.

'Though there have been accusations and counter-accusations from both the PDP controlled state government and the opposition on the cause and sponsors of the violence, one would wonder why members of the opposition are continuously at the receiving end.

'We strongly condemn violence in whatever form, particularly against the opposition,' he said

The campaign organisation also condemned the silence of President Jonathan on the orgy of violence in Bayelsa State.

'What worries one is that President Jonathan continues to remain silent despite the continuous destruction of lives and property in his own state. Could it be that he supports or even encourages the violence or is he just helpless and incompetent in the face of the growing violence?' Modibbo asked.

Modibbo therefore challenged security agencies to act by their sworn oath of neutrality and ensure that 'all perpetrators and sponsors of violence in Bayelsa and elsewhere are brought to book even if they are related or close to the President, and irrespective of the positions they hold.'