LP FAULTS CALL FOR PROBE INTO BAYELSA CLASH
THE Labour Party (LP) in Bayelsa State yesterday faulted the position of the Conference of the Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) on the call for the state government to set up a judicial panel of inquiry into the clash where six persons were feared killed at the country-home of the former Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta, Mr. Timi Alaibe.
The party said such a call is a deliberate attempt to witch-hunt the candidate of the party and confuse the investigation of the state police command.
Chairman of the CNPP in Bayelsa State, Sunday Frank-Oputu, had called on the state Governor Timipre Sylva to set up a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the alleged rival cult clash at the hometown of the LP's governorship candidate, Mr. Timi Alaibe, accusing him of being culpable in the death of the six persons.
Frank-Oputu said investigations conducted by the CNPP into the incident showed that the governorship candidate of the LP was culpable for the alleged hiring of rival cult groups without clear knowledge of their rivalry and could not stop the confrontation that ensued at the Port Harcourt Airport and the Opokuma Community in Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Council of the state.
Frank-Oputu said: 'Timi Alaibe should be invited and held culpable for the killing of the six persons. It showed that the Labour Party and the candidate are not experienced in security and political issues.
'I also wonder why the JTF or the Police could not ensure that they arrest him for not informing them of the gathering in Opokuma, instead he came into the state with external policemen. It is unfortunate that the men that would have become great men were killed in cold blood'.
According to him, the claim that the killers were sent by some persons was wrong. But the state Chairman of the LP, Bobo Atari-Adou, in an interview in Yenagoa, described the position of the CNPP as mischievous and sponsored.
'It is unfortunate that when the series of killings of perceived government opposition were being carried out by some paid killers in some parts of the state, there was no call for the setting up of a judicial panel of inquiry by the CNPP', he said.
According to him, the security agencies have assured the party of their readiness to arrest the killers.
The LP chairman has assured CNPP and their sponsors that the killers would be unveiled.
'We are worried that such a call is coming from a body that was set up to cater for all existing political parties in the state. Is CNPP the media arm of the state government? It is shameful', he lamented.
He said the call was the first in the series of plots by some persons in government to seek a kangaroo indictment of the LP candidate and throw the state into unimaginable confusion.