A combined team of security agencies on Saturday in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital, foiled an attack by gunmen on a Pro-Tinubu rally.
The rally organised by a grassroots political group, the NEW Associates, has been a subject of controversy, with the Governor Douye Diri-led government trying frantically to ensure the rally did not hold.
The New Associates, led by George Turnah, is made up of political associates of the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike.
A few minutes before the arrival of the important dignitaries to the event, held at the Church of God Mission Camp Ground, Igbogene, the venue came under attack by gunmen who began firing sporadic gunshots from a nearby bush, targeting the guests in front of the stage.
Policemen and operatives of the Department of State Security engaged the gunmen in a gun duel, forcing them to flee.
Investigations revealed that several people scampering for safety were injured and were taken to the hospital by the organisers.
The organisers were said to have called for reinforcement of soldiers from the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe, and proceeded with the programme.
They were unanimous in condemning the attack on a peaceful assembly of Ijaw people drumming support for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu.
The secretary of the New Associates and former spokesman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Ebilade Ekerefe, pointedly accused supporters of the PDP government in the state of being behind the attack.
Ekerefe who declared that no level of intimidation would make the group back down on its support for the re-election of President Tinubu wondered why the state government is threatened by a peaceful rally.
‘’ How will somebody go after law-abiding citizens of Nigeria, particularly Ijaw youths, who have gathered to associate politically? We are not here to cause trouble but to express our support and solidarity with the President and Commander-in-Chief.
Also speaking, the immediate past Commissioner for Health under Governor Douye Diri, Dr Pabara Igwele, expressed sadness that political thugs would want to disrupt a peaceful rally.
The lead convener of the NEW Associates, George Turnah, also condemned the attempt to disrupt the rally by gunmen.
Making a veiled reference to the state government, which had made several attempts to stop the rally, he queried why the government is not comfortable with a peaceful gathering of Ijaw people supporting President Tinubu for his infrastructural development in the Niger Delta region.
He accused Governor Douye Diri of being ungrateful despite being a beneficiary of President Bola Tinubu’s magnanimity than any other South-South governor.
He challenged Diri to make his stance on the 2027 presidential elections known so that Bayelsans who are appreciative of Tinubu’s developmental strides in the region would know where he stands on the continuation of a Southern Presidency.
Turnah, who is also the South- South Zonal secretary of the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) and the caretaker committee Chairman of the party in Bayelsa State listed illustrious Ijaw sons and daughters appointed by President Tinubu to include the Minister of Petroleum, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, MD NDDC, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, Head of Service of the Federation, Dame Didi Walson- Jack, DG, SEC, Emomotimi Agama, MD/ CEO Niger Delta River Basin Authority, Prince Ebitimi Amgbare.
He also described Chief Wike as a friend of the Ijaw nation who has facilitated the appointments of Ijaw people into positions of authority.
The Chairman of the occasion, Senator Thompson Sekibo, represented by Hon Rowland Sekibo, and the father of the day, Chief Ferdinard Alabrabra, represented by Chief Henry Ogiri, condemned the attack by gunmen and urged the people to be steadfast in their support for President Tinubu and his Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Sekibo noted that he has not seen a friend of the Ijaw nation who has helped the Ijaw people than Wike.
‘’As an Ijaw man, I have not seen another person who has done much for the Ijaw people than Nyesom Wike. Especially for those of us from Rivers State, the Rivers Ijaw people. Gratefulness is a virtue, and that is what we have come here to express.
‘’We have gathered to celebrate President Bola Tinubu and our leader, Chief Nyesom Wike, for the love they have shown to Ijaw people with the appointments of Ijaw sons and daughters to positions of authority.
‘’ What we are saying today as Ijaw people is that whatever instructions they give politically, that is what we would do. The New Associates in synergy with Mr President’s Renewed Hope Agenda. It has come to stay.’’
Meanwhile, State Government has expressed dismay over the shooting incident during a political rally organised in the state on Saturday by the NEW Associates, a group allegedly loyal to the Federal Capital Territory Minister, Chief Nyesom Wike.
The state government in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mrs. Obiuwou Koku-Obiyai, on Saturday night called on the Inspector-General of Police and the police authorities in the state to unravel those behind the incident at the rally ground.
The government expressed concern that the shooting was not a coincidence as the organisers had earlier threatened that “the good, the bad and the ugly” would attend the event.
