Newly unveiled Bayelsa APC secretariat burgled

The PDP-led state government denies involvement

The new secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, has been burgled by unknown persons barely 24 hours after it was opened.

Bayelsa is the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan and administered by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, led by Governor Seriake Dickson.

It was gathered that the secretariat, which was opened on Wednesday was attacked at about 2 a.m. on Thursday.

Some loyalists of a former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, had unveiled the secretariat located in a building allegedly owned by Richard Kpodo, who served the ex-governor as a special adviser.

The flag was hoisted in the early hours of Wednesday while the signpost was mounted shortly before noon.

The action of the former governor’s loyalists reportedly induced tension in the state capital as the building, which also houses a transport company owned by Mr. Kpodo, had earlier been marked for demolition.

The Rivers State Chapter of the APC has expressed shock over the incident.

The chapter’s chairman, Davies Ikanya, in a statement by his media aide, Chukwuemeka Eze, on Thursday in Port Harcourt, accused the state government of being behind the attack.

“According to reports from our brothers in Yenagoa, barely 24 hours after the APC State Secretariat was opened, the PDP-led government in the state sent plain-cloth police men to remove the bill board and the flags of the party and also threaten to bomb the State Secretariat if the APC leadership fails to stop operating in the state,” the statement said.

Mr. Ikanya said the incident was an affront on the nation’s fledgling democracy by the Governor Seriake Dickson administration, which it claimed had become jittery because of the exodus of the members of the Bayelsa State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to APC.

He said, “This is a sad and very unfortunate development which should not be associated with any decent administration.”

However, the Bayelsa State government has washed its hands off the attack, saying it was not even aware that APC had unveiled a new secretariat in the state capital.

Daniel Markson-Iworiso, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor Dickson, told PREMIUM TIMES on phone that he was surprised that it was the Rivers State chapter of the party that was making the allegation and not its Bayelsa chapter.

“We have been in Abuja. We are not even aware that APC opened a new office. In fact, I find it strange that it is APC Rivers that is leveling such an accusation if indeed there is any truth in it,” Mr. Markson-Iworiso said.