The Bayelsa Police Command today held a closed-door meeting with ex-militant leaders over the rescheduled supplementary elections in Southern Ijaw LGA and 101 polling units across the state.

It will be recalled that the December 5, 2015 governorship election was marred by violence, which compelled Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the poll in Southern Ijaw and declare the process inconclusive.

The Police Command had invited the ex-militant leaders based intelligence on security threat against the conduct of the re-run election in 101 units of Ekeremor, Sagbama, Ogbia and Nembe and Southern Ijaw LGA.

Spokesman, Bayelsa Police Command, Asinim Butswat (DSP), said on Tuesday in Yenagoa that the meeting held behind closed doors on Monday was fruitful.

Butwat did not provide details but sources in the Bayelsa Police command confirmed that most of the ex-militants leaders shunned the parley. The sources said that only two ex-militant leaders, Pastor Reuben Wilson and Mr Joshua Machiver, were present at the meeting.

It was gathered that frontline ex-agitators like, Mr. Ebikabowei Victor-Ben known as Boyloaf, of defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, Sgt. Wari Digefa, Silke Kiletorughedi (Young Shall Grow) did not attend the meeting. Also Mr Africanus Kaprasia, known as General Africa, and Comrade Eris Paul, known as Ogunboss, shunned the meeting.

Investigations showed that the ex-militants leaders who played dominant roles in the December 5 gubernatorial elections saw the meeting as a ploy to arrest them and keep them out of circulation for the re-scheduled poll.

A group, Patriots of Ijaw Nation (PIN), attributed the poor attendance to the meeting to lack of trust in the motives of the Police. It alleged in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Kesiye Newman, that Mr Ondo Gbekumo, who heads the Special Investigations Bureau of the command, is an associate of Governor Seriake Dickson, a candidate in the poll.

Said PIN: “The meeting was a plot to arrest and detain the ex-militant leaders till after the Southern Ijaw elections.

“We write to alert the general public, the Nigeria Police, the military, and other security agencies to a plot by Gov. Seriake Dickson, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“The plot is to cause mayhem with a view to achieving dry voting at the upcoming supplementary elections in the state.

“The conspiracy is so alarming that we have decided not to ignore it, particularly, because of the innocent lives that could be lost in the process.” (NAN)

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