Ahead of the Saturday, December 10 re-run legislative elections in Rivers State, the Ogoni Ethnic Nationality (OEN) says it has uncovered series of plots by chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) capable of turning Ogoni into a theatre of war, if not averted by security agencies and well-meaning Ogoni elite and concerned groups.

Elder Batombari Ledogho, National Coordinator, Ogoni Ethnic Nationality, in a statement issued on Thursday noted that “such activities include the on-going secret meetings with some youths by the APC leaders in the area, at the instance of one Mr. Marvin Yobana, who has be appointed Security Coordinator of the APC in the Ogoni area for the purpose of causing pandemonium, intimidating and assaulting potential voters during the Saturday re-run election in that Senatorial district.”

The statement also claimed that “during the meeting, N5 million was given to each of the group heads, numbering 10, with the instruction to shoot at sight, assault, and kidnap any one perceived to be obstructing them from carrying out the electoral fraud in the area. The APC leaders, who described the December 10 re-run as the election of their lives, told the recruited youths not to leave anything to chance in dealing with any PDP member who stands on their way.”

The body expressed worry over this development and called on the security agencies to immediately invite and investigate Mr. Yobana, considering the potential danger his activities pose to the success of the election and peace of Ogoni, particularly now that the atmosphere in the area is already tensed as a result of actions like his. The body also appealed to the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, MOSOP, to urgently set in motion actions aimed at stopping this evil trend by these elements in the area, and convene an Ogoni Congress to discuss and condemn these actions, as they say, ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.

This group of Ogoni stakeholders from the four Ogoni Local Government Areas, namely Khana, Gokana, Tai and Eleme, out rightly condemned Mr. Yobana’s surreptitious engagement of the youths in the area, which is capable of throwing Ogoni and the entire senatorial district into deep crisis, especially in the event the other political parties decide to engage them in like manner.

The group called on the APC security coordinator, Mr. Yobana, to turn a new leave, desist from engaging youths in nefarious activities, and being an agent of destruction in Ogoni, not only during the election but in his life time, as such will not do him any good but shows he is an enemy of his people.

•Photo shows IGP Ibrahim Idris.

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