Bayelsa Poll: PDP Calls For Maciver’s Arrest Over Inciting Comments

The Bayelsa State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governorship Campaign Council has called on the Inspector-General of Police and Director-General of the Department of State Services to immediately invite a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Joshua Maciver, for questioning.

Chairman of the campaign council’s Publicity Directorate, Hon. Ayibaina Duba, in a statement issued in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital on Monday, said MacIver made inciting comments capable of truncating the peace of the state in a video now in circulation.

Maciver, who is running mate to his party’s governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, whose candidature was nullified by the court made the incendiary comments during a rally in Twon-Brass on Saturday.

The Court of Appeal last week upheld the decision of the Federal High Court in Abuja nullifying Sylva’s candidacy.

However, in the video that has gone viral on social media, the former militant leader, facing allegation that he broke jail after being sentenced for terrorism by a Federal High Court in Kaduna, urged the people to “throw into the sea anyone that misbehaves on November 11 and ensure the person(s) dies.”

The PDP campaign council strongly condemned what it called Maciver’s thoughtless comment, saying it had “the potential of throwing the state into anarchy before and during the November 11 governorship election.”

The PDP noted that “the APC leader was notorious for instigating political violence” and that his comments only confirmed what Bayelsans generally know about the party’s plot to “cause violence during the election.”

The ruling party recalled how the quasi-security outfit, Operation Famoutangbe, created when Sylva was governor, “in Gestapo-like manner” allegedly “visited mayhem on hapless Bayelsans and political opponents in the state.”

It wondered if Maciver and his “party were having a dress rehearsal to again visit Famoutangbe on people of the state.”

PDP said under Governor Douye Diri, “peace has been fully restored in Bayelsa and the people now sleep with their eyes closed.”

It said, “Because the opposition had nothing good to offer the state, it continued to incite violence with Maciver’s recent comments, the height of the party’s desperation to seize power at all costs.”

PDP restated its call on the security agencies to ensure the governorship poll was peaceful and devoid of interference.

It said the security agencies should perform their professional and non-partisan roles in elections and ensure anyone that breached the electoral process is brought to book.

It also urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, “to be transparent and ensure that the November poll is free, fair and credible.”

It noted, “Election is about the ballot and not the bullets.”