The Peoples Democratic Party on Friday accused both the Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress of illegally plotting to capture Bayelsa State “at all cost.”
It said the plan was to make sure that the APC would take over the state in 2019.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, made the allegation at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
Ologbondiyan said that it was ridiculous that the police authorities had allegedly posted eight Commissioners of Police to the state in the last four months.
He said the plan behind the posting was to weaken the PDP-led government in the state ahead of the polls.
He warned of dire consequences should the ruling party resort to illegitimate means of taking over the state.
He said, “It is no longer news that the APC, for obvious reasons, has been bent on forcefully taking over the control of oil-rich Bayelsa and other littoral states, for which it now seeks to turn them into theatres of war, with the support of certain individuals in control of federal apparatus of power.
“Today, the PDP and the people of Bayelsa State are being pushed to the wall as with the ongoing plot by the APC and the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to bully the people of Bayelsa and politically annex the state, by the use of crude force.
“The PDP wants Nigerians to be aware of the current design to use security agencies, particularly the police to foist a siege mentality on the state, trigger confusion and violence; then create an impression of security emergency with a view to using such as justification for a coordinated invasion, attack and annexing of political structures of the state for President Buhari and the APC ahead of the 2019 general elections.
“In a bid to forcefully seize control of Bayelsa State, the APC is attempting to convert the police into its violent militant wing, leading to the violations of rules of engagement and putting security agencies on collision course with the people despite potential bloody consequences.
“In its desperation, the APC has directly influenced the Inspector General of Police into posting eight different Commissioners of Police to Bayelsa State within the last three months just to destabilise the state.”
Ologbondiyan said that it was worrisome that some of the police commissioners spent less than a week before being pulled out of the state by the police authorities.