Militants give Dickson 48-hour ultimatum over alleged assault on Briggs

An amalgam of militant groups known as the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson to apologise to Ijaw woman activist, Annkio Briggs or face their anger.

The JRC said it held Dickson responsible for the alleged assault on her and others during a recent peaceful protest in Bayelsa.

Briggs was assaulted by hoodlums in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital a week ago to protest the allocation of 1, 200 hectares of land to Fulani herdsmen for cattle grazing.

The protesters had assembled at Tombia Junction, the take-off point, in Yenagoa and Briggs was reportedly addressing the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, his men and the gathering on the purpose of the protest when thugs unhindered, pounced, assaulting her and others.

According to the spokesperson of the JRC, Cynthia Whyte yesterday, if Governor Dickson failed to apologise “key agitating groups in the state would be activated to undermine the Dickson government.”

She said: “Within that 48-hour space, key agitating groups will first renounce amnesty and then commence series of activities to drive home our point and position. It is unfortunate that the same government which many Ijaws struggled and clamoured to win the 2016 elections would now turn out to be a government of tyranny, incompetence and ineptitude,” JRC said.

Whyte said: “It is unfortunate that today, the same bandit elements, armed robbers and unrepentant hardened criminals, who worked against Governor Dickson’s second term are the same band of renegades that would be hired to mug, mob and attack Annkio Briggs and her fellow protesters.

“This represents the fullness of treachery and tyranny. We will not allow this to happen in Bayelsa State, the cradle of Ijaw nation,” the JRC statement alleged.