I was never attacked by Dickson over Bayelsa polls, says council boss

APC accuses him of lying
A STATEMENT, purportedly made by the Chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Council, Chief Remember Ogbe, has debunked an earlier statement issued by the Bayelsa State Chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC) that claimed Governor Seriake Dickson assaulted him in the state Government House for making him (Dickson) lose the governorship election held on December 6, 2015 in his local council.

The APC, however, said the council boss was being economical with the truth.
It, therefore, challenged Chief Ogbe to come out publicly to make his denial and that not only did the assault actually happened, it was witnessed by several eyewitnesses, who are also ready to confirm its assertions.

The APC had said in the earlier statement that the state governor assaulted Chief Ogbe because he was allegedly miffed that he “lost” the election in Southern Ijaw in spite of what it called a “spending spree to win Southern Ijaw.”

According to the statement, while describing the report as wicked and malicious, Chief Ogbe said nobody ever attacked him. He averred that the story of attack on him was a figment of the imagination of the opposition concocted by the party’s governorship candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, to smear the democratic credentials of Governor Dickson with the target of tarnishing the governor’s hard-earned reputation as a non-violent politician.
“The good news is that Bayelsans cannot be swayed by the APC propaganda because the public knows that Sylva and the promoters of APC in the state are merchants of violence while Governor Dickson and PDP have in the past three years restored peace and prosperity to our people”, said the statement.

Chief Ogbe said as the supplementary election in Southern Ijaw draws closer, the APC is getting more desperate in their sinister bid to capture Bayelsa by hook or crook. He, however, expressed confidence that PDP will win Southern Ijaw because, according to him, “the people of Bayelsa in general and Southern Ijaw in particular have rejected Sylva and APC.”

The statement also: “Chief Ogbe also wondered why the APC would claim that the governor was angry for losing election in his council when there was no election at all in the first place.
“Southern Ijaw was riddled with violence and turned to a theatre of war by the APC. Election materials did not get to the polling units, INEC officials were kidnapped and these were the reasons why INEC cancelled the process and fixed January 9, 2016 for the election. So, how could the governor be angry with me for not delivering? This is the height of APC desperation and the discerning public must be weary of them.”

However, Director-General of the Sylva/Igiri Campaign Organisation, Chief Egba, in his reaction to the denial by the council boss, stood by the earlier statement and boasted that the organisation would produce about three eyewitnesses if the need arises.

Chief Egba said: “We have been told that the Chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Council, Chief Remember Ogbe, has denied being beaten to pulp by the serially violent Gov. Seriake Dickson ‎following the PDP’s disastrous outing in the cancelled re-run election in Southern Ijaw Local Council.
“Our response is simple. If he is sure that he was not beaten by
anybody, let him come out publicly to deny it on television so that cameras can show his face and other parts.

We know of a fact that all these denials are being issued from the Bayelsa Government House Press Office while Chief Remember Ogbe is on his sick bed.”
Meanwhile, the council boss was alleged to have warned the people of the area to be wary of the antics of the opposition, stressing that Governor Dickson would provide more democracy dividends for them when re-elected.