The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed, to immediately order the arrest of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, for questioning and prosecution, for incitement.
The party said the violence and arson perpetrated by agents of the APC in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital, on Friday, was in furtherance of Oshiomhole’s inciting statements.
In his reaction to the Supreme Court judgment that sacked Mr David Lyon of the APC as Bayelsa’s governor-elect, Oshiomhole had declared that nobody would be sworn-in as governor in Bayelsa state.
In a statement on Friday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party said the APC chairman’s statement was a direct call for sedition and violent subversion of the 1999 Constitution, the statutory authority of the Supreme Court and the mandate of the people of Bayelsa state.
Violence erupted in Bayelsa on Thursday and Friday following the Supreme Court judgment that sacked APC’s Lyon and the recognition of PDP’s Douye Diri as governor-elect.
The PDP said Oshiomhole should therefore be pulled in immediately for prosecution for inciting violence and arson in the state.
The statement said, “Nigerians can recall that our party had on Thursday cautioned Oshiomhole over his utterances and apparent plots to cause violence and a breakdown of law and order in the state.
“The world however watched with horror as APC agents, chanting APC slogans, assaulted the people of Bayelsa state, set the PDP secretariat in the state ablaze, attacked the premises of Radio Bayelsa, vandalized vehicles and equipment, took over major highways and attacked travellers, all in the bid to violently subvert the judgment of the Supreme Court and forcefully take control of the state”.
The party called on the people of Bayelsa, the security agencies and Nigerians at large, to hold Oshiomhole responsible and accountable for the violence in Bayelsa state and deal with him accordingly, in line with the provisions of the laws.
“Oshiomhole must be brought to book and stopped from the use of garrulity and clear misuse of language to cause crisis in our country”, the PDP said.