Buhari Was Stoned In Bayelsa, Says Governor Dickson

Seriake Dickson, governor of Bayelsa state, on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari was stoned in 2011 when he visited the state as the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
Incidentally, Timipre Sylva, Dickson’s rival and candidate of the APC in the state governorship election, was the governor of Bayelsa at the time.

Addressing a press conference in Yenagoa, capital of the state, Dickson said he ensured that Buhari was secure during his visit to Bayelsa as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). “President Buhari, when he came to campaign as CPC candidate, was stoned,” he said. “But I granted state stadium to president Buhari, and made adequate security for his safety when he came to campaign again, because I knew that these people could harm him or people in his entourage and I didn’t want that to happen.” 

Dickson also accused one of Buhari’s ministers, apparently Heineken Lokpobiri, of “terrorising” people of the state ahead of Saturday rerun election. The election, which held across the state on December 8, was rescheduled to January 9 in Southern Ijaw local government area and over 100 polling units in other local government areas, as a result of violence.

But Dickson placed the disturbances at the doorstep of his opponents, saying he remains a man of peace. He alleged that there were plans to rig Saturday election in favour of Sylva and called on the people to defend their votes. Dickson accused Sylva of using his influence to change the head of security agencies in the state in order to perfect his plot. “I’m the proponent of political tolerance in this state,” he said. “I don’t need anybody to kill and maim for me, I’m a man of peace and everybody knows. What we have seen is a subversion of our national security agencies. “The minister sent thugs to attack the collation centre, put off the community generator, storm the collation centre, took away the original ward result sheets, and also prevented the collation officers from completing their collations.