By Samuel Oyadongha
Yenagoa— Police authorities in Bayelsa State have intensified security around the Chairman of Kolokuma-Opokuma Local Government Area of the state, Chief Ebiyirin Otubo, following last Thursday’s attack on him by suspected political thugs at Kaiama.

Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aliyu Musa, told Vanguard in an interview that the measure was taken to avert a repeat of last Thursday’s incident.

Some suspects had been arrested and a woman, believed to be wife of one of the fleeing suspects was released on the orders of the Commissioner.

Mr. Musa said the Command will not rest until the masterminds of the attack were brought to book.

He assured staff of the council and residents of their safety, assuring that the Command was on top of the situation.
The Kolokuma-Opokuma council had been embroiled in political crisis following the ouster of the former chairman of the council, Mr. Ebikitin Diongoli by the state House of Assembly, which passed a resolution for his removal over alleged gross misconduct.

Close confidants of the sacked chairman had argued that he was removed from by the state Assembly because of his failure to deliver one of the constituencies in the area to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won by the Labour Party.

The attacked chairman, who was the former chairman’s deputy, was sworn-in as the substantive chairman of the council.
The crisis rocking the council, however, took a violent turn Thursday night as Otubo was beaten up by thugs suspected to be loyal to the sacked chairman of the council.

Otubo sustained gunshot wound on his left hand, while his car was seized by the thugs before it was retrieved by a team of the state special security outfit, Operation Famou Tangbe.

The thugs, it was also learnt, attacked and allegedly ransacked the car of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour, Mr. Jackson Suokiri, who visited his relation in the community. They were said to have made away with N1.1 million meant for the community.