By SAMUEL OYADONGHA
Speculations on the actual death toll in the Friday attack on the country-home of Mr. Timi Alaibe  and his Labour Party supporters have been put to rest as the police authorities in Bayelsa State, yesterday, confirmed that only two lives were lost while six people were injured.

Also 31 suspects, arrested by the Joint Task Force in connection with the attack, have been handed over to the police.
Mean time, the Bayelsa State Government, in a statement  signed by Commissioner for Information, Strategy and Orientation, Mr. Nathan Egba, has attributed the attack to agents of destabilisation.

The police confirmation by the command Public Relations Officer, Mr. Eguavoen Emopae (ASP), is coming on the heels of the condemnation of the attack by the former chairman of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Central Zone, Maxwell Oko, who  described as uncivilised behaviour the action of the attackers which led to the loss of lives.

“The action of the attackers is animalistic and not in the spirit of the Ijaw people and it is uncivilised behaviour that is decimating the lives of the youths,” he said.

The Bayelsa Government statement reads, “The Government of Chief Timipre Sylva has over the years laboured to achieve an enduring peace across the state and will not accept any attempt to destroy the effort under any guise.

“It is clear from similar attacks across the state that there are some agents working to destabilise the present administration from its focus of delivering dividends of democracy to the people.

‘’While government sympathises with all those whose relations and friends were either killed or injured in yesterday’s violence, we wish to task the law enforcement agencies to, as a matter of urgency, get to the root of these dangerous acts and bring all those culpable to book.”

Oko, a former youth activist who is also the state Commissioner for Energy, while calling on the youths not to allow themselves to be used to settle political scores also urged the political class to exercise caution, saying politics should not be seen as a do or die affair and that the state should not be turned into a battle ground by desperate politicians out to paint the state as insecured.

According to him, the attack was an embarrassment to the people of the state and capable of scaring away investors from the state.

He called on the police and other security agencies to properly investigate the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to book.

But, Alaibe, in a reaction to the incident, said though the death of his defenceless supporters was painful and a huge loss to the Labour Party, the violence visited on his home and his supporters was a clear indication of the abyss in which the state had been thrown into by politicians.

Also, in a statement issued in Yenagoa, the State Chairman of LP, Mr. Bobo Atari-Adou, condemned the attack and described it as barbaric and inhuman.

Bobo Atari-Adou announced the decision of the party to suspend the proposed screening of aspirants in the state and the conduct of the party’ primaries for various elective positions in respect to the party supporters killed.

“We condemn the killing in strong terms and know that it is barbaric, uncivilised and inhuman acts,” and urged the security agencies to unravel the perpetrators and bring them to book.

He also announced that the party screening schedule for today (Sunday) and fixed for tomorrow had been postponed.
The party primaries is expected to hold from Tuesday, y OUR REPORTER