The police in Bayelsa State, on Monday, arraigned two persons at the Chief Magistrate’s Court 4, Ovom, for alleged vandalising Governor Seriake Dickson’s campaign billboards and for defacing the governor’s posters.
The suspects – Emereru Jesus, 46, and Godknows Reuben, 50, – were arrested by the ‘A’ Division of the Bayelsa State Police Command, Yenagoa, on Saturday.
While Emereru is from Delta State, Reuben hails from the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
The suspects were arraigned on two counts of conspiracy and unlawful damage of the billboards and posters of Dickson.
Emereru and Reuben were arraigned by the police under Sections 378 and 445 laws of Bayelsa State, 2006.
When their pleas were taken, the suspects caused a stir in the courtroom when they started speaking out of context.
The Magistrate, Mrs. Nyingi Utomovie, discharged the suspects.
She, however, placed the suspects on a three-year bond and cautioned them to be of good behaviour.
The PDP had recently raised the alarm over alleged destruction of its campaign billboards and poll fliers across the state by suspected members of the opposition and therefore called on the security agencies to apprehend those behind the acts.
The Bayelsa State Restoration Campaign Organisation had, in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Jonathan Obuebite, said the call became imperative in order to avoid political clashes in the state.
According to him, most of the billboards erected by the ruling party in the state had been defaced while many were damaged by some persons suspected to be members of the opposition.
Obuebite had said, “Over 70 per cent of our billboards in some communities in the state, to be precise, Kpansia, Agudama, Ovom and Igbogene, have been defaced by suspected members of the opposition.
“This development lends credence to our position that the opposition is not ready for the governorship poll. Rather, its members are looking for means to provoke us, so that there will be crisis in the state.”
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