By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
The member of the House of Representatives representing Brass/Nembe constituency, Hon Marie Enenimiete Ebikake, has sent a protest letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the repeated armed and violent invasion of Opu Nembe (Bassambiri), in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
According to Hon. Ebikake, the traditional rulers and indigenes of Opu-Nembe are “facing bitter anguish, with the old and young, mothers and widows of Opu Nembe subjected to inhuman, gun-barrel politics favored by the Bayelsa-born APC chieftain and ex minister of state, Timipre Sylva.”
Hon Ebikake, in an open letter dated August 14, 2023 and made available to newsmen in Yenagoa, pointed out that “whatever the pretext, this recurring armed invasion of Opu Nembe (Bassambiri), and the random arrests of youths are not unconnected to Sylva’s virulent and bottomless political ambitions which introduced inimical intensions and tainted the political standard of the state, as far back as 2015.”
She said “And with the years, and his supposed political sophistication, Timipre Sylva has evidently only perfected the use of federal connections to abjectly subjugate and dehumanize his very kith and kin, hoping to flog them into line. This he has done, since 2015, as heralds to his political interests in any contest.
“Take the February 2019 National Assembly elections, for instance, for which he mobilized platoons of Nigerian soldiers, for the violent invasion of Opu Nembe (Bassambiri), and the forcing out of town of the opposition. A few lost their lives, scores were injured.
“In the February 19, 2023 general elections, he again led a battalion of Nigerian soldiers to invade Idema, a quite fishing town on the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, to scare the voters away, and had a field day with the ballot boxes.
“But before the Idema attack, he masterminded an abortive attack, on the eve of the February elections, targeted at the youth president and the assistant youth president of Opu Nembe which, as was reflected in the outcome of the polls, negatively impacted his party.
“And since losing to the main opposition in the February, 2023 elections in, most, all of the wards in the Brass-Nembe Federal Constituency, Timipre Sylvia has declared an internecine war with the Opu Nembe (Bassambiri) community. The latest in this series of calculated and obnoxious armed invasions of Opu Nembe (Bassambiri), took place on the 12th of August, 2023 by masked gunmen, dressed in the uniform of the Nigeria Police.
“They came in a heavy convoy of Hilux vehicles and Toyota buses shooting sporadically. Sylva’s army of conquest called to execute, yet, another horrendous operation in Opu Nembe, leaving in their wake physical, mental and emotional injuries, that are beginning to threaten a people’s way of life.
“Mr. President, no Nigerian, however highly placed, should ride roughshod over another with impunity.
“The Brass-Nembe Federal Constituency is not a conquered zone and the people are not his Timipre Sylva’s subjects. As I write, Mr president, there is a viral video of women of Opu Nembe, sending a crystal clear message of their rejection of Timipre Sylva. Were it not time, then, Sylva was called to order?
“The Opu Nembe kingdom has bled long enough and this has to stop. Sylva, of all people, ought to know, the gunbarrel politics is giving way to people power. And no garrison of soldiers can stop it,” she said.
Our correspondent, however, could not get a response from the media team of the former minister of state, Timipre Sylva, as at the time of filing this report.
