Daily Independent (Lagos)
Emma Gbemudu
4 December 2008
The last is yet to be heard of a women leader, Violent Ogun, who was arrested with her three-month-old baby in Yenagoa during the week for leading a peaceful protest.
But, the Bayelsa State chapter of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), and Action Congress (AC) have condemned the action, describing it as uncultured and unconstitutional.
They, therefore, demanded for the immediate release of the woman with her baby, saying the arrest was crude and dictatorial, just as it was a monumental disgrace to the state.
In separate statements signed by the State Secretary of CLO, Morris Alagoa, and his AC counterpart, Miriki Ebikibina, and made available to Daily Independent on Thursday in Yenagoa, the groups argued that the assault and brutalisation of a cameraman, who was recording the scene of the protest by a police officer, Simon Job, in Government House was barbaric.
The protesting women under the aegis of Oil and Gas Host Communities in Bayelsa State, on Tuesday in Yenagoa embarked on a peaceful protest, demanding that the state government established the state's Oil and Gas Producing Areas Development Commission (BASOPADEC), as in other Niger Delta states.
But, State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Asara Asara, alleged that the women protesters were hired and paid for the "job" by some mischievous people in Bayelsa, who are determined to unseat the Governor.
The aggrieved women who besieged Government House to register their protest also demanded for genuine implementation of the 13 per cent derivation formula accruing to oil and gas communities.
They wanted Governor Timipre Sylva to give account of the derivation fund released to the state government from January this year till date.
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