“Ebebi was like a wounded Lion”

Ben Eyorodukumor, chairman, Ekeremor Local Government Transition Monitoring Committee

— Ben Eyorodukumor, chairman, Ekeremor Local Government Transition Monitoring Committee
By Lawson Heyford, Yenagoa
Mr. Chairman, you are alive to tell the story about the Ekeremor LG primaries of Saturday, November 28, 2009. What really happened?
Let me start by thanking God for His mercies upon me because, but for His Grace I would not have been alive today for you to meet me still on the hospital bed. Thank you and The Source organisation for this kind of balanced journalism which I recommend to other media houses in the country. Last Saturday, as you know, was PDP primaries to elect candidates for the forthcoming local government election in Bayelsa State. And, as the chairman of the TMC for Ekeremor Local Government, my charges were quite clear: ensure a smooth, peaceful, free and fair primaries. We got to Ekeremor from Yenagoa and headed straight to the DPO’s (Divisional Police Officer) office where I addressed the security personnel about the election. While we were there, the state police commissioner was on phone with the DPO and later talked with me, and I assured him of a peaceful poll.
At the end of the election which was quite transparent, peaceful and orderly, we headed to the Ekeremor jetty to board the boat back to Bomadi and down to Yenagoa. On our way, we were told that the deputy governor and his team were in the palace of the traditional ruler of Ekeremor, and we felt like going there to exchange pleasantries as friends, but were later advised against it. No sooner had we boarded the boat than a surging crowd started racing towards us at the jetty, firing gun shots, and we sped-off to Bomadi water front, from where we drove off in a convoy of 17 vehicles with over 30 mobile policemen approved for me by the police commissioner at my request.
But just some metres away from the Patani bridge, the deputy governor’s convoy overtook ours and particularly my friend’s jeep in which l was inside (the second vehicle on our convoy). Ebebi alighted from his vehicle which he drove by himself, held up traffic from both the Yenagoa and Bomadi ends and attacked one Tolu who came out from the first car in our convoy in search of help. Tolu ran towards the jeep I was inside and in an attempt to come down from the car to calm the situation, the deputy governor, roaring like a wounded lion started raining punches at me and invited his security aides who joined him to hit me with gun butts, injuring me on my hands and legs which I used as defense, to protect the gun butts from hitting my face and head. The punches and hitting continued until I fell on the ground, not knowing myself any longer.
Suddenly, as God would have it, an Army patrol van along the East- West Road rushed to the scene just as one of the deputy governor’s soldiers pulled his gun’s trigger to ‘fire’ at me on the order of Ebebi. The Army Major who led the patrol van intercepted and gave a counter order to the soldier. Then the Chief Detail to Ebebi immediately drew out his pistol and fired shots at me, but my Chief Security Officer (CSO) dived into my front in order to save my life. But the bullets shattered the legs of my CSO and both of us are now hospitalised.
So at this point where were your own security personnel and what did the Major do eventually?
First, my security team including the 30 mobile policemen sent to me by the C.P was in disarray, perhaps because of the presence of their senior colleagues in the deputy governor’s entourage. When they later came back and tried to save the tense situation, two of them sustained gunshots on their hands. At this point, the infuriated Army Major ordere d the deputy governor back to his vehicle and he (Ebebi) left, threatening to kill me before the end of my tenure. I was then carried into the Army patrol van and taken to the Government House Clinic where I was in coma for 12 good hours, with everybody around suddenly becoming emergency pastors and prayer warriors, crying and praying for God to save my life.
But the deputy governor claimed you and the Commissioner for Youth, Bekes, are to be blamed for the crisis?
The deputy governor is power- drunk, having been in power, holding one political position to another for the past 10 years, using the instrument of office to win elections. Why Ebebi is so bitter is that for the first time in 10 years, he could not imagine being defeated in his own local government area. But that is politics for you, and I hope he will learn his lesson from this.