Following the reported attack on former president Goodluck Jonathan, an official report on the incident in Bayelsa have been revealed. The spokesperson for the Bayelsa state police command, Butswat Asinim said Jonathan was not attacked but a group of men mistakenly followed Jonathan’s convoy. In his words:
“A vehicle mistakenly followed his convoy. That’s actually what happened. The culprits have been apprehended. They only mistakenly followed his convoy only to realise that it was not the vehicle they thought they were following. It was a mistake.
“The people just mistakenly followed his convoy thinking its a political party convoy. You know there are lot of political activities going on at the moment. So they thought it was the convoy of one of those political parties. When they realised that it was his convoy, they wanted to run away but the policemen arrested them.
“They were not in possession of anything like weapon at all, whatsoever; they were arrested and taken to the station but the preliminary investigations is ongoing. It is quiet unfortunate anyway but it was a mistake. They were five men, all of them in one vehicle – a Lexus jeep,” he said.
Asked if the former president’s security will be increased after today’s incident, Asinim said there was no need for that.
“He has always been having security. Today’s incident was not an attack but a mistake. Even today, the security was with him. It was the security attached to his convoy that arrested the people then the police from the division came and took them to the division.
“So it was nothing but a mistake on the part of those boys; they didn’t even know it was his convoy, they wouldn’t have followed him in the first place. Its just a mistake, it’s nothing,” he said.
The men were said to have stopped and drove into a short motorcade transporting Jonathan from the Julius Berger bridge area of Yenogoa, Bayelsa’s state capital, trailed and chased the motorcade to the entrance of the private house of Jonathan in the Kpansia area of the town. Reports on Nigerian media claimed that the four suspects have been released.