The Mother of the deputy governorship candidate of All Progressive Congress, APC, in Bayelsa, Wilberforce Agiri, aged 100, was kidnapped on Thursday by unknown gunmen.

The incident, which happened at about 1.00 am on Thursday, saw Agiri’s aged mother abducted by unidentified gunmen in a convoy of three speed boats from her community in Foropa community of Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa.

The spokesman of the Bayelsa Police Command, Astimin Butwat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, who confirmed the incident said the details were still sketchy.

Following the incident, another round of war of words has started between the two leading political parties and the campaign organisations of the APC’s Timipre Sylva and Governor Seriake Dickson’s People Democratic Party, PDP.

The director of publicity of the Sylva-Agiri campaign organization, Nathan Egba, blamed the abduction on the PDP candidate and state governor, Seriake Dickson, while the chairman of the state’s PDP media team, Dan Kikile, lamented the incident but insists the claims by the APC are unfounded and baseless.

”We call on the PDP, particularly their governorship candidate, to lower the political temperature in the state and lead by example as he seems to be preaching violence and insulting the APC leaders in all public events,”  Egba stated.

He said the abduction “of the aged mother of the APC running mate is only the latest in cases of kidnapping and sea piracy that have apparently overwhelmed the security agencies.

Egba recalled that in 2014, Sylva’s uncle died in the hands of kidnappers.

In the same vein, Kikile who doubles as the Bayelsa Commissioner for Information, said the governor had been worried over the increasing incidence of violence and crimes in the state owing to the activities of the APC.

Kikile said the Dickson government believed that “these security issues are created to deliberately call to question our record on peace and security.”

He further said that the opposition was trying to discredit the government’s because “one of the things we are showcasing is security and peace and restoration of law and order.”