PRESS STATEMENT 20th April, 2020
RURAL PEOPLE'S ASSEMBLY CONDEMNS THE WANTON AND ILLEGAL ACT OF DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY AND MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD OF TRADERS IN SWALI MARKET BY THE BAYELSA STATE GOVERNMENT WITHOUT AN ORDER OF COURT. At a time when governments around the world are trying very hard to provide succour to residents of the various communities under their jurisdictions, who have been forced to seek solace in an emergency quarantine declared nationwide, owing to the devastating effects of the COVID -19 pandemic, which is causing massive food shortage and limited productivity, it is quiet disheartening to observe that the government of Bayelsa State led by his Excellency Douye Diri have decided to visit it's poor population with atrocious destruction of their property and means of livelihood in the guise of enforcing physical planning regulations in the state. More pathetic is the fact that the government has decided to carry out this dastardly act without recourse to existing laws in the state prescri...