A Senior Special Assistant on New Media to Governor Duoye Diri, Kemepadei Bodmas, was on Tuesday arrested by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) for inciting the public against President Muhammadu Buhari on social media.
In a 28-second video clip, Bodmas could be seen saying: “This country is no longer safe. The only person safe in this country is President Muhammadu Buhari and the only reason is that he understands that the country is not safe and so therefore has isolated himself.
“My fellow Nigerians, nothing is working in this country. The security architecture of this country has fallen. We don’t know our left, we don’t know our right. We don’t know where we are going as a people.”
Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State government has distanced itself from Bodmas’s statements, saying the governor’s aide spoke as a private citizen and not for the state government.
A statement on Wednesday by the Director, New Media to the state government, Kola Oredipe, said Kemepadei Bodmas “lacks the authority to speak directly for Senator Douye Diri, governor of Bayelsa State.”
It explained that Bodmas, a known blogger, film editor and online reporter, was appointed into the Bayelsa State Government New Media Team as a Special Assistant on New Media, and works under the direct supervision of the Director, New Media, who coordinates all government new media activities.
“He was, therefore, neither speaking on behalf of the governor nor the state government in his video that went viral.
“Kemepadei, in the said video and other posts, must have obviously spoken as a private citizen and not as a government official because the governor could never have authorised such comments against Mr. President,” Oredipe said.
