Posted by By FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa on
The love affair between two teenagers have turned two families in Bayelsa State against each other.
The love affair between two teenagers have turned two families in Bayelsa State against each other. eventeen year-old Mark Namatebe and son of His Royal Highness Abraham Namatebe, Singi II of Peremabiri community, had fellen in love with 14 year-old Suoyo Okorotie and they started a relationship. The relationship, Daily Sun learnt, did not go down well with the father of the girl, Mr. John Okorotie.
Okorotie did everything to frustrate the relationship but the bug of love had bitten deep into the children that Mark was alleged to have eloped with the girl. One thing led to the other and the matter got to the police headquarters where an understanding was reached by both parties.
However, April 8, Mark was said to have been attacked by unknown people, prompting his father to fire a petition to the state governor alleging threat to his life and that of his son.
The royal father alleged that Mark was attacked at the Ekeki Housing Estate where the father of the girl lives. According to him, the injuries his son sustained had caused him to be mentally unstable.
The petition reads in part: "On the 24 of April 2005, three young men presented themselves as officers from the Directorate of Military Intelligence, Abuja, that they have come to arrest me because Chief Okorotie had lodged a report in their office that Miss Suoyo Okorotie had been kidnapped by me. I suspected their movement and telephoned the DPO Ekeki informing him of the arrival of such personnel in my palace. The DPO instantly dispatched a team of policemen and one of the men was arrested while others fled. The youngman was taken to the state CID and he confessed to the police that he was a protocol officer to Chief Thompson Okorotie.
"Meanwhile, as tension is so high that if my son happens to die in the process or I am assassinated in the process, the Peremabiri community would not take it lightly with the Ekeremor community being the home town of Chief Thompson Okorotie."
When contacted over the allegations, Chief Okorotie told Daily Sun that Namatebe was deliberately out for mischief.
He washed his hands off all the allegations, insisting that Mark actually abducted Suoyo and kept her instead of allowing her to go to school.
He denied ever instructing any group or individual to attack Mark or his father, adding that Namatebe is being used by those who are uncomfortable with his rising political career.