Bayelsa APC, PDP disagree over alleged attempts to subvert justice at tribunal 

Bayelsa State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Jothan Amos, has refuted Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) allegation of attempts to subvert justice at the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal. The allegation was leveled against APC and representative of Southern Ijaw federal constituency at the House of Representatives, Preye Oseke. 

Amos reacted to the allegation in Yenagoa, while speaking with some journalists in his office.  PDP Chairman, Moses Cleopas, had alleged that the APC was making moves to influence the decision of the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal in the petition the party and immediate past Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Konbowei Friday Benson, filed against the APC and Oseke.

The petition was filled at the election tribunal over election results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Southern Ijaw Federal Constituency poll. But in a swift reaction, Amos said PDP’s allegations were wild and unfounded, as there were no such moves and could never be from the APC.

His words: “The allegations are a product of the PDP chairman’s imagination, perhaps hallucination. The PDP’s candidate in the House of Representatives election, for Southern Ijaw Federal Constituency, Friday Konbowei Benson lost fair and squarely to our candidate Preye Oseke. 

“Every true son and daughter of Southern Ijaw can attest to the fact that Konbowei’s 12 years sojourn at the state House of Assembly was a disaster and had no bearing on the Southern Ijaw people. “The people rejected him at the polls because he failed them woefully. We don’t need to subvert justice to affirm our victory. The facts before the election tribunal speak volumes, and we believe our victory would be upheld at the tribunal.

“Our experience with the PDP has shown that whatever they accuse you of, is actually what they are carrying out against you. “As much as we would want to be confident in the incorruptibility of the jurists at the National Assembly Elections Petition Tribunal, we would at this juncture appeal to the conscience of the jurists, to resist any attempts by the PDP and its agents to compromise them.”