PDP leads in Bayelsa gov election amid violence

• Party accuses Buhari of desperation to take state • Alleges complicity of military
• Sylva, police, Dickson bicker over visit to polls’ areas

WITH official results so far released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Bayelsa governorship election, the incumbent Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, is leading his closest rival, Timipre Sylva by a margin of 25, 420 votes.

Dickson, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has garnered a total of 81, 934 votes from the five local government councils of Ekeremor, Brass, Kolokuma/Opolokum, Sagbama and Yenagoa, while the All Progressives Congress (APC) Timipre Sylva has a total of 56, 514 votes.

However, as the results were being collated at the INEC state headquarters in Yenagoa, fierce violence was reported to have scuttled the election at the Southern Ijaw local council that has three wards as militants were said to have invaded the area shooting sporadically and sending voters scampering for their safety.

Voting was put forward to yesterday following threats of violence and lack of adequate security personnel to guide INEC personnel and materials to the distribution centre in Amassoma.

Yesterday, voting could not commence until about 6:00 p.m. only for the militants to invade the arena with firearms chasing away voters and INEC officials even as soldiers and other security agents put up spirited resistance to protect the INEC and hoc staff conducting the exercise.
Besides, the PDP has warned President Muhammadu Buhari to steer clear of the Bayelsa governorship election and allow the will of the people to prevail, if he really desires to sustain the nation’s democracy.

The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement yesterday, claimed that intelligence information reaching the party showed “President Muhammadu Buhari is neck-deep in APC’s desperation to forcefully take over Bayelsa State for which he has directed a covert military and other security operations to assist the All Progressives Congress (APC) rig the election, which has already been won by the PDP.”

Metuh’s statement continued: “At the head of this illegal military operation is one … who led the hijacking of elections in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, the largest in the state. Military personnel have seized ballot materials including result sheets in Igbematiru, Peremabiri, Ward 3, Ward 6, Ward 8, Ward 12, Ward 13 and Ward 15, which they took to Ologbobiri in military gunboats, where massive thumb-printing is going on in favour of the APC. In Ward 7 Ekowe, the military hijacked and destroyed voting materials.
“During this operation, the ruthless personnel manhandled NYSC members serving as ad hoc electoral officers, some of whom were thrown into the water and would have drowned if not for well-meaning Nigerians who rescued them.
“The PDP therefore states that the political development in Southern Ijaw is the worst in Nigeria’s electoral history

“Furthermore, we are aware that the on-going operation is intended to
inflate figures in favor of the APC and cancel PDP’s obvious victory in this election. We, therefore, expect that INEC should not announce any cooked-up result coming from Southern Ijaw, which does not reflect the wishes and aspiration of the people,” the party said.

Olisa Metuh, National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, strong criticisms from the police and APC have trailed the Dickson’s visit to Oporoma, headquarters of Southern Ijaw Local Council where rescheduled elections took place yesterday.
Due to widespread violence that prevented officials of the INEC from distributing accreditation and voting materials on Saturday, election in the council was postponed to yesterday.

Despite the restriction of movement in Oporoma due to the rescheduled election, Dickson who was accompanied by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mr. Kombowei Benson, who hails from Southern Ijaw Local Council, visited the council headquarters to ascertain the situation on ground and determine if the prevailing security atmosphere was conducive for the conduct of the polls.

The Bayelsa State Commissioner of Information, Esueme Kikile, who confirmed the governor’s visit to The Guardian, explained that Dickson was primarily in Oporoma to commiserate with the families of those who lost their family members in the violence that erupted during the disrupted polls on Saturday.

According to him, the other purpose of the visit was for the governor to determine whether the security measures put in place in Southern Ijaw were good enough for the election to hold.
Reacting to the governor’s visit to Oporoma, the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Hashimu Argungu, told journalists at the Police Officers Mess in Yenagoa that the governor breached the law on restriction of movement on election day.
According to the police chief, it is a known fact that on election day where election is taking place, there is a standing order in the Electoral Law on the restriction of movement and it concerns Bayelsa State as well as Southern Ijaw Local Council.
“Even when you are within the same senatorial district, the restriction applies and nobody, no matter who is expected to act in breach of that law,” he said.

Argungu explained that security agents arrested no fewer than 10 persons in connection with the disruption of the election on Saturday in Southern Ijaw Council.
Five among those arrested were caught with five AK47 rifles and a pistol.  And amid ongoing investigations to ascertain who armed the arrested persons, Argungu said the police were working hard to unearth those who conspired, aided and abetted in the disruption of election in the council and other parts of the state.

He also said that two commissioners of police, two brigade commanders, five battalion commanders and deputy commander of the Civil Defence Corps were deployed in Southern Ijaw to ensure the safety of lives and property during the election.

The Director, Media and Publicity, Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organisation, Mr. Nathan Egba, had claimed that Dickson’s visit to Oporoma, was to protest against the rescheduled election.
“Governor Dickson is from Sagbama Local Council and has no basis going to monitor the conduct of an election in another local council on an election day. This is clearly an act of desperation by the governor, who is the candidate of the PDP in the election,” Egba said.

Meanwhile, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has accused the APC of plotting to rig the rescheduled election.

Sylva

At a press conference at the Government House yesterday, the Acting Chairman of the party, Chief Serena Dokubo-Spiffs told journalists that having seen they are behind in the results so far released and faced with imminent defeat, the APC candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva and the leadership of the party, have put in place a plot to rig the election.

According to him, Chief Sylva was away to Abuja, to enlist the support of senior Federal Government officials, to truncate the election.

Serena also blamed the opposition party for the spate of violence that greeted the process , saying he and his brother, the chairman of the party in the local council were victims of attack in his country home, Twon Brass Town.
‘’We have reports that APC candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, is at the moment in Abuja consulting with senior Federal Government officials issuing directives to the state INEC commissioner , who is at present
in Amassoma taking steps to see that accreditation and voting are taking place side by side and we are talking about a terrain where, to go from one point to another takes about four hours’’, Serena said.

In response to the claim by the police that the governor has breached election laws by visiting the Southern Ijaw Local Council , location for the re-scheduled election, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Daniel Mackson—Iworiso also told The Guardian
that Dickson was not just the PDP candidate, but the chief security officer of the state and has the constitutional duty to visit the troubled area for security reasons.

His words : “The governor is not only the candidate of the PDP, he is also the governor of the state and the Chief Security Officer of the state too, so he has the primary constitutional duty, if there is any report of a situation, such as where five people were feared killed , to ensure the safety of the people and their property.
He has neither breached any electoral law nor the constitution, because he was there around 6:00 a.m., while the election process didn’t take place until 2 in the afternoon’’.