• Opposition blames defeat on ruling party, INEC conspiracy
• ‘Why APC lost’
ALLEGING a conspiracy between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the just-concluded Bayelsa State governorship election, Timipre Sylva, has decided to seek redress in a competent court of law.

Addressing a press conference in Yenagoa, the state capital yesterday, Sylva rejected the outcome of the election, as, according to him, it was not a true reflection of the people’s will.

However, the national leadership of the PDP has called for a serious investigation into the violence and killings that characterised the rescheduled elections. The Acting National Chairman of the party, ‎Uche Secondus, in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, lamented that innocent persons were attacked, maimed and killed during the election.‎

The PDP said it decried “the desperation of the APC whose thugs and compromised security operatives openly engaged in violence resulting in the killing and maiming of innocent Bayelsans. We hereby demand a comprehensive inquest into these killings and that all perpetrators be brought to book.”‎

According to Secondus, “all lovers of democracy would salute the people of Bayelsa State for standing against intimidation, rigging and violence to ensure that their will as a people prevailed in Saturday’s supplementary election.”‎

The PDP boss said that what happened in Bayelsa State on Saturday had shown clearly that “the APC-led Federal Government … of President Muhammadu Buhari is not disposed to free, fair and credible electoral process in the country despite being a huge beneficiary of PDP’s electoral reform.
“Bayelsa is a core PDP state and one wonders how APC thought it could win in this gubernatorial election with its discredited candidate, knowing the strength and popularity of our great party in the state, in addition to the record of achievements of our candidate, Governor Seriake Dickson.”

The party commended the people of Bayelsa, pointing out that “by standing against intimidation and remaining resilient, the people have greatly contributed in deepening democracy in the country and by so doing ensuring that their own destiny is right in their own hands.‎”

Giving an insight into why Sylva lost, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Timi Frank, yesterday said that their candidate’s refusal to mend fences with aggrieved members of the party was solely responsible for the failure to unseat the incumbent governor.

Meanwhile, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) yesterday faulted the conduct of the governorship polls, describing it as lacking in credibility.

Sylva, a former governor of the state, said he had complained about the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and the administrative secretary, both of who he alleged are part of the PDP rigging machinery in the state.
‘‘I said this over and over again and even put it in writing in the form of a petition to the INEC office. Usually, before any election, the REC and his administrative secretary area always posted out of the state for the election period.
“The election which was largely skewed against APC from the beginning ought to have been declared inconclusive, because anywhere that APC won, they would cancel the results, whereas wherever the PDP won, they would go ahead and declare them.
“There were reports that vehicles provided for the movement of voting materials were provided by the PDP, possibly because some people in the INEC office collected and pocketed money meant for the purpose and relied on the state government instead,” he said.

Sylva also alleged that all the violence during the election, was the handiwork of the PDP which he said was hell-bent on winning the election.

Declaring that the result was not acceptable to his party, he pleaded with members and supporters of APC to be calm, while he and the leadership consult with their lawyers on the next step to take.
‘‘What happened was not an election, but another of the usual PDP impunity. I appeal to our supporters to remain calm and wait …”
On why he went into the election, despite his misgivings about the INEC leadership in the state, Sylva said: “Though, I did not get any reprieve, I went into the election hoping that the REC would have a change of heart and do the right thing but the Bayelsa INEC set up is part of the rigging machinery of the PDP. They sent materials to the nearest communities, while neglecting those in the farthest communities, because they are our strongholds. The PDP strategy was to frustrate the election in Southern Ijaw Local Council and they colluded with INEC to do this. There was no election in Southern Ijaw. The cancellations were done at the local council level, which was a misnomer. When we complained, the INEC panel said they did not have the power to cancel any part of an election, but they cancelled Southern Ijaw votes.

Most of the supervising polling agents were their people and when I complained the REC said he had instructions to engage experienced hands. These experienced hands were the same set of people, who have rigged several elections in the state in the past. The whole thing is like a rat in a cat’s court. A rat can never win in a cat’s court. The election was procured for PDP. It was a turnkey project for the PDP.

According to Frank: “Times without number, before this election, the Bayelsa APC had issues. We had issues that were not attended to and I have been shouting for a long time that if we don’t resolve our issues and we go into the election, we would lose, but nobody listened.
“I spoke to our leaders and so many persons on the importance of reconciliation but the governorship candidate, Sylva failed to listen; he thought he could do the job alone and today you can see the results.
“When some of us told him to make peace, he refused to make peace. After the primaries, he never spoke to anybody. He thought he could do the job alone. I made it very clear all this while that with Sylva we would lose Bayelsa and I still stand on my words till today. It is quite painful that we lost Bayelsa but again this is an eye opener for us to go back to the drawing board.”

Frank who described the outcome of the poll as a true reflection of the wishes of the electorate urged supporters of the party to keep the peace and go back to the drawing board and plot how to unseat the PDP in Bayelsa in future elections.

In a public presentation of its position on the conduct of the supplementary election in Abuja, TMG’s chairman, Ibrahim Zikirullah, asserted that going by the outcome of field reports by its observers, the election was not credible.

He claimed that there were high levels of violence, harassment and intimidation at the polling units, snatching of ballot boxes, damage of election materials and stealing of ballot papers which prevented vote counting and the announcement of results from taking place at many of the polling units in Southern Ijaw Local Council.

Calling into question the credibility of the election process and the legitimacy of the result, TMG enjoined political parties and their candidates to play by the democratic rules and shun desperate behaviour such as the sponsorship of violence during future elections.

Urging INEC not to relent on its mandate of bringing to book all electoral offenders in the Bayelsa gubernatorial election to serve as a deterrent , the TMG urged the electoral umpire to desist from changing election procedures within a few hours to an election day to prevent confusion.

He noted: “Although INEC’s decision to merge the accreditation and voting processes is, in itself, a step towards international best practice, the timing of the decision, which resulted in a change of the electoral procedures 48 hours before the opening of the polls, did not allow enough time for officials to get acquainted with the new procedure.”

In a related development, an unconfirmed report said a paramount ruler of a community, who was shot in the head on Sunday during a post-election gun battle, had died of complications from his injuries.

Six persons were reportedly shot dead in a post-election gun battle between supporters of the APC and PDP in the Peremabiri Community of Southern Ijaw on Sunday.

The Police Public Relations Officer of the state Police Command, Asimin Butswat, admitted the police had received reports of violence in the area, but could not confirm information on the casualties.