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• PDP, APC candidates trade blame over cancellation of Southern Ijaw poll

Segun James in Yenagoa and Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Following the violence, ballot snatching and intimidation of staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) including youth corps members in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, the electoral body monday announced the cancellation of the governorship election in the council, effectively rendering the governorship poll inconclusive.

Abubakar Shekau

Making this known at the collation centre in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr. Baritor Kpaghir, blamed the decision on the violence and widespread irregularities during the postponed election in the council on Sunday. Kpaghir said a new date would be set for the rescheduled exercise.

The election in the local government was initially shifted from Saturday to Sunday as a result of violence and the purported killing of some people in Southern Ijaw.

But the postponement made no difference, as the violence spearheaded by militants in the creeks was reported to have continued unabated the next day.

The militants reportedly took advantage of INEC’s tardiness at ensuring that election materials got to the remote creeks in Southern Ijaw, the largest local government area in the state, on time.

The logistical nightmare encountered by the commission resulted in the non-distribution of election materials at the council till Sunday evening.

The darkness and absence of electricity meant that the heavily armed rampaging militants were able to hold INEC staff and youth corps members hostage and dispossess them of the election materials.

According to sources, not even the policemen who were deployed to accompany the officials and materials could stop the militants.

Earlier monday, after announcing the results for Nembe and Ogbia Local Government Areas, which Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won comfortably, thus extending his lead over his closest rival, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, the returning officer had said he could not make a declaration on the election, since the number of registered voters in Southern Ijaw exceeded the gap between the two leading candidates. Nembe,  where Dickson won is the local  government area of Sylva.

While more than 120,827 voters were registered in Southern Ijaw, Dickson had 105,748 votes while Sylva had 71,794 from seven of the eight local governments in the state.

Effectively, the large number of voters who had not exercised their franchise in Southern Ijaw rendered it impossible for INEC to declare a winner in the governorship poll.

However, reacting to the cancellation of the election in Southern Ijaw, Sylva yesterday said that his party was rejecting the cancellation by INEC.

He insisted that the REC had no right under the law to cancel an election which had been concluded, despite the security challenges that might have been associated with it.

He wondered why other places like Ekeremor, Sagbama and Nembe where widespread violence took place were not also cancelled.

Sylva stressed that the state REC should have been transferred and not allowed to conduct the election, alleging he had been used to conduct elections that favoured the PDP in the past.

He made it clear that the APC might head for the court to enforce the declaration of the result which he insisted clearly showed that the APC was winning.

The former governor of the state queried why INEC capitulated to the demands of the PDP and Dickson who insisted that the election in Southern Ijaw be cancelled, yet nothing was done to consider his protest.

Before the cancellation of the poll in Southern Ijaw, the state governor had called for the immediate withdrawal of soldiers deployed to monitor the governorship election, accusing them of colluding with the APC and INEC to rig election in the seven wards in the outstanding local government area where the poll was pending.

The governor made the statement during a live radio interview monday in Yenagoa, saying that despite the calls by the stakeholders for postponement of the election as a result of the security challenges, which led to the death of no fewer than five persons, INEC went ahead without addressing the issue.

According to the governor, electoral materials meant for the election were distributed late at night on Sunday and subsequently hijacked by suspected APC thugs aided by military personnel.

He disclosed that some INEC ad hoc staff and corps members are still being held hostage for failure to accede to the request of some APC chieftains in the affected wards.

He stated that other than intimidating and harassing eligible voters, members of the leading opposition party hid under the cover of darkness to perpetrate electoral fraud, which included thumb printing of election materials and filling of the election result sheets.

Expressing concern over what he described as undemocratic acts and a flagrant violation of the fundamental human rights of the law abiding people of the state by the INEC officials and security operatives, Dickson called for the timely intervention of the international community to prevail on the Buhari-led federal government to ensure fairness.

According to him, “What the Nigerian government is doing is a coup against democracy and the subversion of my authority as governor and even of the peace and security of this state.

“If you ask who is creating this mess, it is the APC-led federal government deploying for the first time military personnel to humiliate and attack people and forcing them to vote at midnight. It has never happened anywhere in this country.

“The reason for this avoidable mess in Southern Ijaw is because by the calculation of the APC-led government, with the tacit support of the military to forcibly hijack some election materials on that Sunday was so that they can aid APC to write results without voting.”

Buttressing the governor’s position, his party, the PDP, monday blamed the cancellation of the governorship election in Southern Ijaw on the desperation of the APC to win at all costs.

The opposition party commended the courage of the people of Bayelsa State for fearlessly curtailing APC’s alleged rigging machinery, which led to the cancellation of the fabricated election in the local government area.

It said but for the bravery of Bayelsans in standing up for their votes against the harassment by the military and other security forces working for the APC, their will as a people would have been completely subverted in the election.

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, PDP said it was proud of the actions and concerted efforts of its members in resisting rigging and impunity.

“We condemn in the strongest possible term, the wanton confiscation and transfer of voting materials by security operatives directly to APC agents for the outright allocation of votes.

“For the purpose of the rescheduled Southern Ijaw election, we wish to make it abundantly clear that we are ready, willing and able to defend the choice of the people. Never again will this leadership of the PDP allow our party candidates to be manipulated out of any election at any level.

“In that regard, we have activated our structures across the country to defend our mandate always, with all force and means available in a democracy.

“Nevertheless, we are indeed concerned about the apparent inability of the present INEC to conduct a credible election in a single state, especially in the light of the fact that very soon they will need to conduct a general election in all the states.

“Finally, for the security forces busy brutalising innocent Nigerians exercising their democratic rights, we declare that they should hide their faces in shame for the flexing of muscles in terror-free zones,” Metuh stated.

Also, the Sylva/Igiri Campaign Organisation called for the disqualification of Dickson from the governorship race.

The organisation also called on residents of Bayelsa to remain calm and ignore all the inciting statements on radio by Dickson over the election that was yet to be concluded.

The Sylva campaign organisation, in a statement by its director of publicity, Chief Nathan Egba, complained that “in the past two days alone, Governor Dickson has been on the air on several radio stations in Yenagoa, the state capital, inciting Bayelsans against the federal government and establishments”.

“It is surprising to note that even when Governor Dickson claims to be leading in six out of the seven results so far released, he is still the one complaining and calling for protests as well as civil disobedience,” the statement said.

The campaign team also condemned in very strong terms the serial breach of all known electoral laws by Dickson for storming into the Yenagoa LGA collation centre on Saturday night after the election.

The next day, Dickson was again at Oporoma, headquarters of Southern Ijaw LG calling for the postponement of the elections in the council area before he was chased away by APC supporters. Since then he has been on one radio station or the other making inciting statements, it said.

“Governor Dickson’s desperation to cling to office in the face of imminent outright rejection by the people of Southern Ijaw which is APC’s strongest hold and coincidentally the LGA with the largest voter’s strength, has made him breach so many electoral laws.

“Our campaign organisation does not have any option at this point than to call for his outright disqualification from the governorship race,” it added.

The APC team stressed that what this meant was that Sylva would automatically become the governor-elect of Bayelsa State.

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