The pronouncement of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bayelsa State, Baritor Kpagih, which declared the governorship election conducted in the state, penultimate weekend inconclusive has courted excitement and disdain, across the political divide.
Kpagih while making the announcement said the election in Southern Ijaw local government was “substantially marred with violence, ballot snatching and hostage taking of electoral officers and corps members”.
Checks revealed that the election initially fixed for penultimate Saturday had to be shifted to Sunday following the widespread violence masterminded by supporters of major contenders for the exalted office.
But while the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) is seemingly comfortable with the INEC declaration of a supplementary poll in Southern Ijaw, the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, (APC) continue to squeal against it, as it claimed that it was a brash move by the electoral body to deny it victory.
Before the REC pronouncement, the incumbent governor and PDP candidate, Seriake Dickson was leading comfortably in six out of the 7 LGAs in the state, having polled 105,748 votes as against Sylva’s 72,534, ( a margin of 33,214 votes). But why was Dickson not screaming against INEC declaration of a supplementary poll? How come his main rival, Timpire Sylva is kicking against INEC’s action?
Further checks revealed that before the cancellation of the election results in Southern Ijaw, Governor Dickson had made a televised broadcast, alerting the electorate of an alleged plot by the APC and INEC to announce his main rival, Timpire Sylva as winner of the election in all the wards in Southern Ijaw which could have neutralized the margin of 33,214 and ultimately return the latter as winner of the election. The total number of registered voters in SILGA is 120, 838.
Dickson in the live radio broadcast had alleged that materials meant for the election were distributed late at night penultimate Sunday and were subsequently hijacked by suspected APC thugs in connivance with soldiers. Apparently embattled, Dickson further alleged that members of the APC hid under the cover of darkness to perpetrate electoral fraud, which included thumb-printing of election materials and filling of result sheets.
He pointed fingers of scorn at the Presidency for this “undemocratic acts and a flagrant violation of the political franchise of the law-abiding Bayelsans by the INEC officials and security operatives”.
He said: “What the Federal Government is doing is a coup against democracy and the subversion of my authority as governor as well as the peace and security of the 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, forcing them to vote at midnight. It has never happened before anywhere in this country.
“The reason for this avoidable mess in Southern Ijaw is because of the calculation of the APC-led government, with the tacit support of the military, to forcibly hijack poll materials on Sunday so that they can aid APC to write results without voting”.
His call on the PDP faithful in the state to hit the street and mount barricades was heeded as tension was heightened in Yenagoa, the state capital, around the collation centre as hundreds of PDP supporters went on the rampage to protest against the election going on in Southern Ijaw.
The National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Olisa Metuh also in a press statement declared that the party would resist any attempt to supplant the wish of the electorate in Bayelsa State.
Metuh said: ‘’ 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.
Even when it was clear that his main rival was in clear lead, the APC candidate, Timpire Sylva had equally accused INEC of conniving with the PDP to ‘rob’ him of victory, alleging that the REC was acting the script of governor Dickson.
The APC standard bearer faulted the cancellation of results in SILG as he noted that results in other places like Ekeremor, Sagbama and Nembe where widespread violence took place were upheld. He dismissed INEC stance as a rape of democracy.
His words: “We have experienced a massive rape of democracy. We started this whole electioneering process and it actually turned out to be like a rat in a cat court.
“The leadership of INEC has been here in Bayelsa for a while, they have routinely returned PDP in all the elections in Bayelsa and as it displayed today, they were already addicted in returning PDP in Bayelsa State.
“We had an election on Saturday. In Ekeremor, there was widespread shooting and they beat up a lot of APC members. The home of the minister of state for Agriculture was under siege; his house was under fire for a long time. I had to call for re-enforcement before they could subdue the assailants in the morning.
“The assailants retreated and returned again in the evening but elections still held in Ekeremor that same day and returns were made. When APC protested, our protests were set aside and the elections were upheld because of one thing, because PDP won. If the APC had won, of course, the elections would probably have been set aside. They just put the figures together and submitted the figures and our protests died like a candle in the wind.
“In Sagbama, we didn’t see the electoral materials at all. Thugs besieged the local government. A top APC leader is today lying critically ill in the hospital with a broken arm he sustained running away from assailants. They held elections, of course nobody saw the materials and they just filled out the figures and submitted. The APC protested vehemently. Nobody heard our protests, elections were upheld.
“In Nembe Local Government Area, where the APC won clearly, they quickly canceled two wards and re-conducted those elections on Sunday. On Sunday, no APC member saw any paper or anything at all relating to that election but votes were returned. We protested, our protests were rejected because the PDP won.
‘’If you look through, this election ab initio apparently, was set up for the PDP to win but we didn’t want to shout because we are a responsible party. “The APC of course will not accept this cancellation. We reject it completely. First and foremost, the Resident Electoral Commissioner has no powers to cancel an election which had duly taken place. It is only the Returning Officer that has powers to announce a cancellation or any other thing relating to an election such as this.
“So, as far as we are concerned, there is no cancellation. Election has been held in Bayelsa. We will count the votes that had been cast during this election. Our agents have all the forms, relevant forms relating to this election and of course if we are winners, we will go to court and I believe the court is in a position to declare us winners. But what has happened is a clear rape of democracy.’’
Sylva campaign organisation, in a statement by its director of publicity, Nathan Egba spoke in similar vein as it accused governor Dickson of inciting the electorate against INEC and the federal government.
“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.
“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.
INEC maintains neutrality
The electoral umpire that has been daubed in crimson by the two major contenders, continues to maintain its neutrality. A senior staff of the Commission, who craved for anonymity justified INEC cancelation of results in Southern Ijaw local government.
“We received representations from both parties: the APC wanted to go ahead but the PDP sought for cancellation that there was insecurity in the area; but we as an electoral umpire needed to do what is worthwhile because there was no way a governor elect would have emerged if we didn’t conduct the Southern Ijaw election.
“The reason is that, we have seen and analyzed preliminary results at our disposal and our conclusion was that there was no way we could clearly say we were done without that (Southern Ijaw) election because from all indications, the eventual winner couldn’t have beaten the runner up with 20, 000 votes; check the Southern Ijaw votes and you will get what I am saying.’’
Only a transparent conduct of the supplementary poll will vindicate
INEC on its claim of neutrality.
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