Dickson, Sylva’s political battle intensifies

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The cancellation of the governorship election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area may cause an implosion in Bayelsa State, writes SIMON UTEBOR

In the oil-rich Bayelsa State, tempers have continued to rise since the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the December 5, 2015 governorship election in the state inconclusive.

Already, there is fear and trepidation that the declaration may trigger implosion in the state.

The two major gladiators in the political chess game – Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party and former Governor Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress – are set for a showdown.

The two dramatis personae are laying claim to winning the election, even though the outcome of the poll in Southern Ijaw LGA has yet to be made public.

Political observers are of the view that given the volatile nature of the state, the claim and counter-claim by Dickson and Sylva may precipitate political impasse if the relevant authorities fail to nip the crisis in the bud.

Before the stalemate, occasioned by the cancellation of the election in Southern Ijaw, INEC had declared results for seven local government areas of Sagbama, Ekeremor, Nembe, Ogbia, Kolokuma-Opokuma, Yenagoa and Brass.

Out of the seven LGAs, Dickson defeated Sylva in six.

The results, as declared by INEC, are as follows: Nembe, APC (6,914), PDP (10,768); Sagbama, APC (5,382), PDP (28,934); Ogbia, APC (9,106), PDP (13,051); Kolokuma-Opokuma, APC (6,896), PDP (7,619); Yenagoa, APC (14,563), PDP (24,258); Ekeremor, APC (7,918), PDP (14,602); and Brass, APC (21,755), PDP (6,516).

All together, Dickson polled 105,748 votes in the seven LGAs as against Sylva’s 72,534, indicating that Dickson beat Sylva by 33,214 votes.

While observers expect Dickson to be celebrating as a result of the votes he garnered in the election that placed him in a comfortable lead, the governor went on air on Sunday, alerting the people of an orchestrated plot to rob him of his victory.

Curiously, it was learnt the governor had got a wind of results that emanated from Southern Ijaw, a council with over 120,000 registered voters, where Sylva curiously won with an overwhelming number of votes that literally erased the 33,214 votes with which Dickson was leading.

So, by implication, if the results had been declared, Sylva would have been returned as the governor-elect of the state.

Prior to the cancellation by INEC, Dickson, who appeared embattled, had demanded for the immediate withdrawal of soldiers deployed to monitor the poll.

He accused the military of allegedly colluding with APC and INEC to rig election in seven wards of Southern Ijaw, where election as of that time was still pending.

The governor, whose complaints went viral on a live radio interview on Monday, said in spite of calls made by the stakeholders for the postponement of the election due to security breaches, which reportedly resulted in the killing of no fewer than five persons, INEC still went ahead to conduct the election.

The governor had alleged that electoral materials meant for the election were distributed late at night on Sunday and were subsequently hijacked by suspected APC thugs in connivance with soldiers.

Dickson had also claimed that some INEC ad hoc staff and corps members were still being held hostage by militants.

He had lamented that apart from intimidation and harassment of eligible voters, 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.

Dickson, who had described the development as “undemocratic acts and a flagrant violation of the political franchise of the law-abiding Bayelsans by the INEC officials and security operatives,” asked the international community to prevail on the Federal Government to ensure fairness.

The governor had 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.”

To further accentuate the degree of his anger, Dickson had asked residents to hit the streets at 2pm for a rally to protest an attempt to subvert the will of the voters at the collation centre, vowing to lead the protest himself.

Expectedly, tension was heightened in Yenagoa around the collation centre as hundreds of PDP supporters went on the rampage to protest against the election going on in Southern Ijaw.

Corroborating Dickson’s fears, his party had on Monday laid the blame of the “election charade” at Southern Ijaw on the APC.

The PDP had accused the APC of desperation to grab power through the back door by all means and at all costs.

The party saluted the courage of Bayelsans for fearlessly curtailing APC’s alleged rigging machinery, which it maintained led to the cancellation of the “fabricated” election in the local government area.

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.

Metuh had 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.”

But when it was time to announce the result from the controversial LGA, a returning officer for Southern Ijaw developed cold feet and tactically pushed it to the state INEC REC, Baritor Kpagih.

Kpagih, who eventually announced the cancellation of the election in the area, said the poll in Southern Ijaw was “substantially marred with violence, ballot snatching and hostage taking of electoral officers and corps members.”

With that pronouncement, Kpagih, who said he was speaking on behalf of the INEC, effectively rendered the governorship election inconclusive.

Kpagih had blamed the decision on the violence and widespread irregularities during the postponed election in the council on Sunday.

He thereafter stated that a new date would be set for the cancelled poll.

Meanwhile, election in the disputed LGA was initially shifted from Saturday to Sunday as a result of violence and the purported killings of some people in Southern Ijaw.

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

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

He queried why INEC allegedly 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 own protest.

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

The indignation over the conduct of the election has received a backlash from 14 political parties that participated in the governorship election in Bayelsa.

The parties strongly condemned the role allegedly played by military personnel in the election, particularly in Southern Ijaw after rising from their emergency meeting in Yenagoa on Wednesday.

These include the Social Democratic Party, African Democratic Congress, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, Kowa Party, Independent Democrats, Progressive Peoples Alliance and Peoples Party of Nigeria.

Others are the Democratic Peoples Party, Democratic Peoples Congress, African Peoples Alliance, New Nigeria Peoples Party, Mega Progressive Peoples Party, United Peoples Party and Peoples Democratic Congress.

The spokesperson for the political parties and candidate for the Independent Democrats, Mr. Prince Elemah, said having collated the reports from the different polling units, officials of INEC, local and international observers, took exception to the situation where materials were distributed late in the afternoon, accreditation in the evening and voting at night in SILGA.

Elemah said, “That we condemn and vehemently oppose the use of thugs, militants, military personnel and other means to intimidate, oppress, hijack and steal INEC electoral materials for the purpose of the election.

“We totally condemn in strong terms electoral frauds that characterised the exercise in SILGA, where INEC personnel and materials were hijacked by hoodlums through the instrumentality of the security operatives to harass, intimidate and dehumanise the electorate, our agents and party members.”

He said the 14 parties had vowed to resist any attempt by any political party, group and/or agency to manipulate, hijack and/or intimidate the electorate, party agents and INEC from exercising their mandate or carrying out their legitimate functions during the re-scheduled election in Southern Ijaw.

As a direct fallout of the cancellation of SILGA poll, aggrieved supporters of the APC have taken to the streets twice to compel the INEC to announce the SILGA poll, which they claimed Sylva won overwhelmingly.

On Wednesday, the APC protesters, comprising of youths, women and persons with disabilities, marched to the state office of the INEC on Swali Road, Yenagoa, to demand the release of the SILGA poll results. As the angry protesters trekked about four kilometres to the INEC headquarters in the state, the entire Yenagoa metropolis was enmeshed in gridlock that virtually locked down the metropolis.

They accused the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Baritor Kpagih, of fraud, saying he subverted the collective will of the electorate.

But the PDP described the protest as the APC’s plan to unleash mayhem through violent activities to trigger the declaration of a state of emergency.

The Director of Publicity, Restoration Campaign Organisation, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, urged the people of the state to take utmost precaution to steer clear of the protesters and guard against any form of molestation.

Source: Punch