Ahead of the January 9, 2016 rescheduled election in Bayelsa State, Governor Seriake d!ckson has urged youths in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state, where the poll was canceled, to mobilise their people and vote massively for the Peoples Democratic Party.

The governor, in a statement on Sunday by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, noted that inspite of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declaring the poll inconclusive, the PDP had already won.

Recall that INEC canceled the election in Southern Ijaw and about 112 units in other LGAs as a result of widespread irregularities, rendering the December 5 and 6 elections in the state inconclusive.

Before the election was declared inconclusive, d!ckson was leading the poll with 105,748 votes in seven out of the eight LGAs, with Southern Ijaw outstanding, while his challenger, Timpre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress was trailing behind with 72,534 – a margin of 33,214 votes.

But d!ckson, who expressed gratitude to the youth for their show of solidarity, noted that victory would not be completed until the Southern Ijaw election was won by the PDP, as the party represents the overall interest of the Ijaw people.

The governor said,

“In a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, all the agencies of the government, including the security, INEC and others have agreed to conduct a peaceful election, without bias from any interested party, as the result will be determined by the use of Permanent Voter Card”.

On their part, the youths of Southern Ijaw declared total support for d!ckson and re-affirmed their resolve to vote massively for the PDP in the re-scheduled election in the area.

The youth, represented by the Presidents of the various communities in the LGA, in an enlarged meeting with d!ckson at Government House, Yenagoa, based their support for him on “his sincerity of purpose and sterling leadership qualities in the almost four years of his government”.

According to them, Gov. d!ckson had proven himself a worthy leader, whose achievements would stand the test of time, particularly in the areas of security, infrastructure development and human capacity building.