Bayelsa: Tension As Dickson, Sylva Win Strongholds

8 years ago

Bayelsa: Tension As Dickson, Sylva Win Strongholds

Governor Seriake d!ckson of Bayelsa State yesterday maintained his lead in the supplementary governorship election in the state as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released official results from Yenagoa,Brass,Sagbama and Ogbia local Government areas.

d!ckson won in Yenagoa ,Sagbama and Ogbia while Sylva was the clear winner in Brass.

In Yenagoa Local Government Area d!ckson polled 839 votes to Sylva’s 448.

The consolidated results for Yenagoa showed that the governor got 25,097 as against Sylva’s 15,011.

Sylva,on the other hand recorded 1679 votes in six polling units in his local government area –Brass – to bring his total there to 23,434 votes. d!ckson got only five votes in the area.

Altogether his votes in Brass now stand at 6517.

In Ogbia, local government area of former President Goodluck Jonathan,1290 voters in 27 polling units threw their lot with d!ckson,extending his lead there from 13051 to 14341 votes. Sylva got 139 votes leaving his total votes in Ogbia at 9249.

d!ckson got 180 votes in Sagbama Local Government area and Sylva 111.

The commission took a break at 2am this morning and is expected to resume at 11am today for the declaration of the results for Nembe, Ekeremor and the decisive Southern Ijaw .

Southern Ijaw has the largest number of voters in the state,almost same as the seven other local government areas put together.

Before the break, the APC agent in Brass, Mr. Denis Otiotio,had staged a walkout from the collation centre after accusing the Returning Officer of denying him an opportunity to address issues raised by the PDP agent.

Hours before INEC began to broadcast the result,the PDP and the APC had launched into a game of wits with the camps of Governor d!ckson and Chief Sylva of the APC claiming victory for their candidates.

The PDP made the first move when it said in a statement issued from the Government House,Yenagoa that d!ckson was leading in the supplementary election in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and 101 units.

The party said the results collated by it in various polling units and wards across the state showed that d!ckson had widened its initial lead of over 33000 votes.

It claimed to have swept the polls in units and wards in Amassoma, Otuan, Ogbia, Nembe Ogbolomabiri, Ekpetiama and some other communities.

It said: “The PDP, as at the time of filing this report ,polled 7,234 votes while APC is having 1,948 votes. Decentralization of election materials policy adopted by the Independent National Election Commission, (INEC) assisted in the early arrival of materials in some communities, even though there were reported cases of hijacking of election materials and violence in some areas.

“Voters, as reliably informed, were resolute in their determination to put the governorship election behind them which was declared inconclusive by INEC on December, 5 and 6, 2015.

“To ensure the success of the poll, the Nigeria Police Force deployed 5,000 officers to the various polling units across the state.

“Political thugs suspected to be working for the leading opposition party were not deterred by the presence of the security operatives, as they unleashed terror on Ekeremor, Famgbe and Nembe communities.”

But the Sylva/Igiri Campaign Organization (SICO) alerted security agencies to an alleged plot by Governor. Seriake d!ckson, to seize broadcast stations and declare himself the winner of the poll.

SICO in a statement signed by its Director, Media and Publicity, Chief Nathan Egba appealed to security agencies to ensure that no one uses any of the broadcast stations in the state to either announce election result or incite people against the opposing political parties or the Federal Government.

Egba said: “It would be recalled that Governor Seriake d!ckson of the PDP regrettably deployed the state owned radio station, Glory 97.1FM, Yenagoa and other broadcast stations to heighten the tension and incite the people to violence in the aftermath of the botched December 5th and 6th governorship poll.

“We decided to raise the issue to draw attention to the ongoing desperate attempts of Governor d!ckson to arbitrarily announce a concocted results through the social media and state –owned media organisations and declare himself winner of the governorship election.

“For the avoidance of doubt, it is to be noted that the purported attempts of Governor d!ckson to either by himself, cronies or agents to declare himself winner is clearly in contravention of the Electoral Act as amended and also unconstitutional to the extent that such an action offends the clear provisions of the 1999 constitution that established the Independent National Electoral Commission,(INEC).”

Egba also asked d!ckson to consider the criminal consequences of any attempt to declare himself as winner of the election, saying it would amount to usurping the powers of the electoral body, INEC.

Soon after his reaction to the PDP claim,Egba issued APC’s own account of the election result saying early results from the rerun election indicated that Sylva was in the lead.

He said Sylva had effectively cancelled the 33,150 votes with which d!ckson led in the inconclusive December 5th and 6th election.

Sylva,according to Egba, secured majority votes in Bassambiri in Nembe Local Government Area,Akassa and Liama in Brass LGA, Ekeremor LGA and the few results so far from Southern Ijaw LGA.

His words: “In Brass LGA, APC polled 1,696 votes, followed by the PDM which had 12 votes and the PDP with 5 votes while in Bassambiri, APC had 2,184 votes while PDP scored 3 votes.

“PDP won in the only polling unit in Nembe- Ogbolomabiri through manipulation with 426 votes while APC was awarded 6 votes. In Oguta-Otuokpotiof Ogbia LGA, APC had 332 votes while PDP scored 10 votes.

“In Ekeremor, home town of the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, APC had a good showing by returning over 80 per cent of the total vote cast from over 13,000 expected votes.

“In ward 17 of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, the result was in favour of the APC with well over 70 per cent of the vote cast.

Egba said the APC members were excited about the results trickling in since Saturday evening and urged members and supporters to be upbeat in anticipation of a total victory in the election.