The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bayelsa State, Baritor Kpaghir, on Monday announced the cancellation of election in Southern Ijaw local government area, thus rendering the state governorship election inconclusive. An official of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kpaghir announced the cancellation at the collation centre in Yenagoa, capital of the state, citing violence and irregularities.
He said a new date would be set for the rescheduled exercise. The returning officer had earlier said, since the number of registered voters in Southern Ijaw local government exceeded the gap between the two leading candidates, Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), he could not make a declaration on the election. There are more than 120,827 voters registered in Southern Ijaw local government.
After announcement of results of seven of the eight local governments in the state, Dickson had 105,748 votes and Sylva 71,794. Reacting to the cancellation, the President of Ijaw Youths Council, Mr Udengs Eradiri on Monday said the decision to cancel the rescheduled governorship election in Southern Ijaw Local Government of Bayelsa may have averted crises.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Yenagoa that the tension generated by the rescheduled poll could have turned to an ugly situation. “We expect honourable conduct of a new election on a date to be fixed. “ We are also happy that the Independent National Electoral Commission lived up to expectation and should continue to be an unbiased umpire’’, he said. Eradiri commended international and local observers for insisting that the right thing should be done to ensure free and fair election. Rep. Fred Agbedi, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), agent at the collation centre in Yenagoa, said the cancellation was in order. He said the election in the area was marred by violence, intimidation and snatching of election materials. Agbedi (PDP-Ekeremor/ Southern Ijaw Federal Constituency 1), said election should not be conducted in an insecure atmosphere, where voters could not exercise their civic rights.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) rejected the cancellation. Mr Denis Otiotio, the party`s agent at the collation centre, said it objected to the cancellation because they were on course for victory. He said “the cancellation of the election in Southern Ijaw is an attempt to manipulate the result in favour of a particular party’’, he said. Also on Monday, the PDP at the national level said that it was in support of the decision of INEC to cancel the election of the Southern Ijaw Local Government area. This was even as the PDP commended the courage of the people of Bayelsa state in fearlessly curtailing the All Progressives’ Congress (APC’s) alleged ‘rigging machinery”, which led to the cancellation of the elections. The PDP made its position known in a press statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh in Abuja. The Party pointed out that but for the bravery of Bayelsans in standing up for their votes against the hordes of harassments by the military and other security forces allegedly working for the All Progressives Congress (APC), their will as a people would have been completely subverted in the election. It said, “
We condemn in the strongest possible term, the wanton confiscation and transfer of voting materials by security operatives directly to APC agents for outright allocation of votes. “For the purposes 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,” the statement added. The party expressed concern over the apparent inability of the present INEC to conduct a credible election in a single state. It further condemned the alleged brutalisation of innocent Bayelsans who came out to exercise their democratic rights by security forces.
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