Bayelsa Guber Polls: PDP Supporters Jubilate Over Election Results …As Opposition Parties Threaten Court Action

There was traffic jam in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital yesterday as the result of Saturday’s governorship election was announced and supporters of Chief Dickson went wide with jubilation.

Singing and dancing victory songs, the supporters in a long convoy of vehicles moved to the Opolo private residence of the Governor-elect while other commuters endured the long queue of  vehicles.

However, some members of the opposition have rejected the result of the election.

In his reaction, National Youth leader of  the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Miriki Ebikibina, alleged that the poll was marred by irregularities and fraud in the various local governments of the state.

He said, “In Kogi state , we saw what we called scientific, in Bayelsa State we have seen another we call digital. We saw it as digital because we all saw the turn out of voters in the election in Bayelsa State, it was poor. We received preliminary reports of malpractices, snatching of ballot boxes ,ballot papers, multiple campaigning in several places, We are working on them.”

Governorship candidate of ACN,Kemela Okara,alleged that voters were induced with N2,000 by the ruling party during the poll,saying that proper accreditation of voters were not conducted in some places before voting.

“If we lose in a free and fair contest, we would gladly accept it, but when there are infringements on the democratic process, we cannot accept it. The electoral process was flawed last Saturday. We will compile all reports and take a final decision “,Okara said.

Feelers from the Imoro Kubo Campaign organisation, indicates that  the Change Advocacy Party (CAP) is still studying the out come of the result. It says the party may make its position known in the next few days.

But, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) candidate, Famous Daunemugha told newsmen after he voted that he would not go to court “because if Bayelsans have decided to enslave themselves that is their trouble”. I will accept the result as the peoples wish”, he declared

A statement in Yenagoa from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Dickson polled 417,500 votes to beat his closest rival, Dr Imoro Kubor of the Change Advocacy Party, CAP, who scored 22,534 votes while Kemela Okara of the Action Congress of Nigeria, CAN, finished third with 9,627 votes.

Meanwhile,  the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) has recommended an urgent review of the location of all the polling units in Bayelsa State and other parts of the country to ensure greater credibility in future polls.

The association made the recommendation in a statement sent to newsmen on the heels of Saturday’s governorship election in the state.

The statement was a post-mortem of the Bayelsa election by the Nigerian Bar Election Working Group (NBEWG), which monitored the exercise, in conjunction with the state chapter of the association.

The statement was jointly signed by Messrs Dafe Akpedeye (SAN) and Festus Okoye, the group’s Chairman and Alternate Chairman, respectively.

It contended that “the polling units should be accessible and located in public schools and other public places.”

It stated that the present location of polling units across the country makes them vulnerable for ballot boxes to be hijacked, while the secrecy of voting were greatly compromised.

The group expressed concern over the location of polling units “in people’s houses, mechanics workshops, street corners  corridors.

It remarked that the poor location of some of the polling units also posed challenges to the security agencies “in providing adequate security cover for the elections”.

It recommended a review of the voter register in all the states of the federation and Abuja “to verify its authenticity”.

The group expressed satisfaction with the performance of INEC in the election, noting that election materials “arrived fairly early” in most of the polling booths, while accreditation of eligible voters started between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.

It, however, observed that there were “isolated cases of late arrival of materials and accreditation of voters” in some areas, such as Otabagi-Otakeme in Ogbia Local Government Area of the state, which has five polling units, among others.

It commended the introduction of “additional security features in the ballot papers by INEC, “to prevent their duplication and movement from one local government to the other”.

Zambia's captain Christopher Katongo with the trophy celebrates after winning the 2012 African Cup of Nations, yesterday