Plot To Rig Bayelsa Rerun: PDP Fingers Amaechi, Defence Minister …As Ijaw Women Threaten To Protest Naked

L-R: Chairman, Orient Group, Mr Godwin Ezeemo, Director, Planning, Research and Strategy, Voice of Wisdom and Vision International, Prof. Funmi Adesanya-Davies, and Mrs Atim Ita, after receiving their certificates of UN Peace Advocates in Port Harcourt, yesterday

Indications have emerged of a fresh plot by a former Governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, and Minister of Defence, Mohammed Dan Ali, to rig the rerun election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State in the yet-to-be-concluded governorship election in the state.
The Coordinator of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, raised the alarm in a statement issued on Friday night in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Onaiwu alleged that Amaechi and Ali met in Abuja during the week to perfect ways to rig the poll in favour of the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Timipre Sylva, who trails behind the incumbent and candidate of the PDP, Hon. Seriake Dickson, in the results announced so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
While Dickson had won in six of the seven local government areas announced so far by INEC, the votes from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area had become a source of concern because of the violence that attended the poll there.
The state has eight local government areas.
According to Onaiwu, the APC remains desperate in its bid to capture the oil-rich state, which he said fits into the suggestion by Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, who alluded to the fact that all oil-producing states should be taken over by the APC in the interest of national security.
The statement by Onaiwu reads: “It is on good authority that the Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has held two meetings with Mohammed Dan Ali, Minister of Defence, on how the military can once again be used to intimidate voters and rig the Bayelsa poll for the APC in Southern Ijaw local government in the rerun election for the Bayelsa governorship.
“It would be recalled that the PDP Governors Forum had raised alarm before the inconclusive poll that there were plans by the APC to camouflage as the military to abuse the process in their desperation to capture oil-producing states under the PDP.
“Today we have been vindicated by several reports of independent observers and the bold move by the INEC to reject Southern Ijaw local government poll.
“From what we know, the threat to use the military to perpetrate heist of the mandate of the electorate of Southern Ijaw and by extension all Bayelsans still remains as Ministers Amaechi and Dan Ali remain the arrow head of the planned theft of the votes of Bayelsa people through intimidation, fake military personnel and doctored voters cards manufactured in Port Harcourt by Indian IT mercenaries imported by the APC.”
Onaiwu urged security agencies to remain impartial, non-partisan and called on the people to once again reject any attempt by any group or individuals to hijack their inalienable right to decide who to govern them as they did the last time.
Meanwhile, women under the aegis of Ijaw Women Liberation Movement have threatened to protest nude over the killing of innocent voters in the state if nothing is done urgently.
The women who dragged perpetrators of violence during the governorship election in Bayelsa state to the National Human Right Commission, said that people of the state have the right to freely vote for the candidate of their choice, without harassment and intimidation.
In a statement issued by the women leader, Chief Ebebi Agnes, where they threatened to protest naked, the women described the actions of the military as an infringement on the right of the citizens of Bayelsa state, criticising security operatives for failing to protect the people, particularly the women from attacks by political thugs and criminals.
“The Ijaw women wish to state emphatically that the conduct of the military during the unconcluded elections, which saw such a respected institution colluding with known common criminals in the creeks to manipulate the electoral process, is sad and sends a very dangerous signal to the advancement of our democracy.
“We have also resolved not to allow the killing and harassment of the people of Bayelsa state as a result of the election wherein the law enforcement agents were watching, to go unaddressed, by the Human Right Commission, with a view of seeking justice for the dead and protecting the living who are still vulnerable to such barbaric conduct in future elections in Bayelsa or elsewhere in the country,” the statement read in part.
According to the Ijaw women, the military’s actions proved that they are incompetent and unprofessional. The women wondered how operatives could watch with indifference while political thugs killed law-abiding citizens who were out to exercise their franchise.
Addressing President Muhammadu Buhari, the group reminded him that it is the responsibility of the government to protect the citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution.
“We are peace loving in Bayelsa and will not allow the desperation to hijack power by some greedy individuals, truncate the peace that has been enjoyed in our state over the years.
“We are hereby calling on all the people of Bayelsa, particularly the women, to arise and resist the tyranny that the military occupation of our land during the election brought and be prepared until the conclusion of the process on a date, to be set by INEC for elections to hold in Southern Ijaw local government.
“We are determined to pursue this to a logical conclusion and will not hesitate to nakedly protest any further attempt to militarise, what ordinarily should be a civil process in our state,” the statement added.
It could be recalled that the state Governor, Seriake Dickson, had set up a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the violence and breach of peace that occurred before and after the governorship election in the state.