The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked political parties wishing to participate in the forthcoming governorship election in Kogi and Bayelsa states to adhere strictly to its guidelines and timetable as there will be no extension of time for latecomers.
The National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Barrister Festus Okoye, who gave the charge in a statement yesterday recalled that on May 16, 2019, INEC released the revised Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the November 16, 2019 Governorship Elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states.
“We wish to remind all political parties that conducted party primaries to choose their governorship candidates that September 5, 2019, is the last day for the conduct of party primaries while September 9, 2019, is the last day for the submission of the list of nominated candidates.
“The commission will receive all nominations at its Media Centre, INEC Headquarters, Maitama, Abuja and all nominations must be received latest 6 pm on Monday, September 9, 2019.
“Political parties that conducted party primaries shall submit to the commission on or before September 8, 2019, the name of their Liaison Officers and who must be introduced through a letter jointly signed by the national chairman and national secretary of the party.
“The commission shall publish the names and votes scored by all the candidates that participated in the primaries monitored by our officials in the two states.
“We enjoin all the political parties participating in the election to strictly comply with the timelines earlier released by the commission and will not entertain any late submission under any circumstances”, he declared.
However, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has named three-member Appeal Committees for the recently conducted primaries for the Kogi and Bayelsa Governorship elections.
A statement, yesterday, by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, disclosed the appeal committee for the Kogi indirect primary consists of Senator Abdulahi Umar Yandoma (chairman), Hajia Amina Muhammed (secretary) and Tony McFoy (member).
For Bayelsa, it said the membership of the committee includes: Barrister Shuaibu Aruwa (chairman), Edith Newman Amadi (secretary) and Hon. Abdul Malik El-Yakub (member).
However, the Bayelsa State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described Diri as the only candidate with the capacity and competence to succeed Governor Seriake Dickson.
The party, while congratulating Diri on his emergence as the PDP candidate, further referred to him as a committed public official with years of exemplary service to the development of Bayelsa, the Ijaw Nation and the country.
The State Secretary of the party, Chief Godspower Keku, said in a statement on the PDP was happy with the emergence of Diri as its flag bearer after the keenly contested transparent and credible party primaries.
The party’s secretary noted that Bayelsa was in need of a leader with vast experience in public service explaining that Diri had been a commissioner, a principal executive secretary to the governor and a member of the House of Representatives, and currently a senator, among others.
The PDP scribe commended the other 20 aspirants of the party who contested the election with Diri for their display of maturity and respect for the overall interest of the party.
Keku called on the aspirants to support the candidate of the party stressing that the primaries could only produce one candidate out of the 21 aspirants, who indicated interest in the governorship of the state.
He flayed the APC over the emergence of Chief David Lyon as its candidate describing him as a pipeline security surveillance contractor.
Keku alleged that the leader of the APC in the state and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, schemed out all the qualified contestants from the APC to impose Lyon on them.
He said that Lyon lacked the requisite credentials, experience and pedigree to become governor of Bayelsa State.
Keku, who described the APC primaries which produced Lyon as a sham, noted that Lyon was Sylva’s personal imposition.
He condemned the calculated humiliation of Lokpobiri, who was made prominent by the PDP, and urged those humiliated by Sylva to rethink their political future.
Similarly, an All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Bayelsa State, Preye Aganaba, has described the party’s primary election in the state as a mockery of the democratic process.
Aganaba rejected the outcome of the party’s direct primaries and referred to the primaries that produced David Lyon as the candidate of the party as a political hoax and lacking any semblance of credibility.
He further alleged that the results were written in a hotel in Yenagoa, the state capital.
“The process leading to the direct primary election was rife with irregularities and has set a bad precedent for a political party that prides itself as a progressive which is supposed to lead by example.
“Engr. Preye Aganaba did not partake in the September 4th APC governorship primary election because there was no election. The degrading votes allotted to him is a complete fabrication and designed to ridicule him and his supporters,” he told reporters, yesterday.
The politician further recalled that few issues were raised by the aspirants to ensure a credible process during a stakeholders’ meeting with the Returning Officer and Chairman of the state Primary Election Committee, Mai-Mala Buni, the Governor of Yobe state.
According to him, the stakeholders had agreed that the names of returning officers should be published at ward levels; result sheets should be available in the various local government areas and also that tags should be provided for the eight local government agents and 105 ward agents.
Aganaba lamented that though the chairman and secretary of the committee agreed to the demands, they failed to honour them during the process that led to the primaries.
He added, “The Returning Officer, Mai-Mala Buni was not present during the primary election, having travelled back to Abuja the same night after the meeting, never to return.
“In the morning, the secretary disappeared and his phones switched off, thus thwarting any effort by the aspirants to address these discrepancies.
“The above actions clearly cast a huge doubt on the neutrality of the election committee members and its commitment towards conducting a free and fair election as they have breached every trust reposed on them.
“One wonders how a Returning Officer and chairman of a Governorship Primary Election Committee can endorse a process he never witnessed and since when did a Collation Officer substitute the powers of the chairman of a Governorship Primary Election Committee and declare a winner?
“It is shocking and impossible to believe the election results can be announced from a hotel without evidence of elections having held; a simple process which is validated by the presence of election results sheets signed by ward returning officers as well as ward agents to the aspirants.
“This single-minded desperation is inimical to the doctrines of the APC. The All Progressives Congress is being inexorably drawn towards an absolutism system, where complete power is held by one man who has no qualms to claiming rights over virtually everything.
“This political fraud perpetrated in the name of direct primaries is a vindication of the earlier assertion of Engr Preye Aganaba at the September 3 stakeholders meeting, about the path the party is being driven by some politicians.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should distance themselves from this scam and reject the result completely. This sham with fake results written in hotel rooms cannot stand.
“The collation officer is not the chairman of the Election Committee to declare a winner. This rape on democracy will be contested in a competent court of law, if the party fails to look into our appeal.
“True progressives and lovers of a free, fair, credible process should be reassured that appropriate steps are being taken to seek redress.
“Finally, it is clear that the disposition of those who wrote this shameful result in a hotel room is not about winning the general elections, sadly it’s about ridiculing other stakeholders in the party who don’t align with them, in preparation of a possible governorship run in 2023.
“It is clear that this is all about settling old political scores and disagreements that have bedevilled the Bayelsa State chapter since 2013. We will approach the arena for settling disputes, knowing that justice will be done at the end of the day”.
Similarly, the lawmaker representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Senator Dino Melaye and Abubakar Ibrahim, son of former Kogi State governor, Ibrahim Idris, yesterday, kicked against the emergence of Engineer Musa Wada as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governorship election in Kogi State slated for November 16.
The duo stormed the party’s national secretariat, Wadata Plaza, yesterday, where they met with the National Working Committee behind closed doors.
While Abubakar polled a total of 710 votes to finish as runner up, Senator Dino garnered a total of 70 votes to finish fourth on the log in the primary election which held in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital, last Wednesday.
The lawmaker confided in Vanguard that his rejection of the outcome of the exercise was because the entire votes cast in his favour were not counted before gunmen disrupted the exercise.
He submitted his petition to the National Secretary of the party, Senator Ibrahim Tsauri questioning why only votes from two (2) out of ten (10) ballot boxes were counted for him in the just concluded primaries.
Abubakar on the other hand is questioning the credibility of the process and was still in a meeting with the party’s leadership at the time of filing this report.
Wada, who clinched the ticket after garnering a total of 748 votes, made a surprise appearance at the party’s secretariat, accompanied by a mammoth crowd of supporters and political associates.