Sylva rejects Bayelsa governorship election result, heads to court

Governor Seriake Dickson

Timipre Sylva

The incumbent Governor of Bayelsa State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Seriake Dickson, was on Sunday, declared winner of the State governorship election following a rerun poll.

Dickson who emerged winner with a total of 134,998 votes, beat Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 48,146 votes as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) Returning Officer for the election, Zana Akpagbu.

A total of 225,527 valid votes were cast while the total number of votes rejected was given as 6, 647, just as 232,167 was the total number of votes cast.

The re-run had been conducted in some polling units following the inconclusive December governorship election.

Meanwhile, the candidate of the APC in the just concluded Bayelsa governorship election, Chief Sylva has shifted the battle for the Bayelsa polls to the courts as he vowed to challenge the result of the election at the elections petitions tribunal.

He said on Monday that he has assembled a legal team that will immediately commence the process of seeking redress over the alleged irregularities.

Addressing newsmen on Monday, Sylva alleged that the INEC and the PDP in the state worked in unison to rig the election in favour of the PDP.

He said that he had officially complained before the election that the present structure of INEC in the state would not conduct a credible election since it was constituted to deliver the former president and the PDP in last year’s general elections.

“I said in the beginning that I do not have confidence in the REC and the Admin Secretary, that I do not expect a fair treatment if these people were to preside over the election.

“I said so over and over and over again. I even reduced it to writing, and we sent the petition. Usually before elections of this nature, the INEC officials are switched. But this time, they chose to keep this team that was already in place set up by the PDP as rigging machine.

“This was the same team that returned almost 100 percent of all votes in Bayelsa to the former president. And we felt that these people could not have given us a free and fair treatment. But unfortunately, our cries fell on deaf ears. Yesterday, they proved themselves true to type”, he noted.

Sylva maintained that the election could have been further declared inconclusive since about 53,000 votes were still outstanding as cancelled votes.

According to him, in places where APC won, results were cancelled, but where PDP won, the results were sustained.

He further alleged that the rigging started from the distribution of materials as materials were taken to voting centers by vehicles provided by the PDP and diverted.

According to him, the same set of collation officers, qnd SPOs used in the December election were used on Saturday’s election; a situation he said aided the rigging process.

He maintained that in any free and fair election in Bayelsa state, the APC will always win and appealed to the supporters of the party to keep calm.

Also 14 out of the 20 political parties that fielded candidates during the just concluded Bayelsa governorship election, have urged the candidate of the APC, Chief Timipre Sylva to accept defeat.

The political parties, which endorsed the results of the poll, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the January 9 supplementary poll and called on Sylva to join forces to move the state forward.

Addressing newsmen in Yenagoa, Bayelsa chairman of Independent Democrat, (ID) Prince Elemah, flanked by state chairmen of the other parties, commended the efforts of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the distribution of electoral materials to remote areas of the state and providing a level playing ground for all during the supplementary poll.

Political parties which endorsed the polls results are All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA); Democratic Peoples Party, (DPP); African Democratic Congress, (ADC); KOWA, Democratic People’s Congress, (DPC); Social Democratic Party, (SDP).

Others are African Peoples Alliance, (APA); Independent Democrats, (ID); Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, (ACPN); Peoples Party of Nigeria, (PPN); United Progressive Party, (UPP); People for Democratic Change, (PDC); New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP), and Mega Progressives Peoples Party, (MPPP).