Bayelsa Rerun: PDP, APC Drop Damning Allegations
The political arena in Bayelsa state is thickening ahead of the January 9, 2016 rerun governorship poll in the state.
According to a report on The Punch, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are at loggerheads over an alleged plot to rig the upcoming election.
While the PDP on Tuesday, December 22, raised an alarm over alleged fresh plans by the APC to rig the election, the APC alleged that Governor Seriake Dickson and his PDP agents had started bringing in thugs into the state ahead of the rerun in Southern Ijaw and other polling units in six LGAs.
APC, PDP Clash in Bayelsa over alleged rigging plot
A statement issued by Jonathan Obuebite, the director of publicity,
restoration campaign organisation of the PDP, read: “The APC had still not learnt any lessons from the incident because Timipre Sylva and others are hell-bent on using the same federal institutions like the military, police, INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) to rig the election in Southern Ijaw.”
Obuebite added that the PDP had uncovered fresh plans by the APC to rig at all cost even despite an early lead by its candidate Governor Dickson who has won six out of the seven LGAs declared so far.
But in a swift reaction, the APC, in a statement by the Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organisation, alleged that Dickson and his PDP agents had started bringing in thugs into the state ahead of the rerun in Southern Ijaw and other polling units in six LGAs to “repeat what they did on December 5 and 6.”
Chief Nathan Egba, the director, media and publicity, Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organisation, said: “The APC have been informed that some strange looking faces were being seen in some rural communities of Southern Ijaw, while some had been camped in different hotels in Amarata, Swali and Tombia areas of Yenagoa.
“We wish to call on the security agencies in the state to step up their intelligence gathering and track down all those plotting to cause mayhem in the rerun with a view to compromising the election through massive rigging.”
Following indications that the political arena was thickening with hate and indifference in Bayelsa state, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) moved swiftly to nullify the governorship election in the region.
According to INEC, the election was nullified due to violence, abduction of electoral officials and ballot box snatching in Southern Ijaw local government area.
However, results already announced have it that the PDP’s candidate Governor Seriake Dickson is clearly leading in the poll.
He has so far won six of the seven local government areas announced by INEC and has picked up 105,748 votes, while his biggest rival, Chief Timipre Sylva of the APC has secured a total vote of 72,594.
Naij news
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