AGAIN! Bayelsa Election Goes Controversial As PDP, APC Disagree

The Bayelsa state supplementary gubernatorial election in Southern Ijaw local government area was reportedly marred by violence again.

According to report, some security operatives and civilians were feared killed following alleged violence in Ekeremor local government area, though the exact number of deaths could not be confirmed.

Vanguard reports that Governor Seriake Dickson condemned the alleged violence and electoral malpractice during the supplementary election.

Security personnel stationed around the INEC office, Yenagoa

Dickson accused chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of masterminding the violence in Brass, Ekeremor, Nembe and Southern Ijaw.

This was contained in a statement signed by his chief press secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson.

“To achieve their sinister plot, APC militants hijacked election materials and wrote results in many wards of Southern Ijaw, Brass, Ekeremor town, Brass while election  was disrupted in parts of Yenagoa and in a polling unit in Otuokpoti, Ogbia Local Government,” he said.

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The governor who wondered why the APC would kill to capture power, accused security agencies of providing cover for the opposition in the state to perpetrate violence and rig the election.

According to him, the violence in the poll had vindicated his position that security agencies, particularly the military, were partisan and not willing to provide the enabling environment for a free and fair election to take place.

Dickson called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the election in polling units where the poll was hijacked and results written.

He also called for the arrest of the perpetrators of the killings, while sympathising with the families of those who lost their dear ones.

However, the minister of state for agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, debunked reports that there were heavy shootings in Ekeremor that led to loss of lives.

Lokpobiri, an APC chieftain said the conduct of the election in Ekeremor was peaceful,orderly and without violence.

The INEC had scheduled the supplementary poll to hold yesterday, January 9 after the December 5, 2015 gubernatorial election in the state was declared inconclusive. Chief Timpre Sylva is the candidate of the APC while incumbent governor, Dickson is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic in the poll.

Report has it that Dickson is taking an early lead in the official results collated by the INEC.

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