Dickson rejects Presidential, National Assembly polls results in Bayelsa

Dickson rejects Presidential, National Assembly polls results in Bayelsa

Governor Seriake Dickson on Wednesday said that the Bayelsa results of the Presidential and National Assembly election held on February 23 was not acceptable.

The Presidential Candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Muhammadu Buhari, won two of the eight Local Government Areas of Bayelsa.

Dickson said that the state government has rejected the results of APC and other candidates of the party in Nembe Bassambiri and Southern Ijaw Local Government Areas òf the state.

Dickson, said in a statement signed by his Special Adviser, Media Relations, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei, that elections did not take place in Nembe Bassambiri and Constituency 4 of Southern Ijaw

The Governor said that what happened in Nembe and Southern Ijaw was a blatant violation of the rights of the people to elect their leaders and representatives.

                           

He said that it was the height of absurdity for the Indepedent National Electoral Commission (INEC) whose staff have admitted and spoken against the abduction and violence to release a result in the area.

According to the Governor, Army Officers and men under their command compelled collation officers at gun point to concoct figures from non existent votes that were never captured by card readers.

He stressed that the electoral officers who were held hostage had written to INEC to say that they were made to sign the documents under duress.

The Governor called on the INEC to cancel all the figures from an election that never held and distance itself from the fake results.

He also called on the commission and the Nigerian Army to investigate the activities of their men in Nembe Bassambiri and Southern Ijaw for necessary sanction.

He urged Nigerians to discountenance the purported figures allotted to President Buhari and the other figures based on which APC candidates were declared winners of House òf Reps and Senate seats in Bayelsa East.

 “Our state condemn the purported result from constituency 4 of Southern Ijaw and the seven Nembe wards.

“We want the world and INEC to know that what happened in Nembe Bassambiri and Southern Ijaw Constituency 4 was a blatant assault on the rights of our people.

“There was no election, no vote, yet Timipre Sylva and David Lion, and his thugs backed by the Army commandeered electoral officials and materials to non designated locations and held them hostage to allocate fake figures.

“In the case of Brass, Army officers further compelled collation officers at gunpoint to allocate figures to their party, the APC, from votes that were never cast, votes that were never captured by card readers.

“We are calling INEC to announce cancellation and discountenance itself from this charade and investigate and punish all its officers who are complicit in this. 

“We call on the Army authorities to do the same.

“Nigerians should discountenance the purported figures allotted to President Buhari and the other APC candidates based on which they are declared winners of House of Reps and Senate seats.” The statement read in part.

The Governor said that Bayelsa and her people would do everything to fight brazen violation of the rights of the people to elect their leaders and representatives.

The Bayelsa Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed and denied allegation by Gov. Seriake Dickson that the party colluded with the military during Saturday’s polls to cause violence.

Mr Doifie Buokoribo, the State Publicity Secretary of APC  who disclosed this in a reaction to the development in Yenagoa, adding that the allegation was to blackmail the party.

The party said that it was regrettable that Dickson was raising a false alarm about violence during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

It added that the move was intended to mask the governor’s error and lawlessness during the exercise.

Dickson had in a press conference raised a number of allegations, including that the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army and its GOC colluded with APC chieftains to unleash violence that characterised the elections leading to deaths.

He also said a ward chairman of PDP in Southern Ijaw and a photojournalist attached to the Bayelsa Government House were shot by the military, killing the party leader while the journalist survived the shooting.

The Bayelsa APC noted that Dickson had appointed ex-militant leaders as Council chairmen few weeks to elections with the sole aim of peppetrating violence.

“Dickson specifically excoriated former Bayelsa Governor and APC leader, Chief Timipre Sylva.

“In Dickson’s court, Sylva and APC stalwarts are guilty of hijacking of electoral materials, killings – and even terrorism.

“Expectedly, the media has been awash with reports of “violence” by APC in parts of the state, particularly Twon-Brass and Bassambiri-Nembe.

“We reiterate that the APC in Bayelsa and its leadership had nothing whatsoever to do violence during last Saturday’s elections.

“Governor Dickson and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) should be held responsible,” Buokoribo said.