Political parties in Bayelsa State yesterday accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of appointing the brother to Governor Seriake Dickson as a Collation Officer for the April 18 rescheduled elections.
Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Baritor Kpagih shifted the House of Assembly election in eight constituencies, citing insufficient electoral materials.
But the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other parties, said INEC appointed Dickson’s brother and General Manager of the State Newspaper Corporation, Mr. Charles Tambo, as the Collation Officer for Kololuma-Opokuma Constituency I.
On behalf of other parties, APGA’s candidates for Kolokuma-Opokuma I and II, Preye Ozoro and Ebire Tarabina, alleged that Tambo was appointed to enable the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hijack the results of the election.
They accused the state government of planning to arrest opposition candidates and 15 of their frontline supporters before Saturday’s elections.
The opposition candidates named some of their supporters allegedly marked for arrest by the government, using security agencies.
They are: Kwesi Zikiye, Gesiye Isowo, Sylvanus Abila, Inemo Oruebimiekumo, Chamberlin Ikidi and Jackson Suokiri.
Others are: Inemotimi Angalapele, Ibarakumo Ikosomi, Pereowei Agura, Victor Vianana, Ebikeme Okoringa, Akpoegberi Ogidiga, Ikuro Igarando and Alex Oruebimiekumo.
The spokesmen said the government once arrested persons perceived to oppose the PDP and “unlawfully” detained them for two weeks in Yenagoa, the state capital, and Zone 6 in Benin, the Edo State capital.
According to them, APC’s candidates for Kolokuma-Opokuma Constituency I, Mr. Taripredou Aketi and APGA’s Yenagoa Constituency I, Mr. Kingdom Blessing, suffered the same fate.
They said: “Emboldened by its ‘Operation-arrest-and-detain-our-opponent’ strategy, the Bayelsa State Government has perfected plans to visit the same fate upon us and our supporters in Kolokuma-Opokuma.
“The government also plans to flood Kolokuma-Opokuma on Election Day with thugs, fake military officers and policemen, essentially to cause violence and bloodbath with a view to generally intimidating our supporters from voting.”
The spokesmen urged INEC to withdraw Tambo and replace him with a university lecturer who has no connection with the state government.
They also urged the commission not to release any essential electoral material for Kolokuma-Opokuma to the government or its agents.
The parties’ spokesmen appealed to INEC and security agencies to prevent Dickson from touring Kolokuma-Opokuma on the Election Day to avoid a crisis in the area.
Kpagih acknowledged receiving a petition written by APGA candidates on Tambo’s appointment.
The REC said Tambo’s name had been removed from the list of electoral officers.
He said: “I am barely three months old here. I don’t know anybody. So, when I received the petition, I went to check the list and discovered that Charles Tambo’s name was there. We quickly removed it. So, the name is no longer in the list.”
Kpagih urged the parties with complaints to approach him instead of dissipating their energy on petition writing.