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Tag: Bayelsa Election

  • Sylva, Dickson clash over alleged plot to rig election

    Sylva, Dickson clash over alleged plot to rig election

    The main rival parties in the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tuesday, accused each other of planning to rig the poll.

    Bayelsa State Governor and candidate of the PDP, Mr. Seriake Dickson, alleged that there was a plan by the APC to rig the election.

    Speaking through the Publicity Director of his campaign outfit, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, Dickson accused the APC leadership of making efforts to infiltrate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    He said: “We have unearthed plan to compromise the INEC, Bayelsa office, to give authentic result sheets to APC leadership during the election, which will then be used to rig the election.

    “As we are talking, they are not relenting in the criminal proposition to manipulate some officials of the commission at the national headquarters and in Bayelsa towards actualising their evil plan to rig the election by all means.”

    The governor claimed that the APC had sewn both police and army uniforms for thugs to enable them hijack materials.

    But the APC candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, through the Sylva/Igiri Campaign Organisation (SICO) said the allegations raised by Obuebite were not only laughable but false and unfounded.

    Sylva through a statement by SICO’s Director of Media and Publicity, Chief Nathan Egba, said it was shocking that the PDP quickly turned around to raise allegations the APC had earlier put forward to the security agencies to investigate against the Dickson-led government.

    He said: “There is of course no truth in the allegation that our party is planning to rig the election in connivance with the use of the security agencies and other institutions like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This is the thinking of a sinking ship and a loser.

    “Our reaction to what the PDP has said is very simple. Every single thing they are alleging against the APC is precisely what the campaign organisation of the PDP is doing. What they are trying to do is to divert attention from their plans after realizing that their plans have been exposed.

    “For instance, we have called the attention of the security agents to the activities of a senior INEC official in Bayelsa State who is working closely with them to compromise the election. The said official was used to rig the last National and State Assembly election in the state.

    “We also have it on good authorities that tailors were brought into the guest houses in the Government House, where they are sewing military and police uniforms they want to use during the election. This is criminal and we have called on the police to invade the location to verify our allegations.”

    Sylva said the APC had no intention to behave like the PDP, which he said had the track record of electoral violence and manipulation across the country.

    According to him the APC will win the elections in Kogi and Bayelsa State convincingly.

    “The case of Bayelsa State is very pathetic because day-by-day, members of the PDP and appointees of Governor Seriake Dickson, are leaving in droves and joining the APC.

    “It is clear that the APC does not have any plan to rig the election before winning the governorship election in Bayelsa State because Chief Sylva will win the election by popular votes.”

  • Elections: I will amputate any erring politician – IGP

    Elections: I will amputate any erring politician – IGP

    The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase has vowed to amputate any politician who attempts to compromise the electoral process in the forthcoming elections in Kogi and Bayelsa State.

    Kogi election is slated for 21st November, 2015 while Bayelsa is scheduled for 5th December, 2015.

    The Police chief said this Monday in Abuja during a meeting with Squadron Commanders in preparation for the elections and other issues that affects the Force.

    Addressing the men, the IGP said: “Again, gentlemen, we are at the threshold of another election in Kogi and Bayelsa States scheduled to hold on 21 November, 2015 and 5th December, 2015 respectively. Our resolve and competence will once again be tested in this onerous assignment and we cannot afford to fail.

    “As we drive the process, let me warn that any person that attempts to test the will of the Force by engaging in any act that negates the electoral law or engages in any crime with intent to derail or compromise the integrity of the exercise will be isolated and firmly dealt with.

    Continuing, Arase said: “Anybody and politician who thinks that they can use the police to win election, I think they have a second thinking coming. They have to go to the field and go and contest, win the hearts and minds of the electorates.

    “My own job is very easy, I am to provide a level playing field, emplace a robust security architecture that nobody will be able to test and I just mentioned it in my address, any politician who tests my will, will be severely dealt with, they will be amputated, I can assure you that.”

    The Police chief also warned his officers and other security agencies that will be deployed to complement the Police to situate their operations within the professional ethics stating that any personnel found to be engaged in any act demeaning of their official callings will be similarly dealt with.

    According to him: “I have also told my officers that if they make themselves available for any politician to use them and assault the electoral process, then severe disciplinary measures will be taken against you. The era of those things are already past, we are professional security managers and that is exactly what we are going to do.

    Speaking on the commitment of the President to ensure a credible election, the IGP said: “I can assure you that the president has not given us any order to compromise the result of the elections that will be conducted in the two states, instead, he has insisted that we must go and ensure that credible elections are conducted wherever it is going to be conducted and he repeatedly said it that he has been a victim of electoral manipulation and he cannot see himself now in this position supporting the same thing that has happened to him as a president.”

    On the deployment of men to Northeast, Arase told his men to get ready because President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the procurement of equipment to curb terrorism in the Northeast.

    He said: “ I can authoritatively tell you that the president has actually ordered  us to get equipment that we need to move into the Northeast and not just moving into the Northeast with our bare hands, the necessary things that we actually need for our officers to perform and that is why I can authoritatively convoke this meeting with our operational arm of the Nigeria Police Force to tell them that they should get ready and that once we have these equipments, we are going to roll in and ensure that civil authority is restored in those areas.

    On the casualty figure of Police officers since the inception of terrorism in Nigeria, he said: “Casualties are not things that lend themselves to mathematical figures, it keeps rising and I keep losing men everyday not only to insurgency but to other factors like robbery and we must know that there must be casualty when it comes to cases of internal security.

    “I can tell you that the casualty figure is high, we have been trying to carry out some research to know how many widows we have because from the widows we have, we will be able to ascertain the number of some officers that have been lost.”

    He however noted that the police management has vowed to take care of family those who have died by incorporating scholarship scheme to take care of the children of dead officers.

  • Bayelsa election can’t be rigged, says Dickson

    Bayelsa election can’t be rigged, says Dickson

    Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson has said nobody can rig the December 5 governorship election in the state.

    In a statement yesterday in Yenagoa, the state capital, by his Chief Press Secretary Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the governor said the election would be decided by the will of the people based on the antecedents of the contenders.

    He said: “Let me assure you all Bayelsans that the fear of rigging in this election, reasonable as it sounds, will not be possible. Nobody can rig this election, because the whole world will be in Bayelsa to monitor the process.

    “Your votes will count. When you vote on Election Day, wait and be a monitor yourself. There will be adequate security and all key federal institutions that will be saddled with the task of conducting the election, such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and law enforcement agencies, will be fully on ground to ensure there are no hitches or give room for manipulation in favour of a particular candidate.”

    He urged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC), to return to their initial party and join him in his re-election.

    Dickson said his appeal was borne out of his feelings that the defectors were being humiliated and betrayed by APC’s leadership in the state.

    According to him, the defectors had become onlookers in their quest for political participation and relevance.

    Dickson noted that the opposition did not represent any viable alternative to peace, unity and development of the state.

    The governor alleged that the APC leadership had a repressive and retrogressive past, which would not serve any better purpose in the current dispensation.

    He added that the December 5 poll was not about him but for the greater good of the state.

    Dickson urged PDP defectors to jettison their grievances and cooperate with him to uphold the interest of the state and the Ijaw above personal interests.

    According to him, none of them can afford to allow the state slide into the dark days of the past.

    Dickson said: “We may have had our differences, but in the light of current realities, it is only desirable that all our former members return to the PDP and join hands with me for the greater development of Bayelsa State.

    “Certainly, we cannot afford a return to the dark days of our past and allow the state to slide into anarchy, killings, maiming, kidnappings, cultism and state-sponsored terrorism directed at political opponents.

    “The harrowing experiences of many Bayelsans, who fled into exile in neighbouring states and far-flung places, under the APC candidate when he held sway as governor for five years, remain vivid and should not be allowed to be repeated. This is why we have to reason together and make amends.”

     

  • INEC begins procurement materials for Kogi election

    INEC begins procurement materials for Kogi election

    Acting Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mrs Amina Zakari, said the commission had begun the production and procurement of materials for upcoming Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections.

    She made this known on Friday in Lokoja at the opening of a one-day stakeholders’ forum on the elections.

    Zakari, who was represented by Secretary of the commission, Mrs Augusta Ogakwu, said that training of personnel for the conduct of the polls had also begun.

    She said that Continuous Voter Registration for persons who just attained 18 years and those who missed the last exercise would be conducted before the elections.

    She reiterated that only those who had permanent voter card would be eligible to vote in the elections, and urged political parties and other stakeholders to mobilize the people to come out for the exercise.
    “The commission will be fair, impartial and transparent and provide a level playing field to all contestants,” Zakari assured.

    In his presentation, INEC‘s Director of ICT, Mr Chidi Nwafor, said that collation of results of the election would be done electronically as part of efforts to enhance the election process.

    He said that application of e-software system would make it possible for collation of results right from the polling units.

    He said that the software was being deployed for the first time in the country with the coming polls in both states.

    The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Mr Halilu Pai, disclosed that 221 units of data-capturing machines had been deployed to headquarters of the 21 local government areas in Kogi for voter registration.

    He also said that 42 staff of the commission, who would participate in the exercise had been trained, adding that card readers would be used for the election.

    Pai restated the readiness of INEC to conduct a free and fair election, and urged other stakeholders in the state to join hands the commission to achieve a credible poll whose result would be acceptable to all contestants.

    In his peach at the event, the Attah of Igala, Idakwo Ameh Oboni, said that democracy remained the best form of government as it gave citizens the best opportunity to secure their freedom from poverty, misrule and corruption.

    He, therefore, urged INEC not to relent in its efforts at bringing sanity into the polity and urged political parties and other stakeholders to partner the electoral umpire to achieve that.
    While pledging to use his position to mobilize his subjects to participate in the continuous voter registration and the election, Oboni advised political parties and their candidates to eschew chaos and money politics.