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Tag: Bayelsa

  • Kidnappers release ex-Bayelsa commissioner

    Kidnappers release ex-Bayelsa commissioner

    The Commissioner for Local Government in Bayelsa State, Mrs. Serafina Otazi, Thursday, regained her freedom after spending over 30 days in kidnappers’ den.

    Otazi, who was once the Commissioner for Women Affairs, was kidnapped by gunmen in Otuoke the hometown of former President Goodluck Jonathan in Ogbia Local Government Area, on December 19, 2015.

    She was on her way to attend a function in Ewoi, a community close to Otuoke in Ogbia when she was whisked away by her assailants.

    But after spending the Christmas and New Year with her abductors, Otazi was said to have regained her freedom.

    It was gathered that the commissioner paid an undisclosed amount of money as ransom to secure her release.

    The abductors were said to have initially demanded N200m ransom to set her free.

    A source who spoke in confidence said the kidnappers dropped their victim at Ondewari community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area at about 3am and zoomed off.

    The source said: “She was later made to board one of the speedboats leaving the community this morning;on her way to Yenagoa since around 7:00am.

    “As would be expected, ransom was paid before her eventual release as the kidnappers were said to have earlier demanded N20million.

    “The same abductors had to go to Yenagoa earlier to pick a relation of the lady with the ransom to their camp to deliver the money and sight the victim.

    “These abductors have three camps and resorted to a strategy of relocating her from time to time.”

     

  • Still on the Bayelsa election

    SIR: The Bayelsa governorship election has been won and lost but the tragic stories and deaths it left behind is still haunting us. I was stunned into disbelief on hearing what transpired in Bayelsa and the ugly stories it left behind. What went wrong that we shed so much blood in an election in just one state out of 36 states in Nigeria with just eight LGAs? What did our security agencies do to forestall violence knowing fully well the terrain they were  going into? Did any sector fail to be proactive by doing the needful?

    Can we take it that the thugs overpowered all the security personnels attached to Bayelsa for the purposes of that election? What role did the two leading governorship candidates play in instigating violence in the course of the election? What role did the traditional rulers play in instigating violence during the elections proper? What of the leadership of both parties and their followers? What role did they play in the whole saga?

    Do we have video evidence of what transpired in the course of the elections? Can the election monitors and international observers help to unravel what went wrong? Can INEC officials, NYSC, Civil Defense, police, Army, and other security personnel help in getting to the root of what went wrong? Can we evaluate the pre-election utterances and conducts of all parties, candidates and supporters in the Bayelsa election to find out why so much violence was unleashed during the exercise? Most importantly, can we rightly situate the origin and growth of violence in Bayelsa State to forestall such ugly growth in the future?

    All said and beyond an euphoria and gloom of who won and lost the Bayelsa election, President Buhari must dig deep to uproot the taproot of the kind of violence we witnessed in Bayelsa election. There is no gain shying away from the fact that the violence has its root in the predominance of armed militants and all shades of criminals in Bayelsa State. It is only certain that their negative influences will come to play in any election in the state but I feel the government must move in to ensure that such dangerous deployments to elections are forestalled in the future. It is my candid view that nothing allows for criminality and blood-shedding hence the government must move in and effectively disarm the militants, not only for political or election reasons but chiefly to ensure the citizens are secure and protected to carry out their lawful duties; be it electoral or any other civil duty.

    I commend INEC and the presidency for showing a rare maturity in handling the entire election. Despite the flurry of unprovoked attacks and unfounded allegations against these institutions, which certainly led to the upsurge of violence during the election, the presidency and INEC bent several steps backward to ensure that they managed the dangerous situation even when their alleged preferred candidate felt cheated in the entire exercise.

    Now, having concluded the election, it is my fervent prayer that the entire election be investigated to ensure we don’t have a repetition. I want both sides investigated to know who did what in the violence that attended the election. I want an impartial probe to not only find out who did what in the high incidence of violence we witnessed in Bayelsa but to ensure that the perpetrators of the violence and sponsors are punished for us not to experience such ugly case in the future. This is time for the President to show that the business as usual mantra we witnessed in sixteen years of PDP is not about to take over the centre stage again.

    The nation must send clear signals to all that we have moved away from the era of do or die elections. The one in Bayelsa is a great rebuke to the our insistence that elections should not only be free and fair but must be devoid of excessive blood shedding.

     

    • Joe Igbokwe,

    Lagos.

  • Bayelsa Speaker remains in office after court’s sack

    •Receives budget from Dickson

    The Court of Appeal, sitting in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has sacked Bayelsa State House of Assembly Speaker Kombowei Benson.

    A copy of the court’s judgment, which our correspondent obtained at the weekend, indicated that the April 2015 election, which returned Benson to the Assembly, was nullified on December 9, last year.

    But our correspondent observed that despite the court’s order, Kombowei has remained in office and, last Friday, about 40 days after the judgment, he chaired the Assembly when it received this year’s state Appropriation Bill from Governor Seriake Dickson.

    The Speaker was sacked in a case filed by Mr. Ebifaghe Orunimighe, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Southern Ijaw Constituency 4.

    Orunimighe challenged Kombowei’s victory on the grounds that an election did not take place in four wards.

    According to him, even where elections were held, there was over-voting.

    Oruminighe averred that there was no election in Olodiama Ward 3, Apoi Ward 15, Forupa Ward 14 and Ukubie Ward 16.

    On October 16, last year, the House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal, presided over by Justice Ononnaeze Madu, dismissed Orunimighe’s petition for lack of proof.

    But justices Mohammed Garba, Ejembi Eko and Stephen Adah, who sat on the appeal panel which delivered the judgment, set aside the decision of the tribunal and upheld Oruminighe’s prayers.

    In the judgment delivered by Justice Eko, the panel decided that the appellants had proved with their evidence that there was no election at Appoi Ward; yet, results were posted on the result sheets that were earlier snatched and collated into the overall results in the constituency.

    The panel, which also held that there was an inexplicable over-voting added: “The line of attack by the appellants under issue 2 is that upon proper evaluation of Exhibit P viz-a-viz the total number of vote cast at the election put at 34,985 as announced by INEC. There was an inexplicable over voting.

    “Out of these 34,985 votes, 6038 from Olodiama Ward 4 and polling units 20-30 of Forupa Ward are not in contention as submitted by the appellants. Thus, 28,849 votes are suspect or disputed votes.

    “Had the trial tribunal properly evaluated exhibit P it would have come to a conclusion that there was over voting in the constituency. Clearly there is an electoral malpractice where the number of votes cast is in excess of the total number of voters accredited to vote.

    “The trial tribunal failed, neglected and refused to evaluate the critical evidential materials contained in the documents tendered and admitted in evidence by the appellants.”

    Resolving issues One, Two and Three raised in the appeal in favour of the APC candidate, the tribunal declared the election that returned the Bayelsa Speaker null and void.

    Justice Eko said: “I allow the appeal in substantial part. My findings on issues One, Two and Three justify the declaration that the election/return of the first respondent, Benson Friday Kombowei, as the purported winner of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly seat for Southern Ijaw Constituency 4 elections on April 11, 2015, was null and void.

    “It is hereby ordered that a fresh election shall be conducted in all the wards in the constituency within 90 days from today, except in Olodiama Ward 4 and the polling units 20-30 in Foropa Ward 4.

    “The results from the Olodiama Ward 4 and polling units 29-30 in Foropa Ward 4 shall, upon the fresh elections in other wards, as ordered, thereafter, be duly collated and final declaration and return made.”

     

  • Bayelsa election

    •Faulty either in terms of due process or outcome

    The  Bayelsa State gubernatorial election does not give Nigerians much cause to cheer. Whether in terms of its process, or in its outcome, mayhem and controversy have been the hallmark, and that is regrettable. At the December 5, 2015 main election, several lives were lost before and during the election, leading to the cancellation of results in Southern Ijaw Local Government and some other wards. Again, at the supplementary election on January 9, violence once again led to the cancellation of several ward results, despite the concentration of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials and security agencies in the restricted area where the supplementary elections were held.

    The result announced by INEC is also somewhat controversial. With over 53,000 registered votes in the wards cancelled, more than the over 48,000 vote difference between the declared winner and his main rival, INEC this time took a different position from the Kogi State election, as it went ahead to announce a winner instead of ordering another supplementary election. While INEC has issued a certificate of return to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson as the winner, the candidate who came second in the election, Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has already decried the double standard by the commission, and has vowed to challenge it in court.

    This dissimilar positions taken by INEC for similar electoral outcome needs an explanation from the body, so as not to erode its integrity. Surely, with the proximity in the two elections, INEC officials cannot claim ignorance of the position taken by its officials in Kogi, when similar circumstance led to an order for a supplementary election, despite the protests by active participants in the process. While not justifying either of the different positions taken by INEC, as the courts are better positioned to do that, it is a matter for regret if the new INEC leadership is setting a benchmark for inconsistency for relatively smaller elections. How would it then handle even bigger elections?

    We are also appalled at the level of violence that took place in Bayelsa, and we urge the security agencies to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice, regardless of their positions in the state. It is shocking that despite the concentration of security agencies in the single election, first throughout the state, and later, mainly in one local council, armed thugs and miscreants were able to wreak as much havoc as was reported. With election materials violently seized and diverted, voters scared away from the voting centres, and many officials allegedly compromised, we appreciate why the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a local election observer team, questioned the validity of the election result.

    According to its chairman, Ibrahim Zikrullahi, “a total of 135 critical incident reports were received from a combined 55 mobile and stationary observers deployed by TMG quick count in Bayelsa State”. In the opinion of the election monitoring group, “all of these grave infractions clearly show that the Bayelsa governorship election grossly falls below the global standards for elections as enunciated in international instruments on human rights and credible elections”. The group also called on INEC “not to relent on its mandate of bringing to book all the electoral offenders in the Bayelsa gubernatorial election”.

    Going forward, the new leadership of INEC, led by Professor Mahmood Yakubu, must show its capacity to improve on the above average performance of Professor Attahiru Jega, if democracy is to endure in the country. The controversies arising from the conduct of election in Bayelsa, and not long ago, in Kogi, should be avoided in future elections.

  • ANA kicks as court jails author

    A popular Bayelsa State-born author, Nengi Joseph Ilagha, has been jailed by the state High Court sitting in Yenagoa, the state capital.

    The state chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) which disclosed the travails of Ilagha at the weekend in Yenagoa, called on the national body of ANA, human rights community and international organisations to help free its incarcerated member.

    The state Chairman, Mr. Michael Afenfia, said Ilagha was committed to prison following a judgement in a libel case between the Amayanabo of Nembe Kingdom, King Edmund Daukoru and the author.

    Afenfia explained that a book Ilagha wrote, entitled, Epistles to Maduabebe, was the subject of litigation between Daukoru and the author.

    He said while Daukoru, who was a character in the controversial book, went to court demanding damages, Ilagha was not aware of the suit until the court ruled in the king’s favour.

    He said in the judgement delivered on March 27, 2013, the court awarded N30million damages and N80,000 cost against the author.

    Afefagha further explained that Ilagha was trying to have his day in court when the court ruled in another contempt suit filed by the king and committed him (Ilagha) to prison on December 14, 2015.

    He said the state leadership of ANA decided to speak on the issue to let the world know that such a prolific writer who had contributed immensely to the development of the state, was in detention.

    He said the body was seeking a resolution that would bring him out of the prison adding that Ilagha, whose works had touched lives, should not be allowed to rot in jail.

    He said ANA sent its legal team to the Okaka Prisons to find out the state of affairs and explore ways of appealing the judgement and reconciling the author with his kinsman, the king.

    He said: “We want Ilagha to know that we stand by him. Even though we are behind him, we stand for peace. We know how imprisoned we feel as authors if we are not able to freely express ourselves. We commiserate with his family.

    “We call on ANA national level, all lovers of justice and well-meaning Bayelsans to come and held us resolve this problem. There was no appeal and Ilagha had no opportunity to defend himself.

    “This opportunity should be availed him to speak and defend himself and stand by what he has written. We are considering appeal to enable him defend himself. He was not represented and he said he had no knowledge of the legal process until judgement was passed”.

    Throwing more light on the development, the Legal Adviser ANA, Mr. Murphy Briabebe said when Ilagha got wind of the 2013 judgement, he tried to contact a lawyer, but the lawyer died.

    He said the author wrote a letter to the judge demanding an opportunity to defend himself adding that Ilagha lacked knowledge of legal processes.

    “It was on the basis of contempt of court which is viewed as criminal that he was committed to prison. He is detained until he purges himself of the contempt. The process to free him is ongoing”, he said.

  • NDLEA arrests 140 drug traffickers in Bayelsa

    NDLEA arrests 140 drug traffickers in Bayelsa

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Bayelsa State Command, Tuseday, said it arrested 140 drug traffickers and confiscated 404.411 kilogrammes of different types of narcotics in the state.

    The agency’s Principal Staff Officer, Public Affairs, Mr. Ikenna Osakwe, said in a statement Tuesday that the agency recorded the success in 2015.

    Osakwe said out of the suspected drug traffickers, 124 were males while 16 were females.

    He said most of the arrested suspects were between the ages of 24 and 45 years.

    He said: “Pertaining drug exhibits, a total of 404.411kg of various types of drugs were recovered and seized.

    “Precisely, Cannabis Sativa accounted for 400.683kg, Cocaine 0.062kg, Heroin 0.033kg and psychotropic substances 3.633kg.

    “Furthermore, 16 litres of Combine, aka ‘goskorine’, ‘monkey tail’ or ‘mukite’, a mixture of Cannabis Sativa and alcohol was also seized.

    “It is worthy of note that N189, 370. 00 monetary exhibit was also seized in the year under review. The total value of the drugs seized was N2, 839,959.95.”

    Osakwe said 27 convictions were secured by the agency while other cases were still at various stages of prosecution.

    He added 96 drugs dependent persons were counselled in the Drug Demand Reduction Unit (DDRU) of the command.

    He said of the number, 27 persons had successfully completed the three-month mandatory process of counseling while 12 of them were still undergoing the process.

    Osakwe further said public enlightenment materials were also distributed during the command’s public enlightenment programmes to educate the people on the dangers of illicit drug trafficking and abuse and to teach intervention techniques for already drug dependent persons.

    He said: “It is the hope of the Command that in 2016, the level of cooperation and synergy between the Command and relevant stakeholders in the war against illicit drug trafficking and abuse will significantly increase.

    “In this wise, we wish to invite all of the relevant stakeholders, especially the state ministries of Women Affairs, Education, Youth and Sports Development among others, to be more active in partnership with the command.”
    Osakwe acknowledged and appreciated Governor Seriake Dickson and his cabinet for the immense contributions and value added towards the progress and functioning of the command.

    He urged Bayelsa residents to remain vigilant and report any incidences of illegal drug activities to the command to safeguard the health and well-being of all members of the society.

  • Dickson wins re-election as Bayelsa governor

    Dickson wins re-election as Bayelsa governor

    Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson yesterday won a second term after a tension-soaked election.

    The election came to a conclusion following the declaration of results of Saturday’s supplementary election results in the troublesome Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and 101 polling units across six local government areas.

    Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won with 134,998 votes to beat the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, who polled 86,852 votes.

    Dickson won in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area with  23,081 votes. Sylva scored 10,216 votes.

    The returning officer announced the cancellation of  39,679 votes in Southern Ijaw for over voting, ballot box snatching, non-use of card readers and other irregularities.

    Declaring the results, the Returning Officer and Vice -Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Zena Akpagu, said Dickson was returned having satisfied the requirements of the law and scoring the highest votes cast.

    Amid tight security, Akpagu declared the winner of the election at the state collation centre inside the multipurpose hall of the Yenagoa Local Government Area secretariat.

    Hundreds of armed security operatives surrounded the venue and its environs with head of security agencies, such as the police, army and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, monitoring the proceedings.

    The governor extended his initially lead of 33,150 votes to 48,146 to retain his position after the epic electoral battle.

    The breakdown of the results showed that Dickson won in seven of the eight local government areas. Sylva won in only his Brass Local Government Area.

    In Yenagoa Local Government Area, Dickson won the supplementary election with 839 votes as against Sylva’s 448 votes.

    The consolidated results for the Council showed that PDP and Dickson polled 25,097 to defeat APC and its candidate who scored 15,011.

    In Brass,  the APC candidate widened his lead in the six polling units where the rerun election was held. Sylva polled 1,679 to extend his previous lead from 21,755 to 23,434 votes. Dickson got five votes to have a consolidated total of 6517 votes.

    The agent of the APC from Brass, Mr. Denis Otiotio, staged a walkout from the collation centre, claiming that he was not given an equal opportunity by the Returning Officer to address issues raised by the PDP agent.

    In Ogbia, Dickson extended his lead in the 27 polling units where the rerun poll was held.  He polled 1290 votes to lead from 13051 to 14341 votes.  Sylva added only 139 votes to get 9249.

    Also, the PDP and Dickson won in Ekeremor, the local government area of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, amidst protests by the APC.

    Dickson extended his lead from 14,602 votes to 17,297 after securing 2,695 in the 32 polling units where the supplementary election was held in the area.

    Sylva got 257 votes poll to increase his consolidated votes in the area to 8,178.

    There were, however, controversies in Ekeremor, following the cancellation of 17 units by the local government collation officer.

    The officer said the units were annulled for overvoting, disagreements on electoral procedures and diversion of electoral materials.

    He said the cancellation affected over 6,600 votes, adding that of 9157 registered voters, only 3,018 were accredited for the poll.

    But the cancellation sparked a row between the agent of the APC, Mr. Denis Otiotio, and his PDP counterpart  Mr. Fred Agbedi.

    Otiotio said the APC won by landslide in all the units cancelled, insisting that the ad-hoc employees of INEC were deliberately recruited with a mandate to work against the interest of the APC.

    He said the ward collation officers were given too much discretionary powers and wondered why 6,600 votes would be cancelled in an election that had 9157 registered voters.

    He said: “Everywhere APC won, the collation officer looked for a flimsy excuse to cancel it. The process must be free, fair and the procedure must be seen to be so. We submitted petitions but the electoral officers refused to collect them.”

    Otiotio urged the Returning Officer to suspend the collation and devote some time to peruse the petitions byAPC, a request that was turned down by the returning officer.

    He said APC had petitions against the conduct of elections in Ogbia, Nembe and Ogbia, insisting that the petitions must be looked into by the Returning Officer.

    But Agbedi said the 257 votes scored by the APC in Ekeremor should be cancelled, describing them as stolen votes.

    Agbedi, who is a member of the House of Representatives, accused the APC of engaging in actions that led to the cancellation.

    However, in Nembe, Sylva won the supplementary election after scoring 1,400 votes but still trailed behind Dickson in the consolidated votes. Sylva had 8,374 overall votes, Dickson got 11,927 votes after securing 1,163 in the rerun election to win the council area.

    The announcement of Nembe results also ended in protest following the cancellation of 883 votes.

    Otiotio said the cancellation was done without following the process laid down by INEC, wondering why a local government collation officer annulled a result that had been collated and brought to the INEC office in Yenagoa.

    He said: “l vehemently object to that procedure. When votes had been collated and brought to the INEC office, any party that has problem with it goes to the tribunal.”

  • Bayelsa: INEC declares Dickson winner

    Bayelsa: INEC declares Dickson winner

    The Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) has declared incumbent Bayelsa State Governor, Sarike Dickson as the winner of gubernatorial election held in the state.
    Dickson, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won with a total vote of 134,998 to defeat a former governor of the state and candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) , Timipre Sylva who had 86,852.

    Total numbers of registered voters for the election was 654, 492, while accredited voters were 242,114.
    More details later.

  • Bayelsa election updates

    Southern Ijaw
    APC 10, 216
    PDP, 23,081

    Announcement of Southern Ijaw LG results begins

    Nembe LG Area
    Total registered voters 2649
    APC 1400
    PDP 1160

    Ekeremor
    APC 257
    PDP 2695

    Collation of Southern Ijaw results continues

    PDP, APC agents exchanged words over cancellation of results in Southern Ijaw.

    6600 votes cancelled in Ekeremor, Local Government area of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri over disagreement, diversion of materials and over voting

    Election results in three units of Nembe LG cancelled for over voting and non use of card reader. Cancelled votes is 883

    APC agent in Nembe, Denis Otiotio vehemently opposed cancellation of results in units of Nembe saying the procedure adopted was wrong. He asked the a Returning officer to direct the collation officer to go back to ward 13 and get the results .

  • Bayelsa election results update

    Bayelsa election results update

    Nembe LG Area
    Total registered voters 2649
    APC 1400
    PDP 1160

    Ekeremor
    APC 257
    PDP 2695

    Collation of Southern Ijaw results continues

    PDP, APC agents exchanged words over cancellation of results in Southern Ijaw.

    6600 votes cancelled in Ekeremor, Local Government area of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri over disagreement, diversion of materials and over voting

    Election results in three units of Nembe LG cancelled for over voting and non use of card reader. Cancelled votes is 883

    APC agent in Nembe, Denis Otiotio vehemently opposed cancellation of results in units of Nembe saying the procedure adopted was wrong. He asked the a Returning officer to direct the collation officer to go back to ward 13 and get the results .