#BayelsaDecides: PDP, APC Disagree Over Killings

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.


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.