Bayelsa rerun: Dickson already singing victory song

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By Miebi Johnson


Ahead of the supplementary governorship election in Southern Ijaw and the other six units in Bayelsa State on January 9, not a few observers think the outcome of the election would test the foundations of our democracy and its process as well as the integrity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies.

This perception is founded on the widely reported widespread violence and electoral abuses which characterized election in these areas between December 5 and 6 and in spite of the huge security arrangement said to have been provided for the good conduct of the election. It was a case of outright mayhem in Southern Ijaw, Brass and Ekeremor as what should have been a normal electoral exercise was hijacked by thugs and criminals who had been employed by those who were out to win at all cost. It was an alarming development and the authorities had no other option but to cancel the election in those areas.
The cancellation by INEC drew flacks from the All Progressives Congress (APC) which was out to benefit from the mayhem but was applauded by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other stakeholders including local and foreign observers. The PDP regarded the cancellation as imperative because of its conviction that the election especially in Southern Ijaw was largely marred by irregularities. This view was also supported by the various local and foreign observers. Thus was the Bayelsa governorship election rendered inconclusive.

In announcing the cancellation, the state INEC commissioner, Mr. Baritor Kpaghir, said the election was “substantially marred by violence, hostage taking of election officials and snatching of election materials”, adding that “the incident fell short of internationally accepted standard”.

This is the background as the state gets ready for the re-run election on January 9. The eyes of the world are on all the stakeholders.
But in spite of the fears being entertained in some quarters, the state governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Henry Seriake Dickson, is confident that the supplementary election will end the logjam and a clear winner will emerge.

In an interview with newsmen in Yenagoa, the state capital, the governor addressed the interrelated issues which led to the cancellation of the election in Southern Ijaw, noting that it was induced political violence presaged by build-up of arms before the election. He said there was a correlation between the rise in the political tempo because of the governorship election and upsurge in criminal behavior in the state.
He felt concerned that those who perpetrated the violence which led to deaths and destruction of properties were yet to be arrested, interrogated and charged to court, a situation which he said allowed continuation of such impunity because where crime is not punished, the law loses its deterrence and society pays dearly for it.

He, however, averred that the issues which caused the cancelation were being looked into by the relevant authorities, stating, for instance, that the security forces would be better prepared to oversee the election in the 17 wards in Southern Ijaw and that unlike the botched election, the military would be at the outer cordon and not to be at the immediate vicinity of the election and they will not be in possession of any sensitive electoral materials.

He said the move to decentralise the distribution of electoral materials would help to curtail any malpractices as such materials would be moved straight to the voting areas.

“So, it’s not going to be bringing together of all electoral materials at Oporoma in one place where people can go in and pounce on them to steal them”, he stated.

Dickson, who credited his administration with tackling security challenges headlong since he became governor, reiterated that the violence and other criminal activities witnessed recently were due to a desperation to win, stressing the need to enforce the law to punish crime and criminality as deterrence.

Said he: “Everyone knows what we have been able to achieve in the area of law and order. This is not just me or government or security agencies observing but it is an account that everybody who is a Bayelsan will tell you. The moment the presidential elections were concluded and the other party became victorious, elements who are on the other side developed governorship ambitions and that immediately impacted on the security and law and order of the state.
“The conduct of their primaries was characterized by violence. Once there is a lapse in enforcement of law and order some people take the law for granted and hide under the garb of politics to procure arms and ammunition as part of their election preparations”.

The governor believes that the situation will change for the better as he called on the civil law enforcement agencies to do more. He said he had raised a few questions about the conduct of some officers of the military and that those issues were being attended to.
He stressed:
 “ the civil law enforcement arms, the police, the department of state security, need to know that they cannot be an arm of the APC or any other political party. We expect them to take steps to ensure that people who have violated the law in this brazen manner and with impunity are brought to book. I am aware of some arrests and prosecution that have started but the people of this state would want them to do more.”

On his chances in the rerun election in Southern Ijaw, Dickson was categorical that he would win, not only because Southern Ijaw is home to a stalwart supporter,the late former governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha but indeed remains the stronghold of the PDP. He observed that this was the reason the opposition party, APC, rendered the area violent because in a normal election, the PDP will win.
He further reckoned that despite the situation, he and the PDP should still have been declared winner of the election having won 6 of the 7 local governments in the state.

But in the judgement of INEC because the registered voters in Southern Ijaw and elsewhere had not yet cast their votes and in order for them to play safe there was need to conduct the supplementary election, he said.

Acknowledging the necessity for the supplementary election he said that as attested to by local and international observers some people just stole electoral materials, kidnapped electoral officers and wrote results the way they liked which, he said, was in itself a criminal act.

“It’s like breaking into INEC’s strong room and stealing all the electoral materials, forms EC8A and EC8B, kidnap electoral officers and force them to sign, put the forms in the pocket and go to every office in Abuja, telling them that you have the result of the election and that you have won the election.
“That’s the type of criminal activity that the APC candidate and some of his supporters indulged in. That’s the kind of nonsense and impunity that played out on that day”.

“What they don’t know is that the conduct of elections has become more sophisticated. Now, it is PVC and whereby votes are recorded electronically. So anybody who is serious about winning election should not be going after just pieces of paper but getting to convince the electorate to vote for your candidate. That is what was missing and INEC did the correct thing by canceling the election in Southern Ijaw”.

The governor said what makes an election is the votes and not Forms EC8A and EC8B, stressing that any other decision would have questioned the credibility and integrity of INEC.

He sounded bullish about his prospects of victory and said that in community after community he will defeat Timipre Sylva fair and square. “He will be thoroughly humiliated”, Dickson proclaimed and said for all practical purposes the election was already over.
He said the election is a PVC-based election, thereby largely reducing the incidence of rigging. He further explained: “Southern Ijaw has registered voters of 120,000 but only 109,000 collected their PVCs. And in the results that we have had no local government had voter turnout of more than 40 percent. It is either 30 percent or 50 percent, which should be about 50,000 to 55,000. And clearly I will have majority of these votes, so this election has been won and lost. The APC has lost this election. He shouldn’t destroy the directorate of State Security, the Police, the military. These are national institutions bigger than anybody. Now he wants to put young people in Southern Ijaw in danger, to kill people for him in an election he knows he will never win”.

Buttressing his confidence with electoral data, Dickson pointed out that in Yenagoa, the state capital, which has the highest literacy rate with highest density, only about 50,000 voted in the last election, that is about 30 or 40 percent.

He said INEC, local and international observers already know the voter turnout and with the processes electronically monitored it was foolhardy for anyone to go after electoral papers to falsify results.
 “That’s the kind of election he (Sylva) is bragging about, telling people he had 70,000 votes. It is only in Nigeria that this kind of thing will happen, if it were in other places he would have been arrested and be facing trial by now. And I hope that this country will also get to this level. Bayelsans should be aware, especially those in Southern Ijaw. Do not allow yourself to be used, this election is already won by us and lost by APC”.
“Even if we go into election a hundred times in Southern Ijaw, I will defeat him. They had to manipulate figures to get unrealistic number. Even in his own place Brass I defeated him and the records are there. We won more wards than the so-called son of the soil. I won in Brass, won in Akasa, won Egweama, won in Odioma. They only won in places where they assaulted people in Twon Island. Twon, Okoma and Iwouma and they falsified the result. Even in Brass I won more wards than him. It is 6 over 7. In Brass, in Nembe I defeated him. So if he couldn’t defeat me in a fair election in Brass and Nembe, is it in Southern Ijaw that he would defeat me?”

While warning on the danger of any possible recurrence of thuggery and violence, he said the people will resist such behavior, stating that so many of those who were terrorized in the cancelled election were now angry and would come out en-masse in the re-run election not only to vote for him but would challenge those who might try to hijack electoral materials.

“We should all abide by INEC’s rules. Let the materials get to the communities and let them vote. At Amassoma women and youths stood up to block armoured tankers, communities stood up and they are going to stand up some more”, Dickson asserted.
January 9 then is going to make for a spirited contest even as the run of the earlier poll and the odds clearly favour Governor Henry Seriake Dickson’s return to power.


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