National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, on Wednesday, said the party’s primary for the December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa State had been rescheduled.
Odigie-Oyegun said in Abuja that the primary held on Tuesday was cancelled due to security challenges.
“The primary has been rescheduled; it had to be called off due to security challenges,’’ he said, adding that leadership of the party would meet to choose a new date for the exercise.
The attempt by the party to conduct the primary at the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa, on Tuesday was frustrated by fracas involving supporters of most of the 19 aspirants.
The situation led to the walk-out of 14 aspirants, including Chief Timi Alaibe, from the venue after Chairman of the Primaries Committee, Adams Oshiomhole, was reportedly whisked out of the place to avoid being attacked by thugs.
Confirming the postponement of the primaries, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Timi Frank, said the primary did not hold in Yenagoa on Tuesday.
According to Frank, fracas marred the exercise but one of the aspirants and former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, held a member of the committee under duress to declare him winner of the exercise.
Frank said that neither the chairman of the primary committee nor the secretary was part of the purported primary, which he described as “kangaroo primary’’.
He said that the party would soon come up with a position on the primary and a new date for it.
“I am speaking as a concerned citizen of Bayelsa that the purported primary is not acceptable anywhere.
“In a situation where all other aspirants walked out of the venue and a particular aspirant put a member of the primary election committee under duress to declare him winner is unacceptable.
“I believe the party will soon come up with a position on that fraud called primary and schedule a date when an acceptable primary will hold,’’ Frank said.
Results of the purported primary indicated that Sylva polled 726 votes to defeat his closest rival, Timi Alaibe, a former Managing Director of Niger Delta Development Commission, who got four votes.
A total of 1,502 delegates were expected to participate in the primary to elect the party’s candidate for the December election.
Meanwhile, the Chairman, APC Bayelsa governorship primary, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, has accused the Bayelsa State Police Command of compromise in the botched primary.
Oshiomhole made the accusation on Wednesday in Benin while briefing newsmen.
He alleged that from the action of the police, it was evident that officers and men of the command compromised the electoral process.
He said in spite of the heavy presence of security personnel dispatched to the stadium, thugs still found their way into the venue effortlessly and disrupted the exercise.
He explained that while some of the thugs were apprehended and handed over to the police, the state police authority saw nothing wrong in their action as they were immediately released.
Oshiomhole said that the election did not hold on Tuesday as thugs took over the electoral process and the police were helpless, adding that it took the efforts of the JTF to control the situation at the stadium.
He said the chaos that characterised the primary does not conform to the guidelines issued by the party for the conduct of governorship primary.
He said that the APC national secretariat adopted a standard guidelines used in the Kogi gubernatorial primary which produced a winner without any problem in August.
The key issues in the guidelines, the governor explained, were identification of delegates with their Permanent Voter Card, National ID or International Passport.
Oshiomhole said that while all the other aspirants agreed with the guidelines, former governor Timipre Silva disagreed and accused the party of formulating a guideline to frustrate his ambition.
He said that the action of the former governor showed that he had no fate in the democratic process, saying that “whoever wins does not matter but the process that produced the winner.’’
He said that he had sent a detailed report of what transpired during the primary to the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.
He said that in his report, he suggested a new date for the conduct of the primary.
Oshiomhole also accused officials of the APC executive in Bayelsa State of conducting parallel primary instead of working with representatives of the party from the national headquarters sent to conduct the election.
He said that he and the secretary of the committee did not announce any result neither did they issue any certificate of return.
