The rerun election, which took place in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and 101 polling units in the other six of the eight local councils in the state, followed the cancellation of the December 5, 2015 governorship election in those areas by the Independent National Electoral Commission. The commission had also declared the governorship election inconclusive.
But before yesterday’s supplementary election, Dickson polled 105,748 votes, and was leading Sylva, who had 72,594 votes, with 33,154 votes. The governor continued the lead at the end of voting yesterday, winning in three of the seven local government areas where the rerun took place.
Dickson scored additional 839 votes in Yenagoa Local Government Area, against the APC candidate’s 448 votes, and 1, 290 votes in Ogbia Local Government Area, to 139 votes by Sylva. Dickson also won in his native Sagbama Local Government Area with 180 votes, against Sylva’s 119 votes. But Sylva won the rerun in Brass Local Government Area, where he hails from, with 1, 679 votes, against five votes polled by Dickson. From the four local government councils announced, Dickson got 2, 314 votes, while Sylva had 2, 385 votes.
The results of the supplementary election in three local councils – Southern Ijaw, Ekeremor, and Nember – are still being awaited.
The outstanding votes contested by the candidates in yesterday’s rerun poll were 158, 827. Southern Ijaw has 425 polling units, with 120, 827 registered voters, which makes political watchers to believe that it would be the decider of the governorship poll.
The rerun election was, however, marred by deaths, violence, and mutual tirades by the two leading political parties, PDP and APC. In different parts of the state, militants and thugs suspected to be working for both parties engaged each other in fierce battles that sometimes turned bloody. This was despite the heavy security deployment by the Nigeria Police, the military, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, and other security agencies.
The Nigeria Police had said it deployed 5,000 policemen, led by a Deputy Inspector-General of police and three Commissioners of Police, to provide security for the election. The voting was an obvious choice between the incumbent governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, who is the candidate of PDP, and Chief Timipre Sylva of APC. It took place in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and 101 polling units in six of the eight local councils in the state where elections had been cancelled by the Independent National Electoral Commission, which also declared the December 5, 2015 election inconclusive. PDP, which polled 105,748 votes, was leading APC, which had got 72,594 votes, with 33,154 votes before yesterday’s supplementary election.
In Ekeremor Local Government Area, 12 persons, including four policemen, two soldiers and six civilians, were reportedly killed during the supplementary poll. The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, who is from Ekeremor town, headquarters of the local government, cast his vote amid tight security. There were unconfirmed reports that his home was under siege by armed men before the invaders were repelled by men of the Nigeria Police and other security operatives. Lokpobiri’s house was also attacked by armed bandits he alleged to be hired by PDP during the December 5, 2015 election.
However, after the yesterday’s battle in Ekeremor, which was said to have raged all night, accreditation went on smoothly in almost all the wards until about 12.30pm, when thugs started to snatch ballot boxes in some polling units.
Nembe was another theatre of fierce battle. Five persons were reported killed on Friday night in Nembe.
Surprisingly, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, which was perceived as the hotbed of militant activities, was relatively peaceful during yesterday’s supplementary poll. Though, reports said some armed persons suspected to have been recruited from Delta State to disrupt the elections, were killed at Peremabiri community.
At the university town of Amassoma, security was tight while at Otuan community, the youth foiled attempts to snatch electoral materials, which they guarded till the morning of the election. But things took a different turn when the youths demanded N100,000 each from both the PDP and the APC before the material would be released.
Election materials for Amatolo, a deep riverside community, could not reach the area by noon yesterday, as INEC officials refused to go there for fear of insecurity.
PDP and APC traded blames for the violence in different areas, accusing each other’s thugs of initiating the attacks and hijacking electoral materials. PDP alleged that APC thugs seized ballot materials in some polling units in Southern Ijaw, Ogbia, Brass, and Nembe, while lamenting violence in Ekeremor.
A statement signed by the chief press secretary to the governor, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, accused APC of masterminding attacks that led to the killing of over 14 people, including four policemen, two soldiers and eight civilians, in Ekeremor. The statement claimed that many PDP members were attacked in Brass and Southern Ijaw local government areas and they were in critical conditions at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa.
Iworiso-Markson added, “The governor also accused the security agencies of providing cover for the APC to perpetrate violence and rig the elections in the state. To achieve their sinister plot, APC militants hijacked election materials and wrote results in many wards of Southern Ijaw, Ekeremor town and Brass while elections were disrupted in parts of Yenagoa and in a polling unit in Otokpoti, Ogbia LG.”
But a statement yesterday by the media and publicity director of the Sylva-Igiri campaign organisation, Chief Nathan Egba, said, “Thugs suspected to be working for the PDP early this morning attacked the APC agent in Nembe-Ogbolomabiri, Barrister Doumo Ogbomani, and other party stalwarts at the local government INEC office during the distribution of materials for the re-run election in the community.
“They were attacked by machete wielding PDP thugs right in the presence of soldiers and other PDP stalwarts dressed in black with the inscription, AFRICAN SECURITY SERVICE, on their shirts.”
Egba, however, stated that reports from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area indicated that turnout for the elections there was impressive. He said voters in the various wards of the council went out to exercise their franchise peacefully.
But the Bayelsa State Police Command debunked the claims by PDP regarding deaths in Ekeremor town. The spokesman of the command, Asimin Butswat, described the claim as a lie.
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