There were several cases of violence, ballot snatching, and voting disruption during the Bayelsa supplementary elections of Saturday, most especially in the Southern Ijaw LGA.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had scheduled the supplementary poll for January 9, after the December 5, 2015 gubernatorial election in the state failed to produce a winner between Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress and Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Over 12 people were reportedly killed across the local governments during the governorship poll. According to unconfirmed reports, out of the 12 deceased persons, four were policemen, two were soldiers while six are suspected to be militants. Also, two people were said to have been hit by stray bullets from shootings in Ogoibiri area of Southern Ijaw, and their corpses were allegedly taken to Oboro community in Bomadi, Delta State.
In Olodiama II in Southern Ijaw, men in military uniforms reportedly took away election materials meant for five polling units in the area.
In the Ekeremor home town of the Minister of Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, the Peoples Democratic Party alleged that the election was rigged in favour of the All Progressives Congress.
Ballot boxes with result sheets were snatched just as voting was disrupted by thugs at polling units in Amassoma and Gbarain. Dozens of youths went round parts of Amassoma looking for the thugs snatching ballot boxes.
Meanwhile, in Akaibiri Ekpetiama, Yenagoa, a senior electoral officer complained that hoodlums made several attempts to hijack electoral materials from polling units in the area.
According to the electoral officer, the timely intervention of the police and military personnel saved the materials from being forcefully taken by the election thugs.
Governor Dickson, speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, accused APC chieftains of masterminding the killing of innocent Bayelsans in Brass, Ekeremor, Nembe and Southern Ijaw.
Dickson also accused the security agencies of being partisan, by providing cover for the APC to carry out violent acts and rig the election.
“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.”
However, Senator Lokpobiri denied the claims that there were shootings in Ekeremor, noting that the election was peaceful, orderly and without violence in the area. Speaking through one of his aides, Preye Amba, the Senator said the reported killing of security personnel in Ekeremor was callous and wicked.
“Election in Ekeremor went on peacefully and the resort to this by the PDP is just a way of laying the foundation to cancel the supplementary poll so that whatever advantage it had before now will be sustained. No shooting whatsoever in Ekeremor,”the minister said.
“Rather, it was the PDP, in concert with one Major Umar from 5 Battalion, Warri, which came to carry away electoral materials from Ekeremor to Egbema Angalabiri. We have it on record that the said major is on the pay roll of a known ex-militant leader bent on bringing down the APC in Bayelsa State.”
“We call on the military authorities to investigate the role of the said major because he took away the materials without any other escort provided either by the police or the DSS.”
