Sylva rejects Bayelsa guber results, heads to Election Tribunal; You will still lose – PDP

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the just-concluded Bayelsa State Governorship Election, Chief Timipre Sylva has formally rejected the declaration of incumbent governor of the state, Seriake Dickson as winner of the poll.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Sunday, announced Dickson as winner of the election which was concluded Saturday, January 9 with a supplementary exercise in the Southern Ijaw local council area having earlier held December 5 and 6, last year.
However, Sylva, a former governor of the state, has vowed to challenge the victory of the PDP at the courts.
The development comes as 14 pro-Dickson political parties which participated in the election expressed satisfaction with the conduct and outcome of the poll, even as they further advised Sylva to accept defeat and join forces to move the state forward.
Addressing journalists in Yenagoa, Tuesday, Sylva alleged that INEC and the PDP in the state worked in concert to rig the election in favour of the PDP.
Dickson said that he had earlier lodged a formal complaint to INEC before the election that the present structure of the electoral body in the state was not conducive to any credible election since ‘it was constituted to deliver the former president and the PDP in last year’s general elections.’
“I said in the beginning that I do not have confidence in the REC and the Admin Secretary, that I do not expect a fair treatment if these people were to preside over the election.
“I said so over and over and over again. I even reduced it to writing, and we sent the petition. Usually before elections of this nature, the INEC officials are switched. But this time, they chose to keep this team that was already in place set up by the PDP as rigging machine.
“This was the same team that returned almost 100 percent of all votes in Bayelsa to the former president. And we felt that these people could not have given us a free and fair treatment. But unfortunately, our cries fell on deaf ears. Yesterday, they proved themselves true to type,” said Sylva
Sylva further argued that the election could have been declared inconclusive since about 53,000 votes were still outstanding as cancelled votes, adding that ‘in places where APC won, results were cancelled, but where PDP won, the results were entered.’
The APC candidate alleged that the rigging started from the distribution of materials as materials were taken to voting centres by vehicles provided by the PDP and diverted.
According to him, ‘the same set of collation officers, SPOs and used in the December election were used on Saturday’s election; a situation he said aided the rigging process.’
He maintained that in any free and fair election in Bayelsa state, the APC will always win and appealed to the supporters of the party to keep calm.
On their part, Bayelsa State chairman of the Independent Democrat, (ID) Prince Elemah, flanked by state chairmen of other parties, commended the efforts ofINEC in the distribution of electoral materials to remote areas of the state and providing a level playing ground for all during the supplementary poll.
Speaking to newsmen in the state, the parties congratulated Governor Seriake Dickson on what they described as ‘a well deserved victory.’
Political parties which endorsed the statement include; All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA; Democratic Peoples Party, DPP; African Democratic Congress, ADC; KOWA, Democratic People’s Congress, DPC.
Others include Social Democratic Party, SDP; African Peoples Alliance, APA; Independent Democrats, ID; Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN; Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN; United Progressive Party, UPP; People for Democratic Change, PDC; New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, and Mega Progressives Peoples Party, MPPP.
Meanwhile, the Governor Seriake Dickson’s Restoration Campaign Organisation, Monday, said the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the just concluded election in Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, would lose at the tribunal if he decides to contest the outcome of the election because he has no case. In a statement made available to journalists, Director of Publicity of the PDP campaign organisation, Jonathan Obuebite, reckoned that the election was already won and lost going by what he regarded as “overwhelming support and voting trend in favour of PDP,” by the electorate across the state.
While stressing that Dickson won with valid vote cast, Obuebite said the popularity of the PDP and track record of the governor were reasons Bayelsans re-elected him.
He noted that the result has shown beyond doubt that Bayelsa State is a stronghold of the PDP, adding that APC would always find it difficult to win election in the state.
He admonished Sylva and the APC to team up with Dickson to move the state forward instead of going to court in what he described as “efforts in futility.”
Obuebite stated that in spite of what his supporters may say, the APC candidate did not “seemingly feel really bad” about the outcome of the election, informing that Sylva went clubbing after the results were declared.
This, he said, did not suggest he was “terribly affected”, adding that his action suggested instead that he was not expecting to win, afterall.
“Sylva after losing the election went clubbing and drinking Hennessy with friends in all the three clubs he attended yesterday (Sunday). How can a man who just lost election attend a club if he was expecting to win? He was buying drinks for everybody. So many Bayelsans found his behaviour strange, particularly after participating in an election in which no less than fourteen deaths were recorded and several others nursing various life threatening injuries,” Obuebite stated.