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Tag: Bayelsa State

  • JUST IN: APC accuses Gov Diri of inciting violent protests in Bayelsa

    JUST IN: APC accuses Gov Diri of inciting violent protests in Bayelsa

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged attempts by Governor Duoye Diri and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to influence the relocation of the collation of results for Brass Local Government Area in the Bayelsa governorship poll.

    APC in  a statement by its national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, the APC said Brass, a crucial stronghold for the APC, witnessed a substantial voter turnout in favour of their candidate, Timipre Sylva.

    “INEC must stand its ground and collate the votes of Brass LGA in Brass as mandated by law before moving to Yenagoa for the final state collation.

    “We also vehemently condemn Governor Diri’s fervent incitement of violent protests at the Peace Park in Yenagoa. This is utterly irresponsible and a violation of his oath of office as Governor.

    “The people of Bayelsa deserve to vote and have results of the election declared in peace and safety. Governor Diri must stand down on his attempt to set Bayelsa state ablaze and uphold the important duty of his office as the Chief Security Officer of Bayelsa State,” the party said in a statement.

     

     

  • Off-cycle election: Why INEC suspended collation of results in Bayelsa

    Off-cycle election: Why INEC suspended collation of results in Bayelsa

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will resume the collation of results in the Bayelsa Saturday’s election at 10 am today.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports INEC had suspended the collation process in Bayelsa with the reason that only results from one local government area had arrived as of yesterday night.

    According to Prof Farouk Kuta, the State’s returning officer, the exercise will resume by 10 am Sunday morning.

    A presiding officer (PO) of a polling unit (PU) in Yenagoa LGA, Bayelsa had said he and some other staff members of the INEC were assaulted during the election held on Saturday.

    Meanwhile, as of the time of filing this report, 88.37% of results have been uploaded to the INEC results viewing portal.

    While results from 2242 polling units are being awaited, results from 1983 polling units have been submitted to the INEC results viewing portal.

  • Bayelsa election: Octogenarian laments missing name in INEC register

    Bayelsa election: Octogenarian laments missing name in INEC register

    An 86-year-old woman, Mrs Mercy Okodo, has expressed disappointment that her name was missing on the voters register in her polling unit in Yenagoa, Bayelsa.

    The woman said she trekked to Polling Unit 011 at Yenada Market Square, Epie III Ward, Yenagoa, in order to vote for her governorship candidate.

    The polling unit has 822 registered voters.

    Okodo expressed disappointment that her name was missing in spite of voting at the same polling unit in the past.

    “I’m surprised to be told that my name is not on the voters list, it’s very disappointing,” the octogenarian said.

    Okodo, who said she was at the polling unit before voting started, was eventually assisted to return home by a good Samaritan.

    Meanwhile, Mrs Sarah Godfrey, a 60-year-old civil servant, said after casting her vote at the polling unit that the election has been peaceful.

    She commended INEC for making special arrangements for elderly persons to vote without hassle.

    Godfrey, who recently had a surgery, said she came out to vote for the future of her children.

    “I had surgical operation, but I could not sit down at home without voting. I am doing this because I believe it will be the turn of my children tomorrow.”

  • Bayelsa election: APC commends INEC

    Bayelsa election: APC commends INEC

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the success so far recorded in the on-going governorship election in the state.

    APC Publicity Secretary  in Bayelsa, Mr Doifie Boukoribo, gave the commendation shortly after casting his vote in polling Unit 4, Ward 4 Okpo Play Ground II, Okpoama Brass Local Government Area (LGA).

    Boukoribo, however, expressed displeasure over reports alleging that some APC members were prevented from voting at Sampou and other communities in Kolokuma Opokuma LGA.

    He called on security agencies to wade into the situation and ensure that all Bayelsa citizens of voting age exercised their franchise.

  • Sorting, counting of votes ongoing in Bayelsa guber election

    Sorting, counting of votes ongoing in Bayelsa guber election

    Sorting and counting of votes have commenced in many polling units in Bayelsa after voting in the State governorship election ended at about 2.30 pm.

    At PU 10, Agric Meeting Hall, Attissa 1, Yenagoa, the voting process ended at 2.30pm while sorting of ballot papers commenced at 2.35pm in the presence of party agents and security personnel.

    It was also ongoing at PU 05 Government House Agric, Attissa 1 Ward as at 2.55pm, and PU 047, Afin-Aken Play Ground III, Onopa, Attissa 1 Ward as at 3.02 pm.

    Sorting of votes commenced at 3.07 pm at PU 016 Fakulu Primary School (West), Epie lll Ward, while sorting was concluded at PU 035, Ekeki Central Motor Park, Epie lll Ward, where recording of the result was ongoing.

    Also at Fankien l and ll/Corpers Lodge Road, Epie lll WaWard Yenagoa, the sorting and counting had been concluded, while result was been uploaded to INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) as at 3.21pm.

    The PU Assistant Presiding Officer at the polling unit, Richmond Awipi, disclosed they had successfully uploaded the unit’s election results to the IReV.

  • Election: EFCC deploys personnel to prevent vote buying in Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo

    Election: EFCC deploys personnel to prevent vote buying in Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has deployed its personnel to monitor the Saturday’s governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States.

    EFCC Spokesperson, Dele Oyewale said in a statement on Friday in Abuja that the aim of the deployment was to prevent politicians and their agents from engaging in vote buying during the elections.

    Oyewale said that the exercise was part of the commission’s drive to checkmate electoral fraud and associated financial crimes.

    “The  monitoring operations are to tackle any form of voter’s inducement through vote buying, vote selling and other manipulations of the electoral processes at variance with the Electoral Act,” he said.

    Oyewale said that the exercise was introduced as part of the efforts by the commission to rid the nation’s electoral system of corrupt practices.

    He reiterated the commission’s determination to ensure that corrupt practices were not part of the country’s electoral process.

  • INEC official on election duty kidnapped, 12 survive boat mishap

    INEC official on election duty kidnapped, 12 survive boat mishap

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said one of its election officials has been abducted in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa.

    The commission also said a boat conveying election materials and 12 election officials has capsized in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

    A statement issued in Yenagoa by Wilfred Ifogah, INEC Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Bayelsa, said that the two separate incidents occurred on Friday.

    “INEC also reports that its SPO assigned to Registration Area-06 (Ossioma) in Sagbama Local Government Area was abducted while awaiting to board a boat at Ammasoma jetty.

    “The security agencies have been notified,” Ifogah said.

    He also said that the capsised boat was conveying election materials for Registration Area-17 in Koluama, Southern Ijaw LGA.

    Ifogah added all the 12 election officials including the boat operator were rescued.

    “We however lost our result sheets, power banks and luggage containing personal effects of staff.

    “The total number of registered voters in the affected registration areas is 5368 and the number of PVCs collected is 5311.

    “INEC is making efforts to ensure the conduct of election in the affected area,” the official said.

    Watertight security at INEC Bayelsa office

    Meanwhile, security operatives have mounted heavy security presence at the INEC Bayelsa Head office in Yenagoa as the commission rounds off preparations for Saturday governorship election.

    At the time of visit to the commission office on Friday, armoured vehicles and security personnel, both armed and unarmed, were strategically positioned at the entrance of the office, in Yenegoa.

    Many others were waiting  to move to their duty posts.

    Some of the security agencies at the centre include the Nigeria Army, Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps and Fire Service.

    Security patrol vehicles were also seen on major streets within the state capital.

    The deployment of ad hoc staff accompanied by security personnel, and vehicles for election duties was also ongoing at the time of the visit to the INEC office.

  • IPCR urges violence-free polls in Imo, Bayelsa, Kogi

    IPCR urges violence-free polls in Imo, Bayelsa, Kogi

    Joseph Ochogwu, the Director-General, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), has called for violent-free elections in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi governorship polls scheduled to hold on Saturday.

    Ochogwu said this on Friday in a statement signed by Esther Ndukwe Media officer of IPCR.

    According to him, the off-cycle elections present peculiar challenges because of violence in some of the states involved in the exercise.

    “During the campaigns, pockets of violence were noticed. The attitude of some political stakeholders to unleash violence should be stopped, because it has the capacity to distort the credibility of an election’’, Ochogwu.

    “The key actors in this election have the responsibility of ensuring that the election is violent free.

    “They also have the responsibility of ensuring that people come out to vote to avoid voter apathy.

    “The key actors in the elections should ensure that the credibility of the elections is not questioned. They should play by the rules.

    “The Army, Police and other security agencies have promised to ensure that the elections are violence free, but the stakeholders in the election should on their part ensure that their supporters maintain peace during and after the election,” he said.

    Ochogwu also said no fewer than 18 political parties taking part in the election in Imo state have signed a peace accord,

    “Signing of peace accords alone cannot guarantee peace. The actors involved in the elections should ensure that the peace accord signed is followed with action.

    “The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution calls for violent free, rule based elections, so that the credibility of the elections is not questioned.

    “The key actors should play by the rules. Election is not do-or-die affair, you have to be alive to be in politics. Politics is not done in isolation.

    “The key actors should have it at the back of their mind that nothing can be achieved with violence,” the D-G said.

  • The turn by turn politics in Bayelsa – By Abraham Ogbodo

    The turn by turn politics in Bayelsa – By Abraham Ogbodo

    By Abraham Ogbodo

    Bayelsa is described as an all-Ijaw State. The visible divisions are not along ethnic lines. There are however dialectical variations which are often exaggerated in the cut-throat competitions for positions and privileges.

    In other words, the monolithic character of Bayelsa State does not translate to a single view point or common front in all matters. And where this is most noticeable is politics where the state as many other states in Nigeria run on a tripod with the three senatorial districts representing the different stands of the tripod.

    No one is to blame for these divisions in a nation where justice and fairness are subordinated to loyalty and other affiliations and adequate share in the common patrimony comes only by direct participation in the process or belonging to the hegemony. The urge to fight to finish is so attractive that nobody wants to wait till tomorrow to take his proper turn. Everybody wants the same thing at the same time thus increasing the competition among contenders.

    Specifically in Bayelsa State, it may not be a written rule or agreement but the rotation of the governorship among the three senatorial districts of Central, East and West has been a binding arrangement since 1999. It is, in fact, the same practice in many other states including the neighbouring South-south states of Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Cross River where the governorship has on a turn by turn basis since the start of this dispensation in 1999 to manage the arising competition for power among stakeholders.

    Chief DSP Alameyesiegha of blessed memory had kick-started the rotation game in Bayelsa State when he was voted governor in 1999. He was from the Central Senatorial District and been electorally processed to exhaust his constitutionally guaranteed two tenure of eight years before his impeachment by the State House of Assembly midway into his second tenure of four years.

    His deputy, Dr Goodluck Jonathan ran the remaining years as the substantive governor. Jonathan’s plan to start afresh on his own slate was shelved for a higher calling when he became running mate to the PDP candidate in the 2007 presidential election, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who won the election. Interestingly, this was also the point at which Timipre Sylva who came a distant second in the PDP’s primary got introduced into the Bayelsa governorship politics.

    Dr. Jonathan who had preferred Francis Dukpola who came third in the primary to Mr. Sylva could not prevail. The party stuck to Sylva and suddenly his dream of becoming governor which had appeared so farfetched in the political and electoral calculations became more assured. One, Goodluck Jonathan primed to become the Vice President would not want to lose his home state to an opposition party. Altogether, the political tailwinds moved in Sylva’s favour who won the governorship election without much ado. He came into Creek Haven after Alameyesiegha and Goodluck Jonathan had lived in and vacated the place.

    Alameyesiegha who started the rotation was from Bayelsa Central and he was followed by Jonathan and Sylva both from the East Senatorial zone. The immediate past Governor of the State, Seriake Dickson from the West completed the cycle thus bringing the process to the starting point with the incumbent, Douye Diri who is from the Central Senatorial District. By this time-honoured arrangement, the governorship can only shift elsewhere when Diri must have fully exhausted his time which is in 2028.

    After him, the East Senatorial District is next and very likely, this same argument will be used, when the time comes, to crop out contestants from the Central and West Senatorial Districts of the State.

    It should however be mentioned that this turn by turn arrangement that ensures the participation of all sides has endured subtle resistance in spite of its beauty. Each electoral season has come with attempts by free players to offset the arrangement on claims that the monolithic character of Bayelsa State does not call for such delineations to produce a sense of belonging among the people.

    Other times the argument is that instead of these affirmative scheme, the government contest should run on merit so that the best candidate can emerge. For now, this is a minority and more precisely an elite opinion without grassroots buy in. This is the same reason why the Timipre Sylva venture is seen in many quarters as misadventure.

  • Bayelsa election: Okowa, Damagun, PDP Govs rally support for Diri

    Bayelsa election: Okowa, Damagun, PDP Govs rally support for Diri

    Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic party, (PDP), Amb. Umar Damagun, Vice presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and Governors of the party, Tuesday, stormed Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital to canvass support for the party’s governorship candidate, Senator Douye Diri for the November 11 election.

    The grand finale of the Bayelsa State Peoples Democratic Party PDP Governorship campaign rally held at the Ox-bow Lake Pavilion in Yenagoa.

    Also in attendance were Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Senator Adolphus Wabara, Chairman of the National Campaign Council Governor Agbu Kefas of Taraba State, Governors Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta), Umoh Enoh ( Akwa-Ibom), Godwin Obaseki (Edo) Deputy Governor of Bayelsa Lawrence Ewhrudjakpor; and his Edo State counterpart, Phillip Shaibu, former Governors, Senator Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Senator Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State).

    Presenting the party’s flag to Governor Diri, Acting National Chairman of the party Amb. Umar Damagun, said the party had done well in the state and called on the people to reciprocate the party’s gesture by returning Governor Diri come Saturday.

    He called on the people to avoid the mistake of the past by voting  Diri, a man of peace who meant well for the development of the state.

    On his part, Okowa who is immediate past Governor of Delta State commended the party for uniting ahead of the election.

    He said going into the election as a united party means victory was assured for the party

    Okowa lauded Diri for his humility, focus and hard work across the state,  adding that Yenagoa and parts of the state have changed over time.

    “As for the votes you will win but you must ensure you defend the votes across the polling units and at all collation points,” Okowa stated.

    Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki who spoke on behalf of the PDP Governors, commended Diri for his various reforms in governance and urged the people to vote for the party to sustain quality governance in the state.

    He urged the electorate to ensure that votes were counted before leaving their various polling units.

    Speaking on behalf of the party’s National Assembly members, Senator Aminu Tambuwal, said; “Diri and Ewhrudjakpor are doing well so I urge you to support them to continue doing their good works”.

    In his remark, former Governor of the State, Senator Seriake Dickson said the PDP had done well in Bayelsa, adding that accumulated dividends of democracy dots the nooks and crannies of the state courtesy of the PDP.

    He commended Diri for extending and broadening the boundary of development across the state and thanked leaders of the state including women and youths for their support for the party in the state while urging them to rally round the party to return the Governor for another four years.

    He said Diri and his Deputy have been tried, tested and proven. He stressed that peace, security, stability and development was the hallmark of the state and called for free, fair and transparent elections.

    Dickson urged electoral stakeholders to do their best in ensuring that the right thing was done to ensure free, fair, transparent and acceptable polls.

    On his part, Governor Douye Diri thanked his guests and Bayelsans for the massive support, assuring that he would not disappoint the people for their support.

    He said his administration would consolidate on the frontiers of development across the state and called on the people to vote massively for the PDP on Saturday.

    Welcoming guests earlier, State Chairman of PDP, Hon. Solomon Agwanana said the party had regained the lost grounds, adding that Bayelsans have resolved to return Douye Diri back to office to sustain prosperity for the people; peace and security as well as development across the state.

    The campaign team had earlier visited former President Goodluck Jonathan at his Yenagoa home and sought for his support and prayers.