FOR THE RECORD: Dickson Wins Re-Election As Bayelsa Governor

•Dickson (centre) with his wife, Rachael (right) PDP Acting National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus celebrating shortly after INEC's announcement...yesterday.

Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson yesterday won a second term after a tension-soaked election. The election came to a conclusion following the declaration of results of Saturday’s supplementary election results in the troublesome Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and 101 polling units across six local government areas.

The Nation report continues:

Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won with 134,998 votes to beat the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, who polled 86,852 votes.

Dickson won in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area with 23,081 votes. Sylva scored 10,216 votes.

The returning officer announced the cancellation of 39,679 votes in Southern Ijaw for over voting, ballot box snatching, non-use of card readers and other irregularities.

Declaring the results, the Returning Officer and Vice -Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Zena Akpagu, said Dickson was returned having satisfied the requirements of the law and scoring the highest votes cast.

Amid tight security, Akpagu declared the winner of the election at the state collation centre inside the multipurpose hall of the Yenagoa Local Government Area secretariat.

Hundreds of armed security operatives surrounded the venue and its environs with head of security agencies, such as the police, army and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, monitoring the proceedings.

The governor extended his initially lead of 33,150 votes to 48,146 to retain his position after the epic electoral battle.

The breakdown of the results showed that Dickson won in seven of the eight local government areas. Sylva won in only his Brass Local Government Area.

In Yenagoa Local Government Area, Dickson won the supplementary election with 839 votes as against Sylva’s 448 votes.

The consolidated results for the Council showed that PDP and Dickson polled 25,097 to defeat APC and its candidate who scored 15,011.

In Brass, the APC candidate widened his lead in the six polling units where the rerun election was held. Sylva polled 1,679 to extend his previous lead from 21,755 to 23,434 votes. Dickson got five votes to have a consolidated total of 6517 votes.

The agent of the APC from Brass, Mr. Denis Otiotio, staged a walkout from the collation centre, claiming that he was not given an equal opportunity by the Returning Officer to address issues raised by the PDP agent.

In Ogbia, Dickson extended his lead in the 27 polling units where the rerun poll was held.  He polled 1290 votes to lead from 13051 to 14341 votes.  Sylva added only 139 votes to get 9249.

Also, the PDP and Dickson won in Ekeremor, the local government area of the Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, amidst protests by the APC.

Dickson extended his lead from 14,602 votes to 17,297 after securing 2,695 in the 32 polling units where the supplementary election was held in the area.

Sylva got 257 votes poll to increase his consolidated votes in the area to 8,178.

There were, however, controversies in Ekeremor, following the cancellation of 17 units by the local government collation officer.

The officer said the units were annulled for overvoting, disagreements on electoral procedures and diversion of electoral materials.

He said the cancellation affected over 6,600 votes, adding that of 9157 registered voters, only 3,018 were accredited for the poll.

But the cancellation sparked a row between the agent of the APC, Mr. Denis Otiotio, and his PDP counterpart Mr. Fred Agbedi.

Otiotio said the APC won by landslide in all the units cancelled, insisting that the ad-hoc employees of INEC were deliberately recruited with a mandate to work against the interest of the APC.

He said the ward collation officers were given too much discretionary powers and wondered why 6,600 votes would be cancelled in an election that had 9157 registered voters.

He said: “Everywhere APC won, the collation officer looked for a flimsy excuse to cancel it. The process must be free, fair and the procedure must be seen to be so. We submitted petitions but the electoral officers refused to collect them.”

Otiotio urged the Returning Officer to suspend the collation and devote some time to peruse the petitions by APC, a request that was turned down by the returning officer.

He said APC had petitions against the conduct of elections in Ogbia, Nembe and Ogbia, insisting that the petitions must be looked into by the Returning Officer.

But Agbedi said the 257 votes scored by the APC in Ekeremor should be cancelled, describing them as stolen votes.

Agbedi, who is a member of the House of Representatives, accused the APC of engaging in actions that led to the cancellation.

However, in Nembe, Sylva won the supplementary election after scoring 1,400 votes but still trailed behind Dickson in the consolidated votes. Sylva had 8,374 overall votes, Dickson got 11,927 votes after securing 1,163 in the rerun election to win the council area.

The announcement of Nembe results also ended in protest following the cancellation of 883 votes.

Otiotio said the cancellation was done without following the process laid down by INEC, wondering why a local government collation officer annulled a result that had been collated and brought to the INEC office in Yenagoa.

He said: “l vehemently object to that procedure. When votes had been collated and brought to the INEC office, any party that has problem with it goes to the tribunal.”

PDP: Dickson’s Victory Came With So Much Pain

TheCable reports that Sunday’s re-election of Seriake Dickson as governor of Bayelsa state same with “so much pain”, his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has said.

After a seemingly endless election, which held on December 5 and 6, 2015, followed by a supplementary poll on Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Dickson winner, saying he polled 134,998 votes to defeat Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 86,852 votes.

However, while congratulating the people of Bayelsa state for their support for Dickson, “which led to his victory at the just-concluded governorship”, PDP said the victory was “painful” because of the number of people who were killed.

“It’s painful that this victory has come with so much pain because we lost dear ones,” it said in a statement by its Jonathan Obuebite, its director of publicity, restoration campaign organization.

“Those who died are our brothers. So many are yet in the hospitals nursing life-threatening injuries because our opponents wanted to win at all costs. We wish to express our deepest condolences once again and to assure them that their death will not be in vain.”

PDP thanked the people for renewing Dickson’s mandate for another four years, attributing it to the “resilience and uncommon courage” of the people.

It added that the victory was important because it came “even in the face of intimidation, tyranny, threats and violent attacks”.

“Despite the challenges, democracy won. We want to use this opportunity to sincerely thank all Bayelsans for their doggedness and patriotism because even in the face of such terrible intimidation and violence decided, out of their own volition, they came out to re-elect and return the countryman governor to office for the next four years. We are grateful for your remarkable decision as expected in a democracy.

“The people have spoken and we are indeed grateful. It’s your victory, you the good people of Bayelsa State. Without doubt, a new dawn is here. Bayelsans, through their uncommon courage, have defeated tyranny and oppression by voting for the continuation of the restoration of our dignity and pride as amply demonstrated through their votes.

“The victory was a sweet one which signposts the end of an era of a political class whose stock in trade is violence, brigandage, militancy and bloodletting as the only means of accessing power. Never again will Bayelsa State harbour criminals and rogue elements as contestants for power.
“Going forward, the Bayelsa political space will only be for those who have the intellectual rigour to trade their fine ideas in exchange for votes, not bullets. Our society must groom new set of leaders who will only access power through their superior ideas to regenerate society rather than through the barrel of the gun.”