ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The governor of Bayelsa State and the candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the recent gubernatorial “inconclusive election”, Sierake Dickson has called on the candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva to concede defeat and congratulate him as the winner of the December 5 election.
Dickson made this call during a media chat in Abuja at the weekend, on the state of events before, during and after the elections which was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He said from all available accounts, he is the leading candidate, and having defeated Sylva even in his own Local Government Area of Nembe, he (Sylva) stood no chance and should therefore, accept the verdict of the people.
According to the governor, Southern Ijaw is his stronghold with minimal APC presence, his opponent should accept the reality of obvious defeat by sparing his party, INEC and the electorate the time and resources that would be put in the rescheduled elections.
Dickson noted that in a more advanced democracy, the former governor would have thrown in the towel, having been defeated in all the local government areas barring Southern Ijaw, which is the homeland of the late Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.
He also noted that with the trend of voting, which witnessed average turnout of 35-40 per cent, there is no how Sylva would win with one local government area even if all votes cast should be attributed to him (Sylva).[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
He said: “I am the leading candidate and Bayelsans have largely spoken. If we are in some decent climes, by now, the APC as a political party and the candidate should have called to congratulate me because by INEC results declared so far, I have clearly won because I have won six out of seven results so far declared.
“And if you look at the average turnout of voters in every local government it was actually 35 to 40 per cent and Southern Ijaw is not the largest local government, the largest is Yenegoa, the state capital with enlightened voting population. And with the political campaign that everybody did there and as politically aware as they are, with the register strength of about 129,000, you will be shocked to know that the voters turnout was less than 50 percent. So there is no way for them in Southern Ijaw which incidentally is my stronghold because community after community, ward after ward, if elections are held tomorrow, I will win. There is no APC presence, there is no Sylva presence and they know the difference between me and Timiprie Sylva, they know what I have done in the last three and half years, they know what is on ground which are verifiable and empirical yet I campaigned in every part of that local government that I even spent three days in that area going to all communities, connecting with the people with the chiefs, youths and the women group with me.
“I have appointees there, 16 out of 17 councillors there are PDP, Chairman of the council is PDP, his vice is PDP and all the four members of the House of Assembly from there are PDP as well as the National Assembly from the local government. The supporters they have are only few gunmen and those people were empowered and assisted by some rogue elements in the security service to hijack the electoral process by terrorist means to write election results and that has failed because the people resisted it.
“How a process ends is very important and I am the leading candidate. It is out of my respect for INEC that I am not insisting that they declare me the governor-elect but from all that I have explained, everyone knows that a guy who managed to win only one local government area and could not defeat me in Nembe, his own local government (cannot win the election.) Everybody knows that the Southern Ijaw, which is m stronghold and the home of former Governor Aleimesiagha and the people there know what I have done, you conduct election there any day any time, I will win. If we were in decent clime, my brother and friend, Timiprie Sylva and his party should have conceded defeat long ago and should not have allowed the people of Bayelsa to have passed through this asshole especially in the Southern Ijaw,” he added.
Speaking further, Dickson alleged that elements within the state connived with some compromised security agents to inflict violence on the people of Southern Ijaw.
He wondered why the APC-led government at the centre has not condemned the violence visited on his state to scuttle the elections, warning that if such trend is a ticking time bomb that could potentially snowball into serious security challenge for the country.
“So when people are talking about figures, these are pure criminals who should be in jail and I am very surprised and disappointed that the national security architecture has not identified what has happened in Bayelsa and it is a potential time bomb for our democracy and for our country. Where people by terrorist means will take control of electoral officials and materials, put them under hand arrest and then forced them to write purported results meanwhile the voters are disenfranchised and that non-sense has to stop.
“We x-rayed all of these and that is why we took the decision to go on with the rerun election on the January 9. We have agreed that the military is our own Nigerian military and the military as an institution is a critical national institution. I believe that we should strengthen this institution and we should not destroy any institution in including INEC. Nobody should put the INEC under undue pressure and make them to do things that would destroy their credibility because if an umpire doesn’t have credibility before the participants, international community and the local audience, then we should wind it up,” he said.