Bayelsa Guber: PDP Exposes Plot To Rig Election

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015

*As APC leaders in the state assures on use of federal might

*We will resist every attempt with our blood – IYC

Ahead of the gubernatorial elections in Bayelsa State slated for later this year, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, says it has uncovered a dangerous plot by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to rig the December 5th governorship polls in the state.

This allegation was contained in a statement released to newsmen in Yenagoa and signed by State Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Godspower Keku.

According to him, the APC leaders in the state led by former governor Timipre Sylva, is currently engaged in a cheap recruitment exercise of wooing supporters to defect to his party by dropping the name of President Mahammadu Buhari, assuring unsuspecting members of the public that the President has given his word that he will deploy federal might in the forthcoming governorship elections in the state, as part of the strategy of the APC to wrest power from the PDP-led government.

The former governor was reported to have summoned a closed door meeting involving some members of the security agencies and officials INEC in the state, in what close sources described as a way of showing off to his hordes of supporters milling around that he actually has the backing of the Presidency.

The PDP scribe, in his statement further reiterated, that the defectors are traitors and enemy to the Ijaw Nation, noting that we are all living witnesses to what happened in this state when these defectors and their leader, Timipre Sylva, plundered the resources of the state for five years.

“Clearly these defectors are opportunists, big time traitors, who left the PDP for the APC on account of their greed and nothing more. Essentially, they do not have anything good to add to the welfare of the people and good governance of the state except their insatiable appetite for corruption and ill-gotten wealth. But Bayelsans are no fools and they have spoken through recent elections that enough is now enough. All of us who well meaning Bayelsans are all in agreement that our state must also develop like other well run states in the federation. This is the cornerstone of Governor Dickson’s leadership philosophy but regrettably some of the political elite are not happy because of the rent factor which benefits only a few of them at the expense of the people”, he said.

Meanwhile, the Ijaw Youth Council Central Zonal Chairman, Comrade Bobolaiyefa Owoupele, in a separate statement issued this evening in Yenagoa, said the youths had resolved to resist every attempt by the APC-led federal government to use federal might to rig the election in favour of the APC in Bayelsa State.

“We will resist any attempt by the APC-led federal government to interfere in the governorship polls in Bayelsa State. We are using this medium to send a clear message to President Buhari not to allow himself to be deceived because the consequences of a rigged election in this state will be met with very stiff resistance. No one, no matter how highly placed, should be used to cause political instability in this state. The peace and security that the current government has worked so hard to put in place should not be sacrificed on the alter of politics simply because some persons are hell bent in executing a sinister agenda of winning elections at all cost at the expense of the prevailing peace and security in the state.”

The PDP has also called on the security agencies to take proactive steps to place the leaders of the APC in the state on his watch list, warning that no one be allowed to perpetrate crisis in the state and go scold free, pointing out that election is not war or fight, rather it is supposed to be a contest.

The party went on deplore the move by the APC to forcefully take over the the building that was used as venue for their declaration which the public should know is a property of the state government which the former governor, Timipre Sylva, illegally bought for himself with funds unscrupulously gotten from the state treasury at a whopping sum of N200 million, adding that the issue of the said property is in court and its a subject to litigation.