Bayelsa poll: Under the yoke of violence

CHUKWUDI AKASIKE, SIMON UTEBOR and ETIM EKPIMAH examine the circumstances that led to the inconclusiveness of the Bayelsa State governorship election

MONTHS before the December 5, 2015 governorship election, residents of Bayelsa State had high hopes that the exercise would afford them the opportunity of determining who would lead them.

However, according to political observers, indications that things might go wrong during the election started early within some political parties in the state.

The period preceding the electioneering was said to be fraught with brazen imposition of candidates, unnecessary interference by political godfathers and the ‘carry-go’ pattern that characterised previous elections in the state.

But these did not stop the excitement of the people of the state that prides itself as the “Glory of all Land” as would-be voters discussed among one another who would win the election. The fight, most residents knew right from the time the political parties submitted the names of their flag bearers to the Independent National Electoral Commission, would be between the incumbent Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party and an ex-governor Timipre Sylva, of the All Progressives Congress. Sylva is also Dickson’s predecessor in office.

Contesting parties began to beat the drum of war barely 24 hours before the exercise as reports had it that one of the main governorship candidates was attacked by suspected political thugs. The incident reportedly took place in Brass, one of the eight local government areas of the state.

But that was not all. Some other LGAs were also affected. One of them is Ekeremor, where the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Heneiken Lokpobri, hails from. The minister’s home was reportedly vandalised by suspected political thugs.

But none of these incidents compared with the level of violence in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, a place with 120,827 registered voters.

Some unidentified gunmen believed to be militants were said to be on the prowl in the area, shooting and scaring voters away. Though five persons were reportedly killed, the police denied the casualty figure, insisting that only one person was injured.

The image and integrity of the country’s security agencies were not spared in the ensuing lawlessness that hovered over Southern Ijaw as police and military uniforms were allegedly sewed for hoodlums with a view to giving the electorate the impression of adequate security before unleashing terror on them.

There were allegations and counter-allegations from the two leading political parties as to who was responsible for the violence.

While Dickson alleged that the violence was perpetuated by Sylva, the APC candidate blamed the former.

Dickson also alleged that the election in the state was characterised with violence and he accused the APC and Sylva of sponsoring thugs to attack his supporters.

“My supporters have come under premeditated, total attack; total and premeditated attack sponsored by the Minister of State and his younger brother in Ekeremor and the APC sponsored an attack on my party supporters in Okporoma in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. While we were preparing for election, other parties were preparing for war,” Dickson said.

But Sylva said in response, “We have it on good authority that Governor Seriake Dickson imported over 5,000 thugs from neighbouring states of Delta and Rivers State to cause violence in the election. The unknown faces now in most of the riverine communities of Bayelsa State have been terrorising the people with gunshots to scare them away from the polling units.”

In the ensuing blame game and reported widespread violence, voting in Southern Ijaw was postponed to the following day, a Sunday.

INEC Returning Officer for the state, Professor Kpazia Akpagu, said, “We are yet to receive results from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. They (Southern Ijaw LGA) have 120,827 registered voters. As a result of this, I, as the Returning Officer, cannot return on this election until the results of this local government (Southern Ijaw) are received.”

This was not to be at the end of the day. The poll was cancelled and the governorship election was declared inconclusive.

In announcing the cancellation of the election Southern Ijaw the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Baritor Kpagih, said there were reports that the poll in the area was marred by violence and other acts of criminality.

Kpagih said, “You will recall that the Independent National Electoral Commission conducted governorship election in Bayelsa State on the December 5, 2015. The commission announced that the poll should be discontinued in some local government areas, including Southern Ijaw LGA of the state.

“Consequently, the commission decided in what it called the interest of integrity of the process to cancel the governorship election in Southern Ijaw LGA. A new date for voting in the area will be announced in due course.”

Dickson lauded the action of the INEC saying the cancellation of the poll was a vindication of his earlier stand that conducting the said election as INEC did was a wrong decision on account of security concerns in the area.

Dickson said, “The situation also afforded political thugs to infiltrate the polling units, snatching ballot boxes and intimidating the voters under the supervision of the military. The whole exercise was marred by apathy. INEC, the police and army colluded with the APC to rig the election. All that happened in Southern Ijaw last Sunday was coordinated by a ranking federal government official with intent to announce Sylva as the winner.”

But Sylva, who spoke through his campaign group, the Sylva/Igiri Campaign Organisation, maintained that he won the election in Southern Ijaw, saying that cancelling it was tantamount to subversion of people’s political wish.

“We have experienced a massive rape of democracy. We started this whole electioneering process and it actually turned out to be like a rat in a cat’s court. The INEC membership, the leadership of INEC has been here in Bayelsa for a while, they have routinely returned PDP in all the elections in Bayelsa and as it displayed today, they were already addicted in returning PDP in the state.

A university teacher and rights activist, Prof. Beke Sese, lamented the politics of blood and tears which the Bayelsa election, particularly in Southern Ijaw, typified. Sese, a lecturer at the Niger Delta University, Amassomma, said the aggressive quest for elective offices by some persons raised serious suspicions.

Sese said, “Quite honestly, we knew before this election that the contest was going to be very tight in Bayelsa State, particularly in the light of the divisive nature of the campaigns. It is very disturbing when two brothers, apparently from the state, are contesting for an office where the maximum they can stay is four years.

“People went as far as killing one another. I can assure you if you take Governor Dickson’s political associates, his families, put them side by side with those of former Governor Timipre Sylva, you will see blood ties because we are all from this state. We are supposed to be families, but the aggressive nature of the quest to go into Government House is quite disturbing, particularly against the backdrop of violence we heard in Southern Ijaw.”

He added that, “Bayelsa needs peace. The election should not provide any reason to destabilise the peace we have enjoyed in the last two years in the state. Election will come and go, and whoever will be governor will not be there forever. Politicians should call themselves to order and realise that in any contest, there will be a winner and a loser. People should be good winners, and people should be good losers. Those of us who are watching are interested in the peace of this state and I have always wished for the better person to win election.”

Sese expressed worry that Nigeria, from all indications, going by past experience, despite the effort of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s determination to ensure free and fair election, has not gone beyond do-or-die politics.

“Frankly, we must have that consciousness that people must continue to exist in the state for us to have a governor and we can’t kill ourselves. Let the rescheduled election be a true reflection of the will of the people of Bayelsa State. That is what Bayelsans are saying,” he added.

Also, the State Coordinator, Environmental Right Action, Mr. Alagoa Morris, said the cancelled election was a welcome development. He alleged that the people of Southern Ijaw have always been disenfranchised in Bayelsa by those who trade in violence during elections.

Morris said, “It is proper that the election was cancelled as many communities were denied election materials and the right of the people to vote. With this cancellation, I am optimistic that solution would be found to the increasing denial of our people’s right to vote.”

The reason for the high level of violence in this area according to political watchers is because a landslide victory for any of the two major governorship candidates could mean an outright sail to the Government House in Yenagoa.

This, they noted, probably summed up why Governor Dickson continued to raise the alarm even when he was leading in the poll.

Dickson had won six out of the seven local government areas results released by INEC leading with 33,154 votes even while the election in Southern Ijaw was rescheduled for the following day (Sunday, December 6, 2015).

Even Akpagu declared that he would not be able to take a final decision on the exercise until the result of the Southern Ijaw election was received.

He said, “We are yet to receive results from Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. They (Southern Ijaw LGA) have 120,827 registered voters. As a result of this, I, as the Returning Officer, cannot return on this election until the results of this local government (Southern Ijaw) are received.”

It is obvious that the huge figure expected from Southern Ijaw made it difficult for INEC to announce a winner in the election.

A public affairs analyst, Emmanuel Alfred, lamented the widespread violence, ballot snatching and other malpractices, which he said cut across all the local government areas in the state.

Alfred called for the outright disqualification of the two major candidates, alleging that they were responsible for the election crisis.

He said, “Candidly, they should all be disqualified. Everyone of them is guilty of the sad developments that led to governorship election stalemate. We saw the situation in Ekeremor, we saw the situation in Yenagoa and we heard what happened in Nembe. “The whole election should be cancelled and fresh one conducted. There should be thorough and precise monitoring. The entire election fell short of acceptable democratic standards.

A social critic, Mr. Miriki Ebikibina, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to come out clean on the Bayelsa poll, urging him to make a categorical statement on the alleged involvement of the military in the subversion of people’s right to vote in Southern Ijaw.

He said it was not enough for Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, to merely condemn the election as a charade, but that more action ought to be taken to right the wrongs that took place in the area.

“The President and the Chief of Army Staff should apologise to Bayelsa people for the show of shame and misconduct of the military during the governorship election,” Ebikibina said.

As part of the strategies to avoid a repeat of what happened last Sunday, he recommended that in the rescheduled poll, the distribution of materials to the wards should be decentralised.

He also said collation of results should be done in Yenagoa, the state capital, instead of Oporoma, the headquarters of Southern Ijaw.

How INEC intends to solve the Southern Ijaw riddle remains to be seen.