Bayelsa’s Frightening Power Game

 

 The electoral stalemate in South-south Bayelsa State is indicative of a scaring proxy power game, write Segun James and Shola Oyeyipo
For Mr. Chris Abarowei, the All Progressives Congress (APC) agent for Sagbama local government area of Bayelsa State, memories of the December 5 governorship election is one he would never forget.

He had gone to Sagbama to participate in the election and represent his party. He had moved to the collation centre to participate in the distribution of the electoral materials, when a group of youths allegedly swooped on him.
He claimed to be given the beating of his life by these youths and left for the dead until he was taken away to a hospital by the police. If Abarowei had thought he was the only one, he was soon to learn that similar incident reportedly took place all over the state with men of the APC claiming to have been muscled out of contest. Consequently, violence took over in the battle for the Creek Haven Government House in Yenagoa.

In Ekeremor, where Senator Heineken Lokpobri, the Minister of State for Agriculture holds sway as the political leader, he was soon shown the new face of terror, when he woke up on the election day to discover that his home had been taken over by militants. He was allegedly subjected to humiliation as the militants were said to have overpowered the police and other security operatives attached to him.

And as was the claim everywhere else in the state, APC agent claimed they were prevented from stepping out of their home, and those who did are believed to have stories to tell. For the Bayelsa State Chairman of the PDP, Chief Serena Dokubo-Spiff, terror came home to him too. He was at his country home with the Brass Local Government Chairman of his party and some other party stalwarts strategising on how to capture the Sylva stronghold, when he was informed that hundreds of youths with all sorts of weapons were on their way to his home.

Realising that it was too late to escape from the two storey building, he and his guests ran to the penthouse as the youths were alleged to have wreaked havoc on the building. For him, it was a clear sign that he could not leave his home, let alone come out to vote. He was later ferried out of Brass by a combined team of JTF soldiers and naval personnel.
Narrating his ordeals in the hands of people he chose to identify as APC thugs, he alleged that the armed thugs were hired by the APC for the governorship election and over N1.3m belonging to him and his visitors was stolen during the invasion.
"At about 8.00am on Saturday, Gun wielding thugs invaded the Brass town openly and unleashed on the people an orgy of violence. They came to my house unchallenged by security men. All calls to security agents were futile as the thugs had a field day.
"One of the thugs put dagger to my face as they stripped me of all valuables that we had. I was in company of the Chairman ‎of PDP in Brass Local Government and three others."

The PDP Chairman lamented that the police arrived two and half hours after the invasion despite the fact that he had been calling them and he was being reassured that policemen were on their way.
"It was after the thugs had gone that we found the courage to escape to a safe place without the help of the police.”
Two days earlier, the PDP also raised the alarm that the Special Adviser to the State Governor on Inter-Party Matters, Austin Adigio and three other members of the PDP in Okpoama and Eweama communities of Brass Local Government area of the state were on Thursday allegedly macheted in a bloody attack ahead of the election.
Adigio, a nephew of the APC governorship candidate, Chief Sylva was also the former governor's personal assistant as governor until he defected to join Governor Seriake Dickson's administration.

In Yenagoa, it was relatively peaceful. But the PDP had taken over as APC agents and supporters, realising the futility of any confrontation allegedly left the scene for their PDP counterpart. For most voters, it was naira rain fall as each of them was allegedly induced with between N3,000 and N10,000 to cast their votes for the PDP. But APC could not match them here. In Ogbia, the former presidential homestead, similar scenario as in Yenagoa was said to have played.
By the evening of Saturday, it was all over as the same tactics and system had been re-enacted in all the local government areas in the state. It is however important to note that the battle for the Creek Haven Government House is actually not about Governor Dickson and his predecessor in office, Sylva or who becomes the next governor, but between former President Goodluck Jonathan who is battling to save his political life and continued relevance in the country.
The former president, who had been at loggerheads with Sylva, has never hidden his dislike for his successor as they have been political enemies from way back. Perhaps, determined not to allow Sylva a second coming, on the day of the election, the former President had set up his political machine revving.

But whilst the Bayelsa election has come, it is yet to go away as the question of who won the election has not been resolved as the election enters a second phase – the propaganda phase.

The PDP has been particularly adept in this. The party set the ball rolling when it claimed indications had emerged of a fresh plot by a former governor of Rivers State and Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi and his Defence counterpart, Mohammed Dan Ali, to rig the rerun election in Southern Ijaw, the election decider.
Coordinator of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors Forum, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, raised the alarm in a statement issued on Friday night in Yenagoa. He alleged that Amaechi and Dan Ali had met in Abuja within the week to perfect ways to rig the poll in favour of the APC candidate, Sylva, who trails behind Dickson in the results so far announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

According to him, the APC remains desperate in its bid to capture the oil-rich state, which he said fits into suggestion by Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, that all oil-producing states should be taken over by the ruling APC in the interest of national security.
The statement reads: “It is on good authority that the Minister of Transport, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi has held two meetings with Mohammed Dan Ali, Minister of Defence, on how the military can once again be used to intimidate voters and rig the Bayelsa poll for the APC in Southern Ijaw local government in the rerun election for the Bayelsa governorship.
“It would be recalled that the PDP Governors Forum had raised the alarm before the inconclusive poll that there were plans by the APC to camouflage as the military to abuse the process in their desperation to capture oil-producing states under the PDP. Today, we have been vindicated by several reports of independent observers and the bold move by the INEC to reject Southern Ijaw local government poll.

“From what we know, the threat to use the military to perpetrate heist of the mandate of the electorate of Southern Ijaw and by extension all Bayelsans still remains as Ministers Amaechi and Dan Ali remain the arrow head of the planned theft of the votes of Bayelsa people through intimidation, fake military personnel and doctored voters cards manufactured in Port Harcourt by Indian IT mercenaries imported by the APC.”

Onaiwu urged security agencies to remain impartial, non-partisan and called on the people to once again reject any attempt by any group or individuals to hijack their inalienable right to decide who governs them as they did the last time.
Not to be outdone by the PDP and Dickson, the APC and Sylva responded. Following his consistent attack on the person of President Muhammadu Buhari since the botched governorship election in the state, Sylva recently cautioned Dickson against disparaging and denigrating the person of the president.
Besides, Sylva has also described the setting up of “a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the violence, mayhem and grave breach of the peace that occurred in parts of the state on or about the 3rd and 6th of December, 2015” by the state governor as diversionary.

On the continuing attack on Buhari, Sylva said though the governor has the right to freedom of expression, the increasing verbal tirades and threats being issued by the governor against the person of the president is an open display of disrespect to the office of the president and a show of desperation to remain in office even in the face of outright rejection by a majority of the people of Bayelsa.
The APC candidate in a statement in Yenagoa by Chief Nathan Egba, the Director of Media and Publicity for the Sylva/Igiri campaign Organisation, stated that “Dickson’s almost daily rituals of insulting Mr. President, the Secretary to the Government of Federation, (SGF), the Military High Command and other senior citizens of the country because of an election he is not able to win is no longer acceptable to say the least.

“The recent frequent outbursts on radio and television stations were unwarranted and unbecoming of a governor. How can Dickson continue to incite Bayelsa people against the FG, security agencies, INEC and every other official just because of the Bayelsa governorship election?
“We recall that Governor Dickson told the people during his campaign to mobilise against what he called ‘plots by the presidency to use federal might in favour of the APC’ and charged them to detain and tie down any security man suspecting to be aiding or abetting electoral fraud.
“These are few of the numerous unguarded statements by Governor Dickson, a man who took an oath to defend the constitution. Governor Dickson had alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari, wanted to win Bayelsa State for the APC by all means and that the consequence ‘of any attempts to undermine the Ijaw people would be disastrous’ while also describing the Nigerian army as ‘army of occupation that must be driven out of Ijaw land.
“We are compelled to forward all these inciting statements by Governor Dickson as recorded off the several radio broadcast to the Security Agencies for further investigation.

“For the avoidance of doubt, however, all the allegations levelled against President Muhammadu Buhari, Secretary to the Government of Federation, Minister of Defence and the security agencies deployed for the election in Bayelsa are false, baseless and figment of the imagination of Governor Dickson and the PDP. Nigerians and the world know that President Buhari remains a man of honour and integrity, who has not shown any bias in this election being an apostle of transparent, free and fair electoral process.
“Unfortunately, the president’s desire to conduct free, fair and credible elections, devoid of violence has been truncated by the violent act and electoral fraud perpetrated by Governor Dickson and his PDP thugs imported into Bayelsa State to compromise the election.
“Governor Dickson, was the chief sponsor of violence at an unprecedented scale in the recent election in all the 8 Local Government Areas but he is now using propaganda to paint the APC as a the guilty party. We are, however, unperturbed because the people of Bayelsa exactly know what transpired and the world too will soon know the real truth,” he said.

On the commission of inquiry set up by Dickson, Sylva in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr. Doifie Buokoribo said, “It is only an inept, directionless, and nervous governor, like Dickson, that would set up a commission of inquiry into violence that marred an election that is still on-going, and one in which he is involved in as a key actor. What manner of justice does anyone in his right senses expect from such a commission of inquiry? The inquiry is bizarre and already biased from the onset.”
According to the statement, “Justice Margaret Akpomiemie, who was made the chairman of the commission, is still nursing a grudge against Sylva for his refusal to make her Chief Judge of Bayelsa State during his tenure as governor. Justice Akpomiemie’s decision to accept this hatchet job offered by outgoing Governor Dickson is clearly a revenge mission against Sylva. She is on a clear mission of vendetta.

“Besides, the inquiry is diversionary because Dickson and his party, Peoples Democratic Party, are principal actors in the violence orchestrated against APC leaders and supporters in an attempt to intimidate the people in areas, where APC was obviously poised to win, and hand him an illusory victory.
“All Bayelsans and, indeed, Nigerians are living witnesses to the unbridled desperation displayed by Dickson and the PDP during the December 5 governorship election, which he knows he cannot win. Such desperation had driven the governor and his party to the extent of importing militants from neighbouring states to attack Sylva’s campaign Director-General and Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri; Sylva, and other APC leaders and supporters across the state.
“In his state of extreme anxiety, Dickson had also personally engaged in direct incitement of mayhem against APC supporters and leaders in radio announcements and statements, which stoked crisis in many parts of the state during the election and resulted in the killing and maiming of innocent Bayelsans. The attempt to cover up Dickson’s acts and divert attention from his violent machinations with this charade of an inquiry will not work. We will not allow ourselves to be drawn into or subjected to the hoax, which Dickson, Akpomiemie, and others are trying to play on the people of Bayelsa State. Bayelsa State belongs to us.
“The outgoing governor should not make the mistake of thinking that he can act in any way that serves his inordinate political interests because he is still in office. We are not in a banana republic.”

A Cocktail of Debate

As things stand today, politicians from all sides of the divide are still firing salvos from all cylinders concerning the Bayelsa State governorship election. Not only that, some people close to each of the warring parties are also taking very strong stand as regards the election billed to hold in Southern Ijaw as the concluding part of the December 5 election.
Last week, ex-militants on Thursday, December 10, in a statement by its Coordinator, Woyengi-momoemi Donald, said the former warlords are poised to resist any attempt to militarise the state during the rescheduled supplementary election in Southern Ijaw council area and other affected polling units.

“After taking a critical look at the outcome of the last Saturday’s conduct of the governorship election in Bayelsa State, giving due assessment to the conduct of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and the various security agencies, we are bound to inform Nigerians, particularly President Muhammadu Buhari that we will vehemently resist, any attempt to further militarise Bayelsa State, under the guise of providing security during the rescheduled election in Southern Ijaw Local government and a few other polling units across the State.

“Our group, Forum of Spokesmen of Ex-Niger Delta Militant Group seriously frowns at the events of last Saturday, where the military was not only available as a willing tool in the hands of politicians, but also went the extra miles harassing our innocent people mostly our mothers in the riverine areas of Bayelsa State. May we remind President Buhari and his party that, save for the maturity and freewill of our son, President Goodluck Jonathan, the same military would have been used to truncate his party’s chances of being in government at the centre, as they are today.

“We are sad, to witness, how youths and unarmed people of Bayelsa State, particularly in the Southern Ijaw local government area, were harassed, abused and assaulted as they went to exercise their fundamental right to vote, as provided for by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Voters were hounded and embarrassed at the polling and within the communities. So sad it was to see how security was completely handed over to the Military even at the point of distribution of sensitive electoral materials. Their actions forced most people, to remain indoors throughout the processes of the election.

“We strongly believe that President Buhari, must be seen to be acting contrary to court decisions on the use of military during elections as clearly stated in the rulings of Justice Aikawa of the Federal High Court, who in his judgment, restrained the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and INEC from engaging the service of the Nigerian Armed Forces in the security supervision of elections in any manner whatsoever in any part of Nigeria, without the Act of the National Assembly,” Donald said.
Curiously, some highly placed persons were also alleged to be brains behind the attempt to rig the election in Southern Ijaw.

Giving kudos to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for cancelling the election at a press conference held at Federal High Court, Ikeja, Lagos Press Centre, the Lead Advocate a group of lawyers, Lawyers in Defence of Democracy (LDD), Mr. Ikechukwu Ikeji, alleged collusion among top military, police officers and politicians to influence the outcome of the election in favour of the APC.
Ikeji, who said his group was on the ground in Bayelsa during the election said: "The allegation of collusion by top officials of the ‎army, police and those of INEC to do the bidding of the APC candidate, Timipre Sylva must be taken seriously by all well-meaning Nigerians. Any such collusion is unconscionable because it sends a very wrong signal of possible annihilation of democracy and rule of law. It smacks of a jungle system."

The lawyers pointed out that rather than give the actual information about the violence in Southern Ijaw, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police assigned to the state, Mr. Hashimu Argungu painted a peaceful picture.
"We also saw the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Hashimu Argungu, who was mandated to ensure a hitch-free environment conducive to holding peaceful election telling the whole world on television that the situation in Southern Ijaw was calm and peaceful to hold election but we all know the truth and that he was not saying the truth as events have now shown," Ikeji said.
The LDD therefore called on the President Buhari-led federal government to intervene in the Bayelsa election situation so as to allow a free and fair election in the state.
"‎We hereby call on the federal government to do all within its powers to ensure a violence-free rerun election whenever it is to be conducted in Southern Ijaw by ensuring that credible personnel from the various security agencies are in charge of security in the entire area.

"The allegation that security top command handed electoral materials to APC members and thugs to rig the election remains a sour point which must be transparently investigated. INEC must also be ready to hold a free, fair and credible election as the entire world watches and assesses the impartiality of the new leadership," he stated.

But in the midst of the argument, Sylva has asked the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, to pronounce him as the governor-elect because according to him, the commission lacked the powers to cancel an already concluded or on-going election.
He said there was no provision under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), for the resident electoral commissioner, the commission or any staff whatsoever to cancel election that has commenced or concluded in any manner as was done in Bayelsa State.

“Should the commission feel strongly that it has the powers to cancel already concluded or on-going elections, it should also cancel the elections in Ekeremor, Sagbama Local Government Areas, Wards 4 and 5 of Yenagoa and Ward 8, 9 and 10 of Nembe Local Government Areas; that elections were concluded on Sunday 6th December without any reported violence from the polling units or wards either by INEC officials on the field at the units or ward level,” he maintained.
Sylva, however, argued that violence occurred in Southern Ijaw LGA and marred the electoral processes, but contended that the commission erred in rescheduling fresh polls.

The question of who emerges the next governor of Bayelsa State is a tough one because of the many competing interests. But whilst Dickson still boasts a comfortable lead in spite of the cancellation, the fact that the outcome of the rescheduled election in Southern Ijaw can weigh in on the fortune or misfortune of either of the candidates makes the scenario a very fluid one. Unfortunately, the exercise has assumed such a frightening point that if not managed, the consequences would be devastating for both the winner and the loser.