From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

The last has not been heard about the November 11 Bayelsa governorship election won by incumbent governor, Senator Douye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Diri winner with 175,196 votes against that of his closest rival, Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with 110,108 votes.

In his victory speech, Diri had assured that he was going to be ‘’governor to all Bayelsans” noting that ‘’those who cast their votes differently enriched our democratic practice by their participation and dissent”. Diri in a follow-up interview declared that he would extend a hand of fellowship to all that contested against him.

While the Abdullahi Ganduje led APC national leadership had seemingly conceded defeat over the Bayelsa governorship election when he was in Aso villa to present Hope Uzodimma and Ahmed Usman Ododo, governor-elects of Imo and Kogi respectively to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the party in the state refused to toe the same path.

The APC in the state insisted that it was robbed of its victory and has filed a petition at the Bayelsa State Governorship Elections Petition Tribunal where it is expected that it would bring the argument of cancellations of its votes to the fore in its bid to seek an upturn of the INEC declaration.

In an apparent reaction to the efforts of the APC, Diri had maintained that his victory cut across the state with overwhelming votes.

His words: ‘’Our victory across all the wards is through legitimate votes. We never indulged in electoral fraud that others perpetrated. If they say they are going to court, they are free. We will emphatically state our victory in court.

“I advise them to allow the sleeping dog to lie. It is all over. They know what they did. If they can question what happened in my village, we will open the books for them. Let them open what happened in their villages as well.

“This is our state. We have come of age. You cannot terrorise anybody in this state. Non-state actors will not be allowed to intimidate and terrorise state actors.

“The strategy to win election is not to go for guns. But it is to appeal to our people if you want to lead them.”

Incidentally, Sylva has not spoken on the outcome of the election. Even the party leadership in the state aside its protest at the collation centre has not issued any formal statement on the outcome of the election.

However, its publicity secretary, Doifie Buokoribo in statement raised alarm over the plot to arrest Sylva in the bid to force him to drop his petition at the Tribunal

According to him, the party had ‘’uncovered a plot by the state governor, Senator Douye Diri, to frame up’’ Sylva, using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

He noted that Diri and his cohorts intended to make Sylva look guilty of crimes he had not committed on purpose to distract and dissuade him from effectively pursuing his petition at the state governorship election tribunal against Diri’s declaration as governor-elect.

“We are aware of Senator Diri’s devious activities at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) aimed at sponsoring invented petitions against Sylva, and the pressure he is mounting on officials of the commission to initiate arrest and prosecution against him on trumped up charges, particularly, bordering on his tour of duty as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.

“We have it on good authority that Governor Diri has instigated officials of EFCC on a fishing expedition to try to cobble some flimsy and imaginary charges together against Sylva in order to arrest him. This is all in a bid to distract the APC candidate, and hinder effective pursuit of his petition at the State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal,’’ Buokoribo said.

He added, ‘’that is why despite his alleged victory, there is hardly any celebration. Diri and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are simply jittery, knowing there is nothing to celebrate.

“Chief Timipre Sylva and APC trust the capacity of the judiciary to do justice in the Bayelsa State governorship election litigation. We have filed our petition, and we are pursuing it diligently, hoping that there would be justice at the end of the day. 

“But Diri and PDP, knowing their weak standing before the law, are doing all they can to hinder Sylva’s ability to pursue his petition. They simply distrust the judiciary and are trying sundry self-help tactics – the same strategy they employed before the governorship election.”

The PDP in its reaction to the APC allegation through the publicity secretary, Ebiye Ogoli said it is clear from the APC’s ‘’spurious allegations’’ that the party was suffering from the November 11 post-election traumatic disorder and that its key leaders and officials deserve to be medically examined.

According to him, Sylva and the APC, having lost badly in the election, were engaging in another round of ‘’misleading and vexatious propaganda designed to hoodwink gullible Bayelsans.’’

He said: “Chief Timpre Sylva, as a bad loser, has refused to acknowledge and accept the outcome of the November 11 governorship election for what it is – a free, fair and transparent poll.

“The election was widely adjudged by various local and international observers as one of the cleanest in recent times conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, in which incumbent Governor Douye Diri was re-elected via a landslide. We are at a loss as to the reasons for this latest senile vituperation thrown at our dear Governor.’’

  Ogoli who drew attention to the fact that the EFCC as a federal anti-corruption organ is not within the remit or under the control of Governor Diri asked Sylva to face issues arising from his stewardship of his tenure as Minister.

“We maintain that the PDP or Senator Diri was never involved in the running of the office of the former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and if there are issues arising therefrom, it is not the business of the State Governor or our party. So, we advise Sylva to face his travail (if any) and leave Governor Diri out of it.

“We also wish to state that the mandate freely given to His Excellency, Governor Douye Diri as l expressed by the good people of Bayelsa State will stand and be validated at the end of the day.

“We call on Chief Sylva to join hands with other statesmen to support the re-elected Governor Diri towards consolidating on the achievements so far recorded, with focus on the next four years of Shared Prosperity.’’

The latest in the episode of bickering were claims that Sylva had assembled some Information Technology (IT) experts to manipulate the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the governorship election. 

The group, Niger Delta Democratic Watch (NDDW) accused Sylva and his recruited experts of working to give credence and backing to what it called “cooked figures” the latter allocated to himself in some polling units where INEC either rejected or cancelled the compromised votes for various reasons including bypass of BVAS, massive thumb-printing and outright manipulation of the electoral process.

NDDW in the statement signed by Comrade Joseph Dennis, stated that preliminary investigation showed that the suspected IT experts have been assembled somewhere in Lagos State to fraudulently re-configure the voters accreditation on the BVAS to align with the polling units’ results uploaded on the INEC portal.

The group further revealed that Sylva and his agents are working to manipulate the election figures in favour of APC and present their concocted figures before the Tribunal, where he has gone to argue that he won the election and so, he be declared the winner.

“This is a man who attempted to manipulate the votes in several polling units safe for the eagle eyes of the INEC polling officers, agents of the PDP and agents of other political parties. Sadly, Sylva, escaped with the “stolen votes” in his village Okpoama, Ewoama and Nembe-Bassambiri but his APC agents were caught red handed rigging in different polling units and wards in Southern Ijaw LGA and other Local Government Areas”

The APC through Buokoribo in a statement “Bayelsa 2003: Who’s Afraid of Election Courts”, swiftly debunked the allegations against Sylva noting that it was “irresponsible, incredible and laughable, and a product of fear, desperation and hysteria.”

Buokoribo, who pointed out that aides of Governor Douye Diri are behind the group, disclosed that since the election ended, the BVAS machines are in the custody of the INEC.

According to him, it therefore makes no sense for Sylva to camp people in Lagos or anywhere to reconfigure BVAS machines for a process that has already been concluded.

Buokoribo noted that Diri and his party are aware they did not win the election and have resorted to antics to divert attention from electoral fraud. 

“As far as we know, Diri and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), worked in cahoots with INEC to compromise the November 11 election.

‘’Votes were arbitrarily cancelled in areas where the APC won overwhelmingly, and there were huge incidents of over-voting in areas where the PDP was declared victorious. If anyone stole the votes, it was PDP and Diri. Sylva has since approached the Election Tribunal to prove that PDP worked with INEC to rig him out.

“To now suddenly allege that Sylva is trying to compromise the BVAS in the custody of INEC shows how low Diri and his cohorts can get in trying to cover up or divert attention from their electoral fraud, just when it is about to be exposed. It raises a pertinent question: Who is afraid of the election courts?’’ he asked.

But Bayelsans wait to see if the commencement of legal fireworks at the Tribunal will put an end to the bickering or  it is going to escalate.