Bayelsa poll: Call your aides to order, candidates tell Buhari

By Emem Idio

YENAGOA—AGAINST the backdrop of the cancelled governorship election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, 11 governorship candidates in the poll have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to check the undue interference of his aides in the exercise by calling them to order.

Addressing newsmen in Yenagoa, yesterday, the candidates, under the aegis of United Governorship Candidates for Credible Elections, alleged that some high ranking political office holders in the federal government were the unseen hands who manipulated the electoral process and did everything to skew the election in favour of their preferred candidate.

FILE: A Voter being Accredited by an INEC Official at unit 18 Ward 6 Amarata, Yenegoa during the Bayelsa State Governorship Election. Photo: Nwankpa Chijioke

Political parties whose candidates were present at the briefing include, Social Democratic Party, SDP; African Peoples Alliance, APA; Mega Progressives Peoples Party, MPPP; Progressives Peoples Alliance, PPA; Peoples Democratic Congress, PDC; Citizens Popular Party, CPP; Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN; United Peoples Party, UPP; New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP; Democratic Peoples Party, DPP; and KOWA.

Governorship candidate of United Peoples Party, UPP, William Berezi, who read the signed statement on behalf of the group, also condemned the spate of violence in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, and called for the deployment of the Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG, Hashimu Argungun and immediate transfer of the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Nasiru Oki, over their alleged activities during the elections.

Berezi said: “ In the spirit of fairness, as a factor of the appalling situation we saw in Southern Ijaw in particular, we hereby call on the military high command in Abuja to withdraw all soldiers deployed to provide security in that local government area.

“It can only be a fair comment if Mr. President tells the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Army Staff that what they are doing in Bayelsa state is wrong and should be condemned.”