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Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just-concluded Bayelsa governorship election, Chief Timipre Sylva, yesterday vowed to challenge the result in court.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had on Sunday declared incumbent governor Seriake Dickson, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), winner of the election.
Addressing journalists in the state capital Yenagoa, Sylva alleged that INEC and PDP in the state worked in concert to rig the election in favour of PDP.
He said that he had officially complained before the election that the present structure of INEC in the state would not conduct a credible election since it was constituted to deliver the former president and the PDP in last year’s general elections.
His words: “I said in the beginning that I do not have confidence in the REC and the Admin Secretary, that I do not expect a fair treatment if these people were to preside over the election.
“I said so over and over and over again. I even reduced it to writing, and we sent the petition. Usually before elections of this nature, the INEC officials are switched. But this time, they chose to keep this team that was already in place set up by the PDP as rigging machine.
“This was the same team that returned almost 100 percent of all votes in Bayelsa to the former president. And we felt that these people could not have given us a free and fair treatment. But unfortunately, our cries fell on deaf ears. Yesterday, they proved themselves true to type.”
The former governor argued that the election could have been further declared inconclusive since about 53,000 votes were still outstanding as cancelled votes. He said in places where APC won, results were cancelled, but where PDP won, the results were entered.
He further alleged that the rigging started from the distribution of materials as materials were taken to voting centres by vehicles provided by the PDP and diverted.
According to him, the same set of collation officers and SPOs used in the December election were used on Saturday’s election; a situation he said aided the rigging process.
He maintained that in any free and fair election in Bayelsa State, APC will always win and appealed to the supporters of the party to keep calm.
•Photo shows Sylva.
