The Ijaw Leaders Forum (IJL), a sociocultural
group, and a Non-Governmental Organisation, Advocacy for Good Governance (AGG)
have condemned the conduct of last Saturday’s governorship election in Bayelsa State.
Led by frontline Ijaw rights activist, Elder Timi
Ogoriba , the group, along with the AGG, chaired by Bunu Jacob, said the
election fell short of the required standard.
In a statement signed by eight members of the
group, including Elder Timi Ogoriba,
Oyinfiye JonJon, Hendrick Opukeme, Kennedy Orubebe, Ari. Ari, Trydi
Okpeke and Tari Patrick, the Ijaw leaders alleged that the election was
fraudulently conducted with the deployment of heavy security to favour a
particular party.
The statement alleged that the security forces
arrested those perceived to be working for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
but protected thugs and supporters of APC to perpetrate electoral malpractices,
including massive thumb-printing.
“There was a brazen display of coerciveness and use
of brute force by the security agents on the electorate. It was also a common
knowledge that the security forces arrested those who were perceived to be
working for the PDP and isolated them at several locations till after the
elections.
"In some local government areas, security
personnel led and protected hoard of thugs and supporters to cart away
electoral materials forcefully to safe havens where thumb-printing was openly
done.
"This, to us, is against civilized norms of
electioneering in a democracy,” the groups said.
The Ijaw leaders challenged the Nigerian judiciary
to rise to the occasion and correct the alleged anomalies when entertaining
matters arising from the conduct of the November 16 Bayelsa State governorship
polls.
Also, the state Chairman of the Advocacy for Good
Governance, Mr. Bunu Jacob, told journalists in Yenagoa that the election was
marred with a lot of irregularities which could put the country’s democracy
under serious threat.
According to him, “What happened in some places
during the election was a rape to our democracy. And this will further put to
test whether or not our democracy can survive.
"We are calling on the international community
and all lovers of democracy to come to our aid as our democracy is in serious
threat because in some places, a lot of irregularities happened and election
materials were hijacked.
"Figures were just formulated in favour of a
particular political party which they think had the upper hand. And if we
continue in this trend, our democracy would be jeopardised.”
He commended the aggrieved candidates for not
taking the laws into their hands, and urged them to seek redress in the law
court.
The state Secretary of the advocacy group, Mr.
Abalaba Bubaraye, challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) to redeem itself by conducting a fresh election devoid of violence,
intimidation and electoral malpractices.
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