An election observer in Bayelsa State has raised the alarm about shooting, vote buying and abduction during Saturday’s governorship election in the South-South state.
Nengi James of the Transition Monitoring Group told Channels Television‘s Chris Ilems, that it was surprising that operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) came around and left without necessarily stopping the situation of vote buying.
He said people are hungry and this made it difficult for vote buying to be halted at the poll.
Meanwhile, Bayelsa State Governor, Duoye Diri and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November 11, 2023 governorship poll in the state, Timipre Sylva are currently engaged in exchange of hot words.
Diri accused Sylva of being behind electoral violence recorded in the Nembe-Bassambiri area of the state.
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The governor alleged that “Timipre Sylva has been violent in every election”.
“We have been raising the issue of the violent character and person of Timipre Sylva. Over the years, in every election he is involved in, you experience violence, you experience lawlessness, and even in Nembe-Bassambiri, the name and the character behind what is happening in Nembe-Bassambiri is Timipre Sylva,” Diri said.
On his part, Sylva accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and security agents of harassing his supporters.
The APC candidate fingered security agents “especially the Army”, alleging that they are “playing on the side of the PDP”.
Sylva said violence has been recorded in Yenagoa, the state capital, alleging that an APC member was shot. He wondered why large polling units where he is popular were being targeted.
“There is a lot of violence from the PDP trying to molest our voters with security (agents),” Sylva said. In fact, in some cases, it is believed by our people that we are running election, not against PDP, but against security (agents) but we are containing it.”
The APC candidate, however, commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying “There is a lot of improvement on the part of INEC but there is still room for improvement.”
