Concerned stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa State have alleged that the national leadership of the party abandoned and betrayed its candidate in the November 11 governorship election, Chief Timipre Sylva, when he needed help most.
They also demanded sanctions for APC kingpins in Bayelsa who worked against the party’s success in the last election, insisting that they can no longer be used as sacrificial lambs to “satisfy some vested interests.”
The Spokesperson of the group, Dr Otiti Etionumeya, made these allegations during a press conference held at the party’s secretariat after submitting a petition to the national chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.
The petition titled, “SOS: Bayelsa State APC Can No Longer Continue To Be The Sacrificial Lamb”, was signed by over 38 members.
It read in part: “We, the undersigned are bona fide members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bayelsa State chapter and we write with searing pain in our hearts over the brazen electoral heist perpetrated against our governorship candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, his running mate, Great Joshua Maciver and the entire APC family in the state in the November 11, 2023 gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State.
“We state unequivocally our utter shock, disgust, and disappointment at the audacious compromise and subversion of the will of the people of Bayelsa State by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in its bold-faced cancellation of a whooping 84,806 votes scored by our great party, the APC in the above-mentioned election.
“Despite employing underhand tactics by unleashing wanton violence on members of our party in the lead-up to the election and during the election as well as emptying the treasury of the state to engage in unbridled vote buying which commenced weeks before the election the people of Bayelsa State still rejected the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Douye Diri, and instead opted to vote overwhelmingly for our party’s candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva and his running mate Great Joshua Maciver.”
They further alleged that INEC abandoned its role as an unbiased umpire as it was given cover by security operatives to perpetrate an electoral heist of monumental proportion against APC and the people of Bayelsa State.
“We find it strange and curious that our party’s candidate was left in the lurch by the party at the national level at a time he needed the support of the party the most, and are therefore inclined to believe that the Bayelsa State chapter of the APC has once again been used as a sacrificial lamb to satisfy some vested interests without any consideration for the party’s teeming members and supporters who have worked assiduously and at great cost for our party’s victory.
“If the Bayelsa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) wasn’t sacrificed to please some vested interests, how do we explain the audacious cancellation of results in areas such as Ogbia, Nembe, Brass, and Southern Ijaw L.G.As where our great party had a clear lead until the unfathomable happened, with the INEC jettisoning the respective collation centres where the results ought to have been declared and moved the collation of results to the state collation centre in Yenagoa, the state capital where results already declared at polling units with our party in clear lead were cancelled in flagrant contravention of Section 51 of the Electoral Act, 2022?
“Meanwhile, results in Gov. Douye Diri’s stronghold of Sagbama, Kolokuma/Okpokuma, and Ekeremor were allowed to be collated at their respective local governments area collation centres. We also saw the cancellation of results in other places where the APC were in clear lead across the state thus exposing the deep-seated conspiracy to deny us victory.
“We find it rather curious that while INEC hinged its decision to cancel votes gotten by our party on the by-passing of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the electoral umpire looked the other way in the PDP strongholds where the BVAS were reported to have been by-passed despite the protestations from our agents and went ahead to declare the results in favour of the PDP at the designated collation centres.
“It is noteworthy to state that we are not oblivious of the fallacies peddled against our governorship candidate in some quarters by some fifth-column.”
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