Bayelsa Guber Polls: APC, PDP Row Disrupts INEC Meeting
POLITICS DIGEST – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) stakeholders meeting was brought to abrupt end due to a rowdy session that ensued between chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the contentious issue of people displaced in the 2019 general election on Wednesday.
The two party chieftains, Chief Francis Doukpola, the Chairman of the PDP Bayelsa Elders Forum and the representative of the APC engaged in the rowdy session which started at about 1 p.m. during the second round of comments/discussion session by leaders of political parties.
However, the peaceful event, which had started for over two hours, took new turn when Chief Francis Doukpola, the Chairman of the PDP Bayelsa Elders Forum, was making his remarks and touched on issues of Internally Displaced persons (IDP) arising from the violence that rocked the Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.
Doukpola expressed concern about the issue of Internally Displaced Persons in the state as a result of electoral violence in the 2019 general election.
He said: “For me, the worst election we had in Bayelsa was the 2019 presidential and National Assembly elections. We had very better experience, as a result of that election.
“I regret to inform you that half of the communities in Bayelsa now are in IDP; they are no longer in their communities simply because they belong to certain political party.
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“Efforts to return those people to their communities so that they can exercise their franchise in the forthcoming election is not yielding result. “The name of the community is Nembe-Basambiri …’’
This was immediately interrupted by Barr. Dennis Otiotio, who had earlier spoken at the meeting on behalf of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for mentioning the name of a community.
It was observed that a rowdy session within the hall, which lasted for about five minutes, led to the sudden closure of the meeting with national anthem. Speaking earlier, Otiotio had stressed on the need for centralised security command for security personnel deployed for an election security.
He suggested that once security personnel were deployed for an election, they should be instructed by INEC.
Otiotio also stressed the need to ensure that presiding officers deployed for election know the right thing to do.
“I have discovered that most of the innocent mistakes leading to litigations in an election were committed by ad hoc staff,’’ he said.
He also accused the chairman of the state chapter of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) of not carrying along parties who are members of council in his decision and letter he wrote to the INEC Chairman.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Abdulmajeed Ali, who represented the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Muhammad Adamu, in a chat with newsmen, said it was a normal thing.
He assured that the police would everything to ensure that the forthcoming governorship election was free and fair.
“We want to advise political parties and their candidates to warn their supporters and ensure that everybody conduct themselves in peaceful manner.
“The Nigeria Police will ensure that we provide enabling environment for everybody in the election,’’ he added.
