Following the declaration of Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State as winner of the just concluded Off-Cycle election, four political parties who took part in the election have given the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seven days to retract the declaration.
In a press conference on Monday in Yenagoa immediately after the announcement by INEC, the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) asked that the decision be rescinded immediately. They alleged that there were underage voting and cancellation of results from areas where other parties won and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lost.
They also alleged that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) was bypassed in some areas where the PDP won and the results were not cancelled, but results were cancelled where BIVAS was bypassed and APC won.
They stated that the electoral body contravened the Electoral Act by declaring a winner when the margin of victory was less than the total number of votes that were cancelled.
The SDP state chairman Allen Domotimi maintained that his party was not comfortable with the results that were announced and subsequent declaration of Diri as the winner alleging that PDP paid as high as N50,000 in some parts of the state for vote buying,
He said “In Nembe local government area, about 26,000 votes were cancelled. In Yenagoa local government the same thing. Infact whenever they found out that other parties were getting more votes, they cancelled them and announced the votes of the PDP.
They are supposed to call for a re-run election because the number of votes that they cancelled is much.
Based on that, the party rejects the result that they announced and we are going to contend it at the Tribunal to any length."
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Also speaking, Joel Nathan, Bayelsa State Chairman of New Nigeria People’s Party stated "I sit here today to state that we are not comfortable with the results that was declared by INEC.
What we are saying now is that we are not comfortable with the results declared, we are rejecting it totally. We should be apportioned the correct votes we got in this election. Even it if will not make us win, our votes should be recorded. Until that is done we will not accept the results as released by INEC."
Also, a group of independent election monitors queried INEC over the handling of the election, calling for cancellation of the results.
Jude Adeyemi speaking on behalf of the other observers said “We are registering our displeasure because the election was marred with irregularities. We are therefore calling for the cancellation of the results."
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