Oshiomhole, who spoke with journalists on
Wednesday, however, accused a former governor of Bayelsa State and
chieftain of the APC, Mr. Timipre Sylva, of hijacking the primary.
He also dismissed media reports that the party’s primary held and that Silva emerged as the party’s candidate.
The
governor said the electoral process was hijacked by thugs, allegedly
supervised by the former governor, who insisted the exercise should be
conducted without accreditation.
He said, “I was appointed with six other
members from the APC to conduct the governorship primary in Bayelsa
State. The exercise took place yesterday and, somehow, thugs took over
the sports complex where the exercise was to take place.
“They practically prevented the actual
delegates from participating and as a result, we could not proceed with
the exercise. The committee was virtually held hostage, including my
humble self and, this time, they were supervised unfortunately by one of
the aspirants, the former governor of the state, Timipre Sylva, who
said to my face and to the committee that we could not leave the venue
of the conference unless we conducted the exercise without
accreditation, as prescribed by the national secretariat.”
Oshiomhole wondered why the former
governor insisted on his own position rather than that prescribed by the
national leadership of the APC.
He said, “Whereas all the aspirants
agreed with the guidelines, it was only Sylva that did not. He rejected
the mode of accreditation and chose to accuse the national secretariat
of formulating the guidelines to frustrate his ambition.
“Every effort made to reassure him and
direct his attention to the fact that same guidelines had been used
(before) and that they are standard guidelines that would be used in
future elections fell on deaf ears.”
Oshiomhole quoted Sylva to have said, “We
cannot leave the place unless we are ready to conduct the election
without recourse to accreditation – as stipulated by the party.”
The governor, however, maintained that,
“I was not in a position to amend the guidelines, nor was I ready to
submit to his intimidation.”
He said it became clear to him that he
(Sylva) had mobilised thugs in collusion with the police, and that the
thugs found their way into the stadium – without accreditation.
Oshiomhole added that the thugs “insisted that we must conduct the election based on their own rules.”
He also accused the police of compromise
as Sylva insisted that the state executive must conduct the election and
not the national body.
“When it became clear that our lives were
under threat, I had to call Abuja to prevail on the Army and the Joint
Task Force to provide me with security to enable me to leave the venue
because the thugs had effectively blocked the gate under the
instructions of Sylva.
“The police were compromised. It was like
the police were supervising criminals. Thugs opened the gate
effortlessly; they came in and surrounded us. A guy was caught with
several accreditation cards. I handed him over to an Assistant Inspector
General of Police but the AIG released him.
“Several people were apprehended with
cloned cards, they were handed over to the police but were curiously
released by the police and allowed them to harass and intimidate members
of the committee and other aspirants,” he added.
Oshiomhole said he had since forwarded
the report of the event to the national secretariat of the party, adding
that he believed that the party would fix a new date for a proper
accreditation and fresh conduct of the primary.
Efforts made to reach Sylva for his
response to the allegations raised by the governor against him were not
successful. His mobile phone line as of 7.15pm on Wednesday indicated
that it was switched off.
Also, calls to the Media Adviser to Sylva, Mr. Doifie Ola, did not connect.
When contacted, spokesperson for the
Bayelsa State Police Command, Mr. Asinim Butswat, said it was not true
that the police colluded with thugs to scuttle the primary.
Butswat said the police prevented unauthorised persons from entering the stadium venue of the exercise.
“Nothing of such happened. The police
provided effective security during the primary. The police ensured that
people who were not authorised to be at the event were prevented from
entering the venue.
“Police did not collude with any thugs,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the APC on Wednesday announced
that it had rescheduled the Bayelsa State governorship primary
following reports of irregularities and threat to peace.
The National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, confirmed the change in date for the primary via a text message.
He said, “The primary has been rescheduled. It had to be called off due to security challenges.”
Earlier, the Deputy National Publicity
Secretary of the party, Mr. Timi Frank, told newsmen that there was no
primary election in the state.
According to him, one of the aspirants forced his will on the electoral committee which led to the disruption of the exercise.
One of the aspirants, Timi Alaibe, had led 14 of the 19 aspirants to walk out during the primaries, citing irregularities.
Source: Punch Newspaper
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