Anxiety in Bayelsa over absence of INEC officials at collation centre

Although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) scheduled 12 noon for continuation of collation of governorship election results, none of the key officials was at the collation hall as of 12:30pm on Monday, raising concerns.

Party agents, observers and journalists started trooping into the hall an hour before the scheduled time.

As of the time collation was adjourned on Sunday night, Governor Duoye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in early lead, with Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC), trailing him in results of the six Local Government Areas (LGAs) so far declared.

Diri, who is seeking reelection, has so far polled 137,909 votes while Sylva trails with 73,503 votes, leaving a margin of 64,406.

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The only results yet to be collated are those of Southern Ijaw and Brass LGAs, which have huge number of voters.

While Sylva hails from Brass, Maciver Joshua, his running mate, hails from Southern Ijaw.

On Monday morning, hundreds of supporters of Diri laid siege to the INEC office in Yenagoa, the state capital.

The supporters comprising men, women and youths, danced and sang praised the governor, alleging that there were plans to manipulate the remaining results.

Some of the supporters of the governor who spoke with our reporter vowed to resist any form of manipulation.

One of them who identified himself as Preye Jonathan, said, “We have information that they want to manipulate the result of Southern Ijaw and Brass local government areas. We will not allow that to happen they should declare the original result the way it is.”

Another supporter, who spoke anonymously, said, “we are here to make sure the right thing is done. INEC should be sincere and transparent in all it dealings in this election. They should not contemplate doing anything funny with this result.”

Of the three states where off-cycle elections held on Saturday, Bayelsa, which has the least number of LGAs, is the only place where collation has not been concluded.