Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa state on Tuesday alleged that what took place in the state last weekend “was a federally executed operations and the result that was presented by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was a pre-written one.”
Dickson, while addressing a world press conference in Yenagoa on Tuesday, said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Senator Douye Diri never lose any election, saying the All Progressives Congress (APC) used its ‘federal might’ to hijack the process.
The governor who also disclosed that he will set up a transition committee to work out modalities for the smooth transition of power in the state come February 14, 2020, said that with the way the last weekend election was hijacked, the people of the state were denied the rights to vote for the governor of their choice.
It would be recalled that INEC had on Monday declared the candidate of APC, David Lyon as the winner of the 2019 governorship election in Bayelsa state.
“Our candidate, Senator Douye Diri and the party Chairman have been speaking about the charade called ‘Election’ that took place in Bayelsa last Saturday, and the invasion of our state by security forces of our country and about the dehumanization of our people and how the majority of the areas and in places, where our people were denied the rights to vote for the governor of their choice.
“What took place in Bayelsa on the 16 and 17 of November was not a democratic election; it was a military coup against our democracy, it was the height of conspiracy by the federal government and the security agencies and with the umpire (INEC) colluding and enabling in most cases the subversion of the democratic rights of our people for the sole purpose of achieving a pre-determined conclusion, I think that the story is all out.
“Voters did not have the courage to go out and vote in Nembe, and yet you saw the results that were turned in from Nembe.
“INEC which has invested so much resources, not task payers money, but our oil money never bothered about the processes but accepted and collated the votes from Nembe, where no voting took place.
“People were gathered together, INEC officials held at gunpoint and they were thumb-printing. So, what took place in Bayelsa was not an election; it was a carefully planned federally executed operations,” Dickson said.
