- Perfecting plans to hijack delegates
- As candidates undergo screening today
- Fears of security breaches mount
- Stakeholders kick against list of delegates
- Calls for shift of venue of primary
By Aaron Ukodie
Fears of security breaches that could lead to candidate imposition are not going away easily, though the Bayelsa State governor, Seriaki Dickson, and the state party officials have given their words that there would be a level playing field ahead of the September 3, 2019 primaries to elect the People Democratic Party flag-bearer for the state governorship election holding on November 16, 2019.
Besides, the governor’s actions and secret statements, which contradict what he has been saying in the public and the assurances he is giving, are helping to fuel the fears.
All the candidates, who are jostling to be PDP flag bearer, for the November 16 polls, are submitting themselves for screening, today, in Abuja.
PDP officials are expected to pore through their educational and managerial qualifications for the job, determine how prepared they are to fly the PDP flag, and found out if there are no security liabilities hanging on the candidates.
Those cleared after the Abuja screening would slug it out on September 3, 2019, at the party’s primary, which has been scheduled to hold in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State Capital. There are, however, a groundswell of calls that the primary be moved to a neutral ground, preferably, Abuja, to ensure the event is held under a secured atmosphere, and so all candidates are given a level playing field.
Many, in Bayelsa, and indeed other watchers, are of the view that governor Seriaki’s Dickson’s ambition to foist himself as godfather of Bayelsa politics, which they believe he is working towards, , contrary to his avowals, could be the trigger for upheavals and mayhem in the primaries.
Some have claimed that though Dickson, who would vacate his position as governor in February 23, 2020, had said he does not favour any candidate, they hold strongly, that his body language, and some of his unguarded statements suggest he is heavily poised to influence the outcome in a manner that could throw the Bayelsa PDP family into a quandary.
Those who hold this position point to his insistence that the primaries should not be taken to a neutral ground, outside the state capital, so as not to create room for those who are rehearsing to disrupt and distort a fair election outcome.
Many, including most of the candidates, are demanding the party primary be taken away from Bayelsa, preferably, to Abuja so as provide a level playing field for all and create a secure environment for the elections.
But Dickson is kicking. This is what he had to say on the venue of the oncoming primary: “Those who are boasting that they will take the governorship primary away from Yenagoa to another state, let me tell you, that kind of thing cannot happen at all. This year’s governorship election will be a clash between federal might and state might, just like what happened in 2015.”
Dickson, seems to forget the PDP primary is a family affair, and not a fight between the PDP and the APC, which was his allusion in the statement on the venue. Observers are of the view that if the governor does not harbor sinister intentions he would work with suggestions that provide for a level playing field and a security arrangement that supports such scenario.
In what looks like a veiled threat to the PDP, the governor boasted that only the candidate he supports can win the Bayelsa governorship election. He made the threat during the official flag-off of campaigns for local government elections that held early this month.
“Let me tell you, Oforoma-Pepe (Dickson) is in charge; there is no candidate or aspirant in PDP, none of them that can lead our party to victory during the governorship election without my support, forget about those making mouth, we are the support base of PDP in Bayelsa.
In an August 13, 2019 meeting with recently elected local government chairmen and councilors, the governor clearly asked the officials to be ready to vote for his candidate. He is currently setting up a structure and providing fund to support his preferred candidate.
He warned the LG chairmen and the councilors of the danger of not carrying out his orders, saying that any person that wins the governorship election other than his candidate would dissolve them and appoint new officers.
These are his words in the 20 minutes recorded speech, eWorldnew had access to:
“When they come the first thing they will do, may be in April or May, 2020, is to dissolve you and appoint their own persons. So, you are fighting for your selves. You people have to fight this primary coming as if it is our general election; for it is about our survival.
“If another governor comes who does not favour you, he will cause (you) trouble… You are in control of what would happen, because you are delegates, you as chairmen and councilors are the delegates, if you like collect money and sell your votes.
“You people must take care of the Local Government party chairmen, ward chairmen. The three ad-hoc delegates, leave them to me, you will see what will happen.
“I am in charge, do your part and leave the rest for me. Don’t bother yourself, we do not talk too much. You will see what will happen. They said one governor Wike (reference to Nyesom Wike, governor of River State) is coming to chair convention; there is nothing like that.
“They know our influence in the national level, though there are other leaders. I want you people as you are leaving here (to be mindful), because I know these people, they will not succeed. I am going nowhere, I am going to my farm (when I leave by February 2020). Nobody can do anything to me in this country. As a general, I do not look at the battle, I appreciate the battle, what I am doing is to appreciate the battle. Who are the enemies, what are the weapons they have.
“How many are they, who are their allies, I have been doing that quietly. They have all gone to buy forms. You people will hear from me soon, no matter how you get the message; chairman may come and whisper something to you; a message is a message. We have different ways of sending messages.
“As you are coming to the convention, it would just be a coronation. The battle has not started earnestly; you are the field commanders now, I expect you to come with your troupes on the day of the convention.
“Those who would not follow you note their names, there will be conferences in April, and I will still play a very important role, in and out of government. Note their names, we will take them away, we can even do so now, but we will not. Let them go and try their luck and fail.
‘You will get some money very soon to plan your campaign, we will roll out some fund from the council. The Commissioner for local government will meet you people to plan how the councils shall bring their contributions”, Dickson is heard saying in a recorded speech to the new council officials.
Governor Dickson declared to the LG chairmen and councilors that all the people who collected forms to participate in the PDP primaries are after him. He said, they have sent Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Aliyu Mohammed Gusau to him and “I said no way!”
In response to the move of the governor to compel the newly elected LG chairmen and councilors to vote for his preferred candidate, a group of stakeholders have written to the PDP chairman, Uche Secondus and Members of the National Executive Working Committee of the party to protest the inclusion of the new LG officials in participating in the primaries.
In a letter dated August 13, the petitioners said the LG officials elected on August 10, were ineligible to participate as delegates to the primaries.
Among those who signed the letter are Eleke Timi, Diopreye Kpokiri, Koku Imananagha, Tebebiri Ebiowei, Ebiere Atani, Enizie Ogio and Temple Ogil.
They claimed in their petition that the governor, as a build up to the elections, caused 20 members of the Restoration Caucus to pick up forms for the purpose of partaking in the forthcoming primaries towards ensuring that one of the “candidate’s seen as his preferred candidate clinches the party ticket ahead, the most popular candidates.”
They claim the move is as a result of his desire to harvest at least 105 statutory delegates, which informed the hurriedly held local government elections in the state, for the first time in eight years of his administration.
They said the governor’s action was despite a suit that is before the Federal High Court of Nigeria. They also claim that the constitution of the PDP as amended in 2017.
A suit no FHC/REG/CS/024/2019 between African Democratic Congress (ADC) and Anor and Bayelsa Independent Electoral Commission and 2 others, which sought amongst other declarations that any election conducted by the state before the determination of that suit is null and void and of no effect.
Section 8 (10) of the PDP constitution states the party membership register may be computerized to ensure control and to avoid fraud, all Ward registers shall be closed one month to congresses, whereas, statutory delegates list for elective congresses shall be authenticated by National Secretariat 90 days before the Congress.
The petitioners are informing the national body to declare the election void and the delegates unqualified to attend the primaries since their election comes only 19 days to the primaries.
“ It is on the bases of the above that we appeal to the leadership of the party to uphold the provisions of section 8 (10), and direct that the local government chairmen and councilors purportedly elected on the 10th day of August 2019 in Bayelsa state cannot form part of the delegates list in the forthcoming governorship election in Bayelsa state, as their emergence came after the closure of the statutory delegates list deemed to have been closed one month to the congresses, and the authentication of statutory delegates lists are deemed to have been already authenticated by the National Secretariat 90 days before the congress in question in line with the provision of the constitution of the party”.
There are also expressed fears that given their infamous role, during the last presidential election, the military may not be involved in the Bayelsa polls, paving the way for Dickson to use the police, his constituency, to achieve his goals.
Dickson, is also believed to be desperate to impose his lackey, not only because he wants to replicate the Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lagos model in Bayelsa, but also because he wants to become a senator, representing the South-west senatorial zone. His calculation is that if he succeeds in planting his candidate as governor, he would select the current senator representing that zone as his deputy. This would pave the way for him, to assume the vacated position, having created the pathway to actualizing that dream.
Given these scenario, Bayelsa elders are warning the gladiators to ensure that they desist from making the state a battle ground. Former president, Goodluck Jonathan, speaking recently on the matter warned all the gladiators to desist from any of such plans. He spoke at a recent meeting with Ijaw leaders’ forum.
“We must play down violence in our politics. There is no nation all over the world that develops through violence. And the case of Bayelsa should not be different”, he said.
