Bomb explosion rocks PDP secretariat, sporadic gunshots, Protests mar PDP Ad-hoc delegate election in Bayelsa

A dynamite explosion, sporadic gunshots and Pockets of protests today marred the conduct of the ward congresses of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)for the Ad-hoc delegate election in the 105 wards of Bayelsa State.

While the dynamite explosion and sporadic gunshots were heared a few meters away from the State Secretariat along Lambert Eradiri road, protesters against the conduct of the Ad-hoc delegate election barricaded the entrance of the Party Secretariat.

NAIJA LIVE TV gathered that though the PDP Secretariat was condones off by heavy presence of soldiers and combatant policemen, the contending groups within the PDP mobilised hundreds of suspected thugs and cultists to the venue.

While some eyewitnesses claimed the Chairman of the Ward Congresses Electoral Committee for the Conduct of Ad-Hoc Delegate Election, Governor David Umahi had left the PDP Secretariat for Former President Goodluck Jonathan residence after the distribution of election materials.

Others claimed the dynamite explosion caused the crowd of agitated party supporters to scamper for safety while Governor David Umahi and other member of the committee left the Secretariat.

Contacted on the incident, the State Publicity secretary, Barr. Osom Macgbere said the incident does not have anything to do with the congress, ‘I was told the dynamite explosion occurs few meters away from the party Secretariat.’

But a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and State Commissioner of Information,  Hon. Daniel Iworiso-Markson hailed the peacful conduct of the party’s ward congress across the 105 wards in the state.

Iworiso-Markson, who took part in the excercise in his Ward 11 Opume community in Ogbia local government area, said the reports from all other wards in the state also indicated that the congress was peaceful and without any form of manipulation.

He commended the Governor Dave Umahi led committee for ensuring that the process was transparent, fair and credible and also thanked officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who were on ground to monitor the ward delegate congress.

“I want to commend the PDP national team from Abuja led by Engineer Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State who worked so hard to ensure we have a peaceful congress today. I also commend members of our party for their conduct and officials of INEC.

“Just few days ago, I issued a statement to say that the governorship primary will be peaceful and today that process has started and we hope that it will continue and climax with victory for our party on November 16, 2019”.

Iworiso-Markson also congratulated Williams Adike, Joy Otobo and Johnbull Azibataman on their emergence as delegates from ward 11 that will vote in the September 3 governorship primary.

On his part, the leader of the INEC team that monitored the ward 11 election in Ogbia, Mr. Joseph Omiloli said he saw democracy at its best in the ward election and urged members of the PDP to sustain the peaceful attitude as they move towards electing a candidate to fly their flag in the governorship poll. 

Earlier, the PDP national committee for the ward congress led by the governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi had set up a a 3 man electoral committee in each of the 105 wards to conduct the adhoc delegates election.

According to Umahi, it was the right thing to do in order for the party to enable a level playing ground for all members, adding that the election of adhoc delegates was in the interest of the party ahead of the primary and the governorship election.

He advised members of the party to desist from violence and praised Governor Seriake Dickson for his magnanimity and the quality of his leadership style which has transformed the state for good.

Meanwhile the returning electoral officer for Sagbama ward 10, Mr. Dimie Peres Jonah has declared Adesi Timi, Zine Obiokpo Zine and Ogodo Edesemi Raphael Morientes as winners of the ad-hoc delegates election in that ward.

Earlier, Protesters led by some PDP members loyal to the Timi Alaibe Campaign Organisation and led by Chief Tiwei Orunimighe, Hon. Bananas Endure and a former Member of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Vivian Ere, barricaded the PDP Secretariat demanding for the cancellation of the process over alleged fictitious list of Electoral officers presented to the Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State led National Committee by the State Party.

Chief Tiwei Orunimighe,while addressing the Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State led National Committee members at the party Secretariat expressed displeasure at the processes leading to the conduct of the Congress.

According to Orunimighe, ‘there are processes the conduct of the PDP Congress use to take. The party will agree with them and we go to our communities and bring results. But to our dismay yesterday,the committee has not addressed us. But people are congratulating the exercise and process that have not taken place as first of its kind. They were claiming that it was good that someone has won. When the process have not even started.’

‘We are members of the PDP and not restoration caucus. There are other organisations like the restoration on the State PDP. What we are asking is what are the modalities agreed upon by the committee and the aspirants.?And who are the returning officers agreed and where are they coming from? We are very aware that it was the restoration group that gave you the list.’

‘Because,we noticed that when we were about to talk at the stakeholder meeting, the restoration group brought out a list that they have compiled. The question is that who are they?And where did they come from? Secondly, you told us that by 7am today, materials would be distributed. But we have not seen materials’

Also speaking, a former Chairman of Sagbama local Governor,Banarbas Edure, accused the party executives of presenting a fictitious list of electoral officers to the Electoral Committee and asked the committee to stop the process.

He said ‘ the list is characterised by names of some aspirants. The process is defective and already faulty. We thought the names of the electoral officers will be suggested and collated by the governorship aspirants. If they don’t do it,we will conduct a parallel congress. We call for the rescheduling of the Congress.’

The Governor of Eboyin State and the Chairman of the Ward Congresses Electoral Committee for the Conduct of Ad-Hoc Delegate Election, Governor David Umahi, commended the peaceful conduct of the protest and warned that anyone that engage in violence will provoke him to cancelled the election process.

Umahi, assured the angry PDP members that the committee will not be bias and would not compromise their integrity, ‘we will not manipulate the process in anyone’s favour.I want to say the process started yesterday and we all signed that we should conduct the process. Anybody suggesting that the process should be aborted are not suggesting the right thing because we are already in agreement with the aspirants.’

‘At the meeting, we declared the process open,and we asked for complaint.But nobody raised their hands.’

But the Chief Timi Alaibe Campaign organisation tackled the Eboyin State Governor explaining that the refusal of the aspirants to talk was due to the lack of access to the list of electoral officers presented to conduct the Ad-hoc delegate election.

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According to the campaign organisation, ‘neither its aspirant nor any other person in the governorship race had access to the list and composition of the electoral and returning officers until when the list was publicly announced by the Chairman of the Electoral Committee.’

The statement issued by the Administrative Secretary of the Campaign Organisation, Professor Seiyefa Brisibe, disclosed that ‘every effort by aspirants to examine the names on the list which could have led to objections where necessary was thwarted by the leadership of the party in the state which also constitute the Restoration Team:.

Professor Brisibe noted that Electoral Committee Chairman simply collected an already prepared list by the State Chairman of the party, signed it as an approved list for the three-man delegate election. He explained that when aspirants requested for the list, they were promised that copies would be made available to them and that the list would be hoisted on the aspirants social media platform.

“It was not until the very last minute when the Committee made public the list and composition of the returning and electoral officers that all the other aspirants discovered that most of those mentioned were brothers, sisters, nephews, cousins and relations of the Restoration Team aspirants. The first time we knew about the content of the list was when it was being read to everybody at the party secretariat. 

“There was no way we could have protested the list and the composition when we did not know the people that were named. The question to answer is: why was the list and the composition of the returning and electoral officers not allowed to be reviewed by the aspirants before it was made public?

“Things came to a point that whenever we insisted on seeing the list, we were told to wait. At a certain point, we were told that someone had gone to photocopy the list. There were obvious indications that the list was already compromised and was deliberately hidden from public scrutiny.

“For the Committee to therefore put the blame on the aspirants for not raising objections over the flawed procedure adopted in the conduct of the Ad-Hoc delegates election is to be economical with the truth because it was difficult to protest over a list that none of us had access to.

“Before this incident, we had no reason whatsoever to doubt the integrity of the Ward Congresses Electoral Committee led by His Excellency, Governor Umahi to handle the assignment without fear or favour. Now we know better.

“It is based on this that we demand a complete cancellation and suspension of the exercise as we no longer have confidence in the Electoral Committee and the state leadership of the party to conduct the exercise in line with laid-down rules of the great Peoples Democratic Party.”

However another PDP Youth Group has raised the alarm that a former Managing Director òf the Niger Delta Development Commission and Gubernatorial aspirant, Chief Timi Alaibe, allegedly engaged Armed miscreants to disrupt the local government Ward Congresses scheduled for Friday.

The group alleged that Alaibe and some of his cohorts were arming miscreants to cause commotion to disrupt the planned delegates congress.

The Chairman of the group, Comrade Lionel Ebilade, alleged that Alaibe and  a few unpopular aspirants, had opted to disrupt the exercise with the realization that they lacked the grassroots support to win any contest.

He claimed that one Barnabas Edure was in charge of executing the evil plot against the PDP in Sagbama; Chief Rufus Abadi, Southern Ijaw and Senator Amange in Brass Constituency.

Ebilade alleged that Alaibe and the other aspirants were out to oppose the smooth conduct of the ward delegate congress with the intent to force the National leadership of the party to conduct the September 3, 2019 primaries with the statutory delegates. 

Ebilade said that his group was concerned with the issue of the smooth process for the delegate election because of the need for the best and most popular candidate to fly the party’s flag after a credible, free and fair contest.

Edilade said that the group had alerted security agencies of the plot and urged them to be alive to their responsibilities.

He urged security agencies to ensure the arrest of anybody with unauthorized arms and ammunition and any dangerous weapon within the vicinity of the venue of the Congress.

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