Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, has boasted that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and its candidate, Timipre Sylva, will not stand any chance in the supplementary state governorship election slated for Saturday, January 9.He was beating his chest on Monday when he addressed a world press conference at the Banquet Hall of Government House, Yenagoa, “on the state of affairs in the past couple of weeks”.

Dickson said his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will roundly defeat the APC like it did in six of the seven local government areas where the election was conducted on December 5,2015 before it was declared inconclusive.

The re-run governorship election will be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area and 101 other units on Saturday, 9 January, 2016.

Dickson said he had mobilised the people of Southern Ijaw to guard against snatching of ballot boxes, electoral materials and manipulation of the process by Sylva and his agents.

He told the audience that he had been holding meetings with the various stakeholders in Southern Ijaw including chiefs, men, women and presidents of youth groups ahead of the rescheduled poll.

The governor said the APC and Sylva were desperate to capture Bayelsa to “expand their scope across the Atlantic (Ocean)”.

“I have mobilised Southern Ijaw people and no one will be able to hijack electoral materials and take them to their homes to manipulate votes.

“There is desperation. The party, APC, is desperate. Their candidate is desperate. I hear they want to expand their scope across the Atlantic”, he said.

He complained that Sylva and his political associates, including the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Heineken Lokpobiri, were allegedly stockpiling arms ahead of the election.

Dickson cried that the Federal Government will be laying a foundation of another Boko Haram if non-state actors were allowed to bear arms and compromise the security of Bayelsa.

He stated that although “Sylva is my friend and brother”, he does “not like his brand of politics of violence”, adding that he (Dickson) would roundly defeat him and the APC again.

He advised the agencies of the Federal Government that have a role to play in the election not to deploy ‘federal might’ against the will of Bayelsans and rig the poll in favour of Sylva and the APC.

While calling for a free and fair supplementary election, Dickson expressed optimism that the achievements of his administration in the areas of infrastructure, health, education, road construction and provision of electricity to communities would give him electoral victory.

Dailyindependentng.com

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