Bayelsa State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has said that it accepted the March 9, 2019 state assembly election results in order not to heat up the polity.
The party said though there were glaring cases of electoral fraud perpetrated by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in some parts of the state; it would serve no useful purpose to challenge the results of the election.
It however expressed its willingness to support any of its candidates that decides to seek redress in court if necessary.
“We would have rejected the results in several parts of the state where there were glaring cases of electoral fraud perpetrated by the PDP. But that would serve no useful purpose. It would only heat up the polity,” APC declared in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Doifie Buokoribo and made available to Next Edition.
But the state chapter of PDP had vowed to challenge the assembly election results, stressing that APC would not have won the four seats in the state assembly in any free and fair election.
APC, in the statement thanked the people of the state for voting overwhelmingly for its candidates and defending their votes.
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According to the party, what transpired during the election showed that the people of the state had been robbed of the right to choose the leader they wanted.
“Our laws are clear on the steps to take in trying to redress poll injustices. We will, therefore, back our candidates who are directly affected by the PDP-sponsored malfeasances in the event of litigation at the electoral tribunal.
“In the out-going Bayelsa State House of Assembly, the APC had one seat. From the results declared so far by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), we now have four seats. Three seats were declared inconclusive. Those seats were won by the APC. We shall continue to defend our victory with all the legitimate force at our command,” the party said.
But the PDP, through its state chairman, Mr.Moses Cleopas, said the election was manipulated to APC’s advantage in some areas and expressed the willingness of his party to reclaim the ‘stolen mandate’ legitimately.
The party recalled that INEC had declared 17 seats for the PDP, four for the APC and three inconclusive but argued that it did not lose any of the seats in possession of the APC. It referred to Ekeremor Constituency (11) and Nembe Constituency (11) and (111) as some of the places where the APC perpetrated electoral fraud during the poll.
“We want to state that the PDP in Bayelsa did not lose any of those seats and we are going to challenge those results legitimately as a law abiding party and we will reclaim the stolen mandates. In Ekeremor Constituency 11, our candidate won that election. The result is in our possession.
“But in the night, the APC chieftain in the area went with military men, threatened the returning officer and doctored the results to the advantage of APC. In Nembe Constituency (11) and (111), they drove out all the PDP members in order to rig the election to APC’s advantage,” the party said.
