The Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate for the House of Representatives election in Ogbia Federal Constituency of Bayelsa, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, has described the conduct of the Feb. 25 election as flawed.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday in Yenagoa, Iworiso-Markson said there were lots of irregularities in the conduct of the election.
He expressed surprise that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) went ahead to declare a winner.
According to him, the “obvious electoral malfeasance” that took place was allegedly perpetrated by some officials of INEC in connivance with security personnel and agents of the ruling party in the state.
“The House of Representatives election in Ogbia on Saturday fell short of expectations on so many levels. The late arrival of electoral materials to most polling units triggered a chain of events that resulted in a series of anomalies that comprehensively compromised the integrity of the elections.
“With the late arrival of INEC officials and materials, election proper commenced very late in most polling units, as late as 2 p.m., and voting in some polling units continued till late into the night which gave ample room for manipulations.
“The late commencement of voting coupled with the doctoring of the BVAS in most of the polling units created heightened tension among willing voters.
“Inward 11 Unit 7 in my community, the BVAS was already preloaded with 158 votes even when no single vote had been cast.
“It took the effort of vigilant voters in the unit who challenged the INEC officials with several calls made to the electoral officer in charge of Ogbia to remedy the tampered BVAS. After a long wait with no solution to the compromised BVAS, the election in Unit 7 was canceled.
“The problem of preloaded votes in the BVAS was not unique to Unit 7 alone. Similar discoveries were later made in some units at Imiringi, Emakalala, Kolo, Akipleai, Ogbia Town, Otueke, Emadeke, and other polling units in several communities across the federal constituency.
“Unfortunately, voters in the aforesaid communities were not vigilant enough to challenge this electoral fraud”, Iworiso-Markson said.
He lamented that other glaring electoral malfeasances were witnessed in Saturday’s polls in Ogbia Wards 11 and 12 and indeed in all the other wards with the use of fake agents deployed by the ruling party in the state.
He said that regrettably both INEC and the security agencies on duty failed to stop the fake agents who freely and unashamedly engaged in vote buying for their respective parties, where votes were exchanged for wrappers, machetes, rice, and dollars.
“The dollar rain in Ogbia on Saturday was effectively deployed to induce poor hapless voters who already suffer from multidimensional poverty occasioned by years of neglect by the same leaders who seek to continually force themselves on the people.
“We are calling on INEC to revisit the results entered in favor of the PDP in Otueke, Imiringi, Elebele, and Otusega. We have every reason to believe that results in the aforementioned communities were doctored and skewed to favor the candidate of the PDP,“ he said.
Iworiso-Markson thanked his teeming supporters across the 13 wards that make up Ogbia Federal Constituency, saying despite the threats and intimidation, they stood by him solidly and voted for him.
“The 3, 352 votes recorded for the SDP are genuine votes by those who are tired of the misrule and bad leadership Ogbia has been subjected to over the years. I will forever cherish and salute the courage of those 3,352 voters who dared to make a difference.
“Their place in Ogbia’s history will not be forgotten even as we will continue to march on in our quest to seek justice and restore our beloved Ogbia back to reckoning as it was in the good old days of our father and political icon Chief Melford Okilo”, he said.