Elects Dickson As Candidate
AMID unprecedented security cordon, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday defied a court order and pleas from eminent Nigerians and held a disputed primary election to pick its governorship candidate for next February's elections in Bayelsa State.
The party chose a member of the House of Representatives, who was speculated as the anointed of the PDP hierarchy, Mr. Seriake Dickson. He polled 365 votes of the 368 total votes to defeat three other aspirants: Michael Kalango, Fred Ekigha and Francis Dokpola.
Besides a walkout by three of the aspirants, the statutory delegates and representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were absent at voting.
Also absent were President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Timipre Sylva, both delegates to the primaries.
Last Wednesday, Justice G.O Kolawole of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered the PDP not to hold the primaries until the substantive suit filed by Governor Sylva was discharged.
The injunction was issued following Sylva's complaint that the party was going to shut him out of the primaries after the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) denied him clearance.
Similarly, sources indicated that prominent Nigerian leaders, including former President Shehu Shagari, former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon and former governors of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and Alhaji Lawal Kaita, respectively had advised President Jonathan not to meddle in the party crisis in his home state.
It was alleged that the president had a hand in the crisis, especially in the disqualification of Governor Sylva from the PDP primaries based on an alleged threat by the governor to kill the president.
Apart from denying the allegation, Sylva secured a court order to stop the PDP from disqualifying him from the primaries.
But the party dismissed the order, quoting section 87(1)) of the Electoral Act, which precludes the courts from stopping any party primaries or an election.
Though the party eventually affirmed being served the court injunction, it, nonetheless, vowed to go ahead with the voting, which it did yesterday amid tight security.
Over 1,000 police personnel, alongside unspecified number of military, State Security Services (SSS) and operatives of the Joint Task Force (JTF) stationed in the Niger Delta were on guard in Yenagoa and other suspected flashpoints in the state.
Soon after the accreditation for the election at about 10:30am, the delegates, who wore white vests with the PDP logo emblazoned, were moved in separate buses to the Samson Siasia Sport Complex, Yenagoa, where actual voting took place.
All the cleared eight aspirants, namely Messrs Henry Seriake Dickson, Christopher Enai, Austin Ogionwo, Fred Ekigha, Bolorubo Orufa, Michael Kalango and Francis Dokpola took part in the accreditation.
But as soon as they had settled at the main bawl of the sports complex and the Chairman of the PDP primary committee, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd), announced the commencement of the election, four of the aspirants: Francis Dokpola, Austin Ogionwo, Bolorubo Orufa and Christopher Enai raised a point of order.
They called Olubolade's attention to a complaint they had lodged with the party headquarters: to the effect that there was no congress in the state, as claimed by the party.
Thus, the four aspirants rejected the delegates' list and three of them: Christopher Enai, Bolorubo Orufa and Austin Ogionwo staged a walkout and left the venue of the primary election.
While announcing the members of his committee before the voting process began, the chairman did not give any reason why the INEC was not represented at the exercise.
He went ahead with the conduct of the election, which returned Dickson with 365 votes of the total 368 votes cast.
None of the statutory delegates took part in the election. All members of the state House and National Assembly, elected council chairmen and councilors boycotted the election.
In his post-election speech, Dickson thanked the delegates and promised to build a better Bayelsa.
However, Chief Francis Dokpola, who left the venue of the primary even before the result was announced, said the entire process was a fraud and vowed to formerly protest the anomalies.
The three aspirants, who walked out of the election, said they could not take part in the illegality and fraud, "which has greatly dented the image of the party."
Also, all the statutory delegates said they resolved not to participate in the said state congress of the party for the election owing to the order of interim injunction by Justice Kolawole last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, two former Nigerian leaders, Shehu Shagari and Yakubu Gowon had reportedly advised President Jonathan to act like a statesman and desist from his alleged overbearing manipulation of the internal politics of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in his home state, Bayelsa.
According to a source close to Shagari, the two national leaders in separate phone calls, warned the president that his reported direct involvement in the crisis engulfing the party in the state belittle his stature as leader of the nation.
Most importantly, they were miffed by the conscription of security agencies to cordon off the state at a time the Jonathan government appears lost about how to handle pressing security challenges in parts of the country.
The phone call, it was gathered, was an idea mooted by Shagari, who initially reached out to Gowon and asked him to call Jonathan, to advise him to steer clear of the murky politics in his home state.
It was learnt that Gowon reminded Shagari that he was a former military head of state and that the message would carry more weight coming from a democratically-elected president.
However, the two leaders agreed to call Jonathan separately, believing that the strategy would exert more pressure on the president. The calls were reportedly made on Thursday night.
Sources said the president assured them that he had no role in the crisis, which, he said, was purely a party affair.
The pressure by Shagari and Gowon followed similar appeals by other national leaders, including Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, Alhaji Abdulkareem Daiyabu and civil rights activist, Mallam Shehu Sani.
This followed the controversial disqualification of incumbent governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, from the PDP governorship primaries.
Kaita, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees, said the decision to stop Sylva from pursuing his ambition for a second term was unfortunate and an infringement of his fundamental right.
Musa, who is the chair of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) decried the president's role in the crisis "as bad politics," and warned him to learn from the mistakes of the past.
The former Kaduna governor said: "According to media reports, the president is directly responsible for the situation because he has a problem with the governor.
"But we know that other incumbents tried this before, with serious consequences on them. It is unfortunate that Jonathan cannot learn from that mistake.
"Secondly, he is the president; Bayelsa is his home state. It is very wrong of him to have done that."
He advised Sylva not to give up. "As far as the governor is concerned, as long as he has gone this far, he should not give up," Musa said.
Daiyabu, president of the Movement of Justice in Nigeria, said: "It is an embarrassment to the president to be associated with such a trivial political matter."
The Guardian