Bayelsa Election: Soldiers ‘Chased Away’ Key PDP Stakeholders, Diri Alleges

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Duoye Diri, has faulted the outcome of the governorship election in Bayelsa State.

Diri, who addressed a news conference on Sunday, accused the Nigerian Army of intimidating agents and supporters of the PDP in Ogbia Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

“The Nigerian Army is in Ogbia chasing away all PDP agents and all PDP key stakeholders from Ogbia, arresting most of our stakeholders; arresting all key stakeholders in Ogbia and as we speak, the Nigerian Army is there in Ogbia,” he told reporters while the collation of results from the eight LGAs in the state was ongoing at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yenagoa.

The PDP candidate added, “We want to use this opportunity to call on the soldiers who are in Ogbia to immediately withdraw from Ogbia Local Government Area.”

He alleged that some soldiers stormed the collation centre in Ogbia, stressing that such an action was unacceptable to his party.

Diri also called on the electoral body to reject all the results from Ogbia LGA, claiming that they have been “doctored and tutored”.

“This is not the way our democracy will advance; this is not the way our democracy will progress,” he stressed.

The PDP candidate made the allegations hours before INEC returned the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr David Lyon, as the winner of the keenly contested election.

INEC’s Returning Officer and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Professor Faraday Orunmuwese, declared Lyon as the winner after scoring the highest number of votes in the poll.

The APC candidate polled a total of 352,552 votes to defeat his closest rival of the PDP who scored 143,172 votes.

See the table below: