Bayelsa Election, APC In Disarray Over Southern Ijaw
Latest report from the camp of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva suggests that things are not adding up for the party’s candidate in his bid to level up at the yet to be concluded governorship election in the State.
It would be recalled that Chief Sylva, currently trails the incumbent governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in the state on December 5th, 2015 before the election was declared inconclusive by INEC based on reported cases of violence an hijack of the electoral process in the Southern Ijaw Local government area of the State, where the election could not hold during the exercise, thereby making INEC to reschedule the election in the area.
Since the decision by INEC to rescheduled the election in Southern Ijaw which is the second largest voting area in the State after Yenegoa, the State’s capital, so bad has the situation become that the support base of the APC Candidate has split into various fraction, with Chief Timipre Sylva himself taking his destiny in his own hand by personally criss-crossing between Yenegoa, the state capital and the Federal Capital territory of Abuja, to woo stakeholders within and outside his party, particularly, President Muhammadu Buhari, with a view to salvaging the nearly lost election for the APC.
But if reports emanating from these areas are to be followed, particularly the reported failed attempts by the APC candidate to secure audience with President Buhari in the last few days, owning to what has been described by inside sources at the Presidential villa as President Buhari’s displeasure to the reports from Bayelsa and the role played by Chief Sylva in the aborted election, is anything to go by, then, it can be concluded that all is not well with the APC and its candidate as preparations reaches it peak, towards the conclusion of the governorship election, in the State.
A party source familiar with the situation during the election had earlier blamed the struggle for personal benefits to have overshadowed the party’s target of winning the election, as virtually everyone engaged by Chief Sylva, wanted to make money from the campaign as if there will be no tomorrow or as if they were going to lose at the poll.
The situation was not helped by poll results from the Seven local government areas of the State, where election has been concluded, before the postponement of the cancellation of the elections in Southern Ijaw local government area of the state, as the APC, was already heading for a defeat.
Only Yesterday, some Chieftain of the party in the state, accused the National leadership of the party of doing little to promote support Chief Timipre Sylva, after the election in Southern Ijaw was cancelled. The party is not showing enough in this regard, they claimed.
Meanwhile, as preparations continue towards the conclusion of the governorship election in the State, several opinions have tipped the incumbent Governor, Honorable Henry Seriake Dickson of the PDP, to win the governorship election, when eventually concluded.