Shootings mar Bayelsa Assembly rescheduled election

Candidates of the All Progressive Grand Alliance and the Peoples Democratic Party have won the Brass state constituency II and Ogbia state constituency II seats in the rescheduled House of Assembly election in Bayelsa State.

However, the rescheduled election, which took place on Sunday, was marred by the hijacking of electoral materials and sporadic shootings by unknown gunmen.

The shootings took place in the full glare of hundreds of security operatives deployed in the area to maintain law and order.

It was learnt that the election in Brass state constituency II witnessed a large turnout with the APGA candidate, Alfred Watson, defeating the candidates of the PDP and that of the All Progressives Congress.

According to the result declared on Sunday by the Returning Officer, who is a lecturer at the state-owned Niger Delta University, Mr. Perekere Bertola, the APGA candidate scored 849. Voters accredited for the election were 2,805.

Bertola said the PDP candidate scored 380 votes while the APC candidate scored 476 votes.

Some of the supporters of the APGA candidate claimed that attempts by suspected PDP supporters to collude with the security personnel to declare the election inconclusive were thwarted by angry youths from the constituency.

In Ogbia state constituency II, it was learnt that the turnout of voters was poor and materials were allegedly hijacked from the voting venues by some armed men and security operatives.

Some APC leaders in Ogbia said the party’s House of Assembly candidate, Tonye Okio, was later called in the midnight by some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission to come and witness the counting of votes, stressing that this was against the provision of the Electoral Act.

Contacted on the development, Okio said the election into the seat of Ogbia state constituency II did not hold as it was marred by intimidation.

Effort to get the reaction of INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Barikor Kpagih, was not successful as his mobile phone line was not reachable.