Dickson, Sylva divided over Southern Ijaw poll’s cancellation

Governor Seriake Dickson and Chief Timipre Sylva were on parrallel paths Monday over the INEC's cancellation of results from Southern Ijaw, the home council of deceased Governor General of Ijaw Nation and first civilian governor of the state, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha. While Dickson hailed the move, Sylva kicked, saying that the REC has no power to do so.

According to Sylva, the power to cancel a duly held election rest with the State Returning Officer and not the REC and as such the votes should be counted.

However, Dickson hailed the cancellation of the rescheduled election in the council area saying if the commission had heeded to his advice, it would have saved the nation from the avoidable waste of public funds.

He pointed out that the decision to hold the election on Sunday by INEC was ill advised, taking into consideration the security situation and peculiar nature of the area.

The National leadership of the PDP said yesterday that the courageous move put in place by the people of Bayelsa to curtail planned moves by the APC to rig the election in Southern Ijaw led to the cancellation of the results in the area.

In a statement by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP while hailing the zeal and the bravery nature of the people, stressed that but for the bravery of Bayelsans in standing up for their votes against what the party termed, the hordes of harassments by the military and other security forces working for the APC, their will as a people would have been completely subverted in the election.