Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has given
an account of the events of the governorship
primary election of the All Progressives Congress, in
Bayelsa.
Oshiomhole, who was selected to oversee the
primary election process, had to be smuggled out of
the Samson Siasia Stadium, Yenagoa, when thugs
loyal to former governor, Timpre Sylva, went amok
and incited violence.
The governor revealed in Benin on Wednesday, that
Sylva was responsible for the sour outcome of the
primary election, with his insistence on bending the
rule and shifting the goal-post to favour him.
Oshiomhole said:
“I was appointed with six other members from the
APC to conduct the primary election of the
governorship election in Bayelsa State. The
exercise took place yesterday (Tuesday) and
somehow, thugs took over the sports complex,
where the exercise was to take place.
“They practically prevented the actual delegates
from participating and as a result, we could not
proceed with the exercise. The committee was
virtually held hostage, including my humble self.
This time, they were supervised unfortunately by
one of the aspirants, the former governor of the
state, Timipriye Sylva, who said to my face and to
the committee that we could not leave the venue of
the conference unless we conduct the exercise
without accreditation, as prescribed by the national
secretariat.
“It is important that we state clearly that the
national secretariat has adopted a standard
guideline for the conduct of governorship primary
and this guideline were used effectively in Kogi
State and it produced a candidate in which all the
aspirants were quite happy with.
“The key issues in this guideline, as handed down
by the party, is that delegates, as contained in the
list, have to be identified either though the
Permanent Voter Card or the National Identity Card
or international passport.
“This was to ensure that proper accreditation was
done because the integrity of an election rests
primarily on the integrity of the accreditation
process; once the accreditation suffers any defect,
it affects the entire exercise. As they say, you
cannot build something on nothing.”
“Whereas all the aspirants agreed with this
guideline, it is only Sylva that did not agree with it.
He rejected this mode of accreditation and chose to
accuse the national secretariat of formulating the
guideline to frustrate his ambition.
“Every effort made to reassure him and direct his
attention to the fact that same guidelines have been
used and that they are standard guidelines that will
be used in future elections fell on deaf ears.
“He insisted that we cannot leave the place unless
we are ready to conduct the election without
recourse to accreditation, as stipulated by the party
and, of course, I was not in a position to amend the
guideline, nor was I ready to submit to his
intimidation.”
“Sylva insisted that it is the State Secretariat and
not the national body that should conduct the
primary and that it was wrong for the national body
to conduct primaries without involving the state
leadership of the party and therefore, as far as he
was concerned, we must proceed with the election
without complying with the guidelines of the national
secretariat.
“When it became clear that our lives were under
threat, I had to call Abuja to prevail on the Joint
Task Force to provide me with security to enable
me to leave the venue of the primary because thugs
had effectively blocked the gates under the
instructions of Sylva.
“I have since forwarded our report to the National
Secretariat namely that the primary could not be
conducted because of these and several other
malpractices.”
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