…Scores INEC high in conduct of election
Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State has said that the people re-elected him for a second term to continue the good work he started in his first term.
Speaking on the Channels Television programme, Politics Today, Governor Diri said he has completed outstanding projects he met in the state and initiated new ones that would be completed in the coming years.
Diri said: “This victory means motivation for more work, motivation to serve the people of Bayelsa State and this victory means freedom for the people of Bayelsa State. I wanted to prove the naysayers and critics who are saying that the governor was a Supreme Court-made governor in the first instance.
“This election showed that the governor understands the terrain of Bayelsa, accepted by Bayelsans, supported by Bayelsans and throughout our campaigns, it became a movement in Bayelsa State.
“Secondly, we have started new programmes and completed old programmes and projects that were initiated by our predecessors by to the days of even Timipre Sylva, who couldn’t even complete a unity bridge that was linking two communities in his Nembe local government area.
“So, we completed most of those programmes and initiated new ones and we believe that the only way to ensure that our projects are completed is to continue our second tenure. And more important is the peace, and security that Bayelsans have witnessed since we came into office.
“The conduct of the election sincerely is adjudged to be free, fair and transparent. It is a human effort and it could not be a perfect one. There are challenges because the terrain of our state is totally different from others. A lot of people draw comparison between Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo, thank God that those who have been to Bayelsa understands that the terrain is different from Kogi and Imo state.
“In terms of results streaming in, it is that difficult for you to move from Yenagoa to the interior close to the Atlantic Ocean in terms of Southern Ijaw local government areas and even in Brass local government area.
“When there was an outcry about the delay in releasing the results, those of us from the state understood that it was not that easy for the elections to be conducted and results would stream in the way they could have like in Imo or in Kogi.
“But that apart, we also have other challenges and you are aware of the boat mishap so the election has to be conducted the following day. We had challenges of the All Progressives Congress (APC) kidnapping electoral officials and all of that. A few of these challenges led to the delay and I think a lot of people became very suspicious about the results of the results and the final declaration of results.
“But be that as it may, the BVAS has been brought into full test and we have seen areas where BVAS were bypassed and everybody scored zero. For instance, the issue of Nembe and the fake results and INEC were very clear on that, that any area that BVAS was bypassed, it is zero. So, I believe that INEC has done so well in many areas. My take is that we should score INEC high in terms of the conduct of this election in Bayelsa State.”
