The Bayelsa State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has boasted that the November 2, 2019 governorship election in Bayelsa State would provide another opportunity to prove its popularity and acceptance among the people of the state.
The Chairman of the party in the state, Cleopas Moses in a statement in Yenagoa said the PDP was ready for the election and confident of a resounding victory provided the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would conduct a free and fair poll.
He noted that the just-concluded general elections in the state also showed that the PDP was on ground despite the anti-party activities by some senior members of the party and the alleged subversion of the will of the people by federal agencies especially in Bayelsa East Senatorial Zone.
Cleopas debunked insinuations in some quarters that the PDP lost a senatorial seat, two federal constituencies and a few state constituencies in the state because of the refusal of the leadership of the party to allow some elders, especially from the East to handpick their cronies as PDP candidates for the elections.
The PDP chairman insisted that persons peddling such faleshood were deformed minds who seized every opportunity to run Governor Seriake Dickson and the party down for no reason other than “eye service, done to curry favour from their patrons.”
He said the so-called god fathers and senior citizens who claimed not to have been carried along in the PDP primaries fielded their godsons in the ADC and still lost.
He noted that if the godfathers were to be popular, their anointed candidates would have won.
The Chairman maintained that Bayelsa remained a PDP state stressing that the party won in all constituencies where elections actually took place alleging that in some places like Brass and Nembe/Bassambiri elections did not hold at all but results were declared in favour of the opposition.
He said such development was a charade that prompted the party to approach the tribunal to seek redress.
The PDP boss expressed confidence that the tribunal would do justice to the matter because of the overwhelming evidence of electoral malpractice perpetrated by some politicans, officials of INEC, security agents and hired hoodlums.
Cleopas commended Governor Dickson for his giant strides and for always leading the party to victory and appealed to all members of the party not to dance to the drum beats of disgruntled politicians but rally round the governor to ensure the PDP retained the state for the people.
He said: “It is disturbing to hear some people say that certain leaders of our party were denied the opportunity to make inputs in the choice of our candidates in the just concluded National and State Assembly elections. The story is unfortunate and lacks any iota of truth.
“As a party we embarked on wide consultations and allowed relevant stakeholders to make their inputs before conducting free and fair primaries which produced our flag bearers! So those who are saying the choice of candidates was a one man show are been mischievous.
“The truth is that Bayelsa is PDP and PDP is Bayelsa and where ever elections actually held, we won. Wherever INEC declared the opposition party winner, know that it was either there was no elections and results were produced or there were elections but results were manipulated.
“This was why we are in the tribunal and we are confident of victory because of the iron-clad evidence of manipulation we have.”