The Bayelsa State Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, has put the average statistics of the voters that took part in the December 5, 2015 governorship election at 40 per cent, contrary to the claim of the opposition candidate.
The governor, who said this in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, on Saturday, clarified that the statistics was not peculiar to Bayelsa State.
Dickson said having won six out of the seven local government areas declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission with a wide margin, he should be declared the winner of the election and not the All Progressives Congress’ candidate, Chief Timpre Sylva.
According to him, the number of registered voters in Brass LGA, Sylva’s council, stood at 55,000, while the votes cast was 29, 000 which is about the highest.
While commending the INEC for the introduction of the PVCs, Dickson stated that Ofoni community which is the PDP’s stronghold, with a voting strength of 14,000 but only about 3,000 voted, out of which he scored about 2,500.
“Southern Ijaw has 120, 827 registered voters, with 17 wards. Yenagoa is the largest with over 135,000 voting population less than 45,000 turned up for the election,” Dickson emphasised
The governor pointed out that with pockets of violence recorded on December 5 and 6, 2015, the turnout might be low for the re-run, adding that he would record a convincing victory in the area, going by the level of consultations with relevant stakeholders from the local government.
The governor said, “I have been engaging with various stakeholders, chiefs, women and youth groups from the area and over 5,000 members of the APC recently defected to the PDP. With this development and assurance that this time around, there will be no reign of terror and materials will get to their communities.
“I am hoping that the percentage of the voters’ turnout will be higher than the 40 per cent that we have already seen as the average.”
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