The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) state secretariat in President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa was on Saturday vandalised by some armed youths who held the party’s Electoral Panel members for the House of Representatives primaries hostage for hours.
The five-member panel that was attacked was headed by Gen. Idi Adamu (retd), also has Yeye Bola Dare, Barr Zanna Mustapha, Hon Alaye Don Pedro and Barr John Idoko as members. The primaries were scheduled to hold in five federal constituencies across the state.
The youths wielding dangerous weapons stormed the secretariat when panel members, PDP officials and journalists were waiting for the distribution of election materials.
The few armed police officers guarding the premises attempted to resist them but when they realised that they were not making headway, they called for reinforcement leading the Commissioner of Police in the state to deploy more policemen to ensure safety of people inside the secretariat.
The policemen shot sporadically to push back the armed youths and even fired tear gas. This however created more confusion and the chairman of the panel citing security concerns, said the primaries for the Sagbama/ Ekeremor Federal constituency would be rescheduled.
However, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson and PDP members side-stepped the election panel members to hold the primaries at Sagbama town amid tight security provided by a combined team of security agencies. Delegates were brought to the venue in three white coaster buses with armed police escort after which accreditation began immediately.
Only two of the aspirants, Hon Fred Agbedi and Mrs Gimba Pamowei were present at the election, which was supervised by Barr, Preye Ajoko. At the end of voting, Agbedi polled 100 votes out of the 126 votes accredited and was declared the winner by Ajoko.
Governor Dickson, while describing the election as free and fair noted that Bayelsans would no longer queue behind politicians who breed violence.
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