Dickson planning to declare himself re-elected, APC alleges

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

The Sylva-Igiri Campaign Organisation of the APC has called on security agencies to ensure no one uses any of the broadcast stations in the state to either announce election result or incite people against the opposing political parties or the Federal Government.

The Campaign organisation alleged that Governor Seriake Dickson of the PDP has deployed the state owned radio station,Glory 97.1FM, Yenagoa and other broadcast stations to heighten the tension and incite the people to violence in the aftermath of the botched December 5th and 6th governorship poll.
A statement by the Director of Media and Publicity of the Campaign Organisation, Chief Nathan Egba, raised the issue “to draw attention to the ongoing desperate attempts of Governor Dickson to arbitrarily announce a concocted result through the social media and state-owned media organisations and declare himself winner of the governorship election.”

Timipre Sylva Campaign group also said “it should be noted that the purported attempts of Governor Dickson to either by himself, cronies or agents to declare himself winner is clearly in contravention of the Electoral Act as amended and also unconstitutional to the extent that such an action offends the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution that established the Independent National Electoral Commission,(INEC).”

The statement also called on the Governor to consider the criminal consequences of any attempt to so declare himself as winner of the said election, a development that
will amount to usurping the powers of INEC.