Bayelsa poll: Sylva, not Dickson, attempted to bribe Bayelsa REC – Group

The Bayelsa State Justice Forum has taken a swipe at the All Progressives Congress over the claim that the Governor of Bayelsa State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Hon. Seriake Dickson, offered a bribe of N200 million to the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Baritor Kpagih.
The bribe, according to claims on Sunday, was to manipulate the outcome of the December 2015 governorship election in the state in favour of the PDP.
The BSJF, through its Coordinator, Pastor Markson Konugha, in a statement in the early hours of Monday, described as false, spurious and baseless the alarmist cry by the All Progressives Congress accusing the REC and Dickson of involvement in the bribery allegation.
Konugha, who laughed off the allegation made by a staff of INEC, Francis Asmakia Ted, observed that while it was not necessary to join issues with the APC, a party he said has already lost the governorship election in Bayelsa State and is reputed to thrive on propaganda and blackmail, it was pertinent to set the records straight so that the unsuspecting public is not misled and misinformed by the APC.
He described Ted as a front of the APC.
The Group’s Coordinator said the bribe story only exists in the imagination of its authors.
He challenged the APC to present evidence of how the alleged sum of N200 million was handed to the INEC’s REC by Dickson, through whom and by what channel.
The group berated the APC for what it termed its provocative acts of mudslinging in a desperate bid to manipulate the outcome of the rescheduled election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
The election is scheduled for January 9, 2016.
The group also disclosed that it was aware that investigation is ongoing into the claim by Kpagih that some influential politicians attempted to bribe him before the December 2015 governorship election.
It said information has it already that the APC governorship candidate, Chief Timipre Sylva, did actually approached the REC, through his wife, with a cash of $1 million, which was allegedly “outrightly rejected by Mrs. Kpaghi”.
The group called on all Bayelsans and supporters of Dickson to remain steadfast and continue to support the Peoples Democratic Party administration in the state to deliver on its agenda of economic development, job and wealth creation as well as industrialisation.