Ahead of the November 11 governorship election in Bayelsa state, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Yekini Nabena has said that the party would shock the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Duoye Diri.
The APC chieftain noted that if Duoye’s abysmal performance in the state was anything to go by, the outcome of the forthcoming election is already known to all.
TheHintsNews reports that the National Chairman of the ruling party, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, had on Friday inaugurated the national campaign team with a task to mobilise, study all the guidelines and deliver the party’s candidate, Timipre Sylva.
However, Nabena, while addressing a press conference on Sunday in Abuja, challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to quickly make the electoral guidelines it plans to use for the by-election known to all in order to avoid confusion.
He was of the opinion that INEC has an obligation to tell the voters whether it will use Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and whether it will transmit election results from the polling unit and other guidelines.
His words: “First and foremost, the security system should be focused in Bayelsa State. And INEC should come out plain this time around. Is it BVAS or we just do whatever we want to do while INEC takes it from there. There is no clear direction. So you can do whatsoever you want to do then INEC can come back and do what they like. They are telling us INEC said they don’t have power to transmit.
“INEC must have a clear direction so that voters will know this is the system. So that everybody can protect his or her votes. Not that somebody that will go to Government House and write this things for INEC.
“So tell us, are you going to transmit the result from polling units? Or what are you going do? Are you going to use BVAS? Tell us from day one. Let there be a guideline and an understanding that this is it. Not the one court will say INEC can come up with anything they want. Politics is the biggest business in the world.”
When asked about the chances of the party in the coming election, Nabena noted, “We are going to win.”
He explained that the camp of the PDP was already in disarray.
On the recent mass defection to APC and the denial by the state government, Nabena said the governor and his party are afraid of what would become of their fate soon, adding that already there is confusion in the PDP’s camp.