Bayelsa Governorship Election Latest: INEC Set To Restore Seriake Dickson As PDP Candidate

The controversy trailing the exclusion of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Hon. Henry Dickson, from the February 11 Bayelsa State election may be over soon.


The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said that it had been served with the court order compelling it to include the name of Dickson.



According to the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, the commission was served with the court order by Justice Gladys Olotu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which compelled INEC to include the name of Dickson as the PDP candidate.



The spokesman for the INEC chairman said: “As a law-abiding institution and a creation of the law, INEC was served the court order in the afternoon of Thursday. The commission will table the court order before its legal team for advice. I have not said that INEC has accepted the order and neither did I say that the commission has rejected the order. We shall simply present it to our legal team for advice.”


Justice Olotu of the Federal High Court had on Wednesday, January 18 ordered INEC to “restore the name of the applicant, Henry Seriake Dickson, as the PDP candidate in the 2012 governorship election in Bayelsa State scheduled to hold February 11, 2012, pending the determination of the motion of notice”.


The court also granted an accelerated hearing in the motion on notice and adjourned the suit to January 26, 2012.


Also Thursday, activities at INEC were grounded as protesters carried placards chanting songs that INEC should restore the name of Dickson.


As this was going on, Baraje inaugurated a 28-man committee for the election of Dickson as the next governor of Bayesla State. Though Sambo, who chairs the committee and Chief Anthony Anenih were present, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, former governor of Bayelsa State, Chief DSP Alamiyeisigha, Chief Francis Doukplola and Mike Kalango were absent. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was also absent.


Other members of the committee such as Chief Edwin Clark, Chairman of PDP Governors Forum, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, PDP governors from the South-south, senators and House of Representatives members and ministers from the South-south who are members of the committee were absent. Also absent was the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr. Timi Alaibe.


But Governor Timipre Sylva described the inauguration of the campaign team for Dickson as an “illegality and evil”. According to Sylva in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Doifie Ola, “The inauguration of a campaign committee by PDP for Dickson is of no consequence, as it is a mere extension of an illegality and an evil, which cannot stand the test of time.”


Baraje charged the PDP campaign committee for Dickson to ensure total victory for the party at the poll, tasking the committee to unite the various interests in the state, as the state is the home state of President Goodluck Jonathan. He also defended the election of Dickson as the candidate, describing him as “the people’s choice”.


In his response, Sambo pledged that the committee would ensure that PDP wins at the gubernatorial poll

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