PDP WINS DELTA CENTRAL

 Emmanuel Aguariavwodo of the People's Democratic Part, PDP emerged winner of Delta Central Senatorial District.
According to the Returning Officer, Prof. John Arubayi, who announced the results on Sunday morning in Ughelli, Delta, Aguariavwodo polled 263,024 votes to defeat eight other candidates. Arubayi said Mr. Otega Emerhor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) scored 29,075 votes to emerge second, while Mr. Ede Dafinone of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) followed with 29,055 votes.

Opposition parties that criticised the conduct of the election include APC and DPP.

Report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) indicates that PDP won in all the eight local government areas in the senatorial district.

INEC described the conduct of the by-election as free and transparent, and urged all the political parties that took part in the exercise to accept the result in good faith. The commission commended the political parties and their agents for the peaceful conduct of the election.

NAN reports that voting started late in many of the voting centres, following the late arrival of electoral and voting materials at the polling units and the voting period was extended for hours as a result.

Earlier, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Delta, Mrs. Gesila Khan, had described the election as peaceful in spite of some initial challenges.

She said: “Normally, voting ought to have started at 12.30 p.m., but because of the initial hiccups, it was not so. However, it ended peacefully at the end of the day.’’

The by-election followed the death of Sen. Pius Eweridoh of DPP on June 30, 2013.

But APC alleged the election was “marred by cases of electoral malpractices and widespread violence perpetrated by security agents and thugs hired by the PDP.”

In a statement issued in Lagos Sunday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said “there was no voting at all in most of the eight local governments and the 85 wards in the District, as the PDP used armed security agents to chase away voters in opposition strongholds while thugs working under the cover of security personnel beat opposition party agents and seized voting materials in many areas.”

It said electoral officials were either overwhelmed by the intimidating presence of the security agents or were coerced into submission. ‘’This election is nothing but a sham as the activities of the partisan security agents ensured that hundreds of voters were disenfranchised, while state government and PDP officials openly handed money to induce voters. Even in wards where voters successfully resisted armed security agents, the absence of complete electoral materials meant there was no voting.”

In a statement issued by the DPP chairman in Delta State, Chief Tony Ezeagwu, the party also alleged that the election was a sham. “The scale of impunity and violence by PDP thugs, cultists and security agents is just unimaginable. There was no election and we know the conflagration that could follow if we do not stop our people early enough from going to collation centres to witness the results collation.’’

Also in a statement, the DPP candidate, Dafinone, said: “The significant confidence brought into our elections in 2011 due to visible improvements on the 2003 and 2007 elections was completely wiped off yesterday. The PDP and the government have  sent, in no uncertain terms, a strong message that the security apparatus of this nation will foist the PDP on the nation at every cost. As was demonstrated yesterday in Urhobo land, security forces and the government will turn a blind eye to open violence and crimes against citizens and a section of the electorate perceived to be supporting other parties outside the PDP.

“Because our agents were openly shot at and maimed yesterday, as it was in 2003 and 2007, we are able to say that the days when elections were gun wars are back. Because INEC officials and NYSC ad hoc personnel bluntly refused to go out to conduct the election in several places, we are also able to categorically say that government, through these agencies, decided the outcome of the election in a clearly premeditated manner. Because security personnel openly flogged and beat up our agents and supporters everywhere without justification, we are able to say that violent bias was used as a tool to coerce our supporters to abandon polling stations.”

The party, however, urged its members and supporters to remain peaceful.

The PDP national secretariat berated the APC for “not accepting  defeat in last Saturday’s Delta North senatorial by-election.”

PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, in a statement said “in protesting against an election which it lost woefully, the APC is merely rehearsing its excuses ahead of the 2015 general elections when it will suffer the ultimate humiliation from Nigerians.”

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Delta North senatorial by-election was free, fair and credible and the people freely gave their mandate to the PDP candidate, Agwariavwodo.

In his reaction, the PDP Publicity Secretary in the state, Mr. Macaulay Deighan, said the party’s victory was well-deserved and the alleged rigging was false.

Deighan said that the electorate voted for the party’s candidate, Aguariavwodo, because they believe in him, adding that the party worked hard to secure the victory.

He described the election as peaceful, saying security agencies were on ground to maintain peace and order.

“It is not a surprise that we won the election because we campaigned seriously to regain the seat. The allegation about rigging is baseless because it was a one-man-one-vote affair, which everybody witnessed. PDP is the majority party in the state.’’

On his part, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chairman in Delta State, Mr. Ogueshi Eboka, said PDP won the election and the exercise was peaceful.

Meanwhile, Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu and the Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Chief Victor Ochei have congratulated Aguariavwodo.

Ekweremadu, who described the Senator-elect as a “man of the people” said it was a demonstration of the potency of PDP as a party as well as the confidence people have in the candidate.

Ochei, in a statement in Asaba yesterday, said that the victory of Aguariavwodo was a testament to Delta Central’s preference for worthy representation at the upper chamber of the National Assembly, through a viable vehicle as provided by the PDP.