During the elections which took place on December 5, Chief Sylva, was involved in a head-to-head with Governor Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party. Due to the high number of instances of electoral malpractices, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) declared the poll inconclusive and intends holding supplementary elections in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.
However, Governor Dickson has taken a commanding lead in the results declared so far but Chief Sylva still has an outside chance of winning if he sweeps the supplementary poll. Inec has fixed Saturday, December 19, for a supplementary election in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area but according to the figures from the other seven local government areas so far declared by Inec, Governor Seriake Dickson has 105,748 votes compared with 72,594 for Chief Sylva.
As a result, of the wide margin in the votes declared so far, there is intense pressure from Bayelsans and stakeholders asking Chief Sylva to accept defeat. Ward agents, who are among over 500 APC defectors, who only last Saturday announced their decision to pitch tents with the PDP were among those to make the call.
Among the agents who have asked Chief Sylva to accept defeat include Francis Asikpi from Ekeremor, Sinivie Rita– Southern Ijaw, Mike Okpolovie – Yenagoa, Jude Timi – Sagbama, Godwin Wilson – Ogbia and Zidougha Patrick from Nembe. They all unanimously urged Chief Sylva to emulate former President Goodluck Jonathan, who chose the path of honour by conceding victory to President Muhammadu Buhari, even before the final results were announced to avoid imminent chaos, mayhem and a bloodbath.
According to them, the situation presents the former governor with an opportunity to rewrite the political history of the state because it will save the people of the risks associated with the conduct of the elections. However, Comrade Timi Frank, the APC's deputy national publicity secretary has expressed belief that the party still has a chance to win the governorship elections.
Comrade Frank said that while APC can still win the election, it will be dependent on the ability of party stakeholders to buckle up and overcome their past mistakes. He added that the party lost some local government areas as a result of internal strife in its ranks.
“We are still hopeful and I believe that if we go back, the candidate himself would correct whatever loopholes or mistakes he must have made to put our party in this situation. Now that we are expecting a local government that has a huge vote, if we do very well within this very short period to correct our wrongs I believe that we can still get victory,” he said.
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