NO BASIS TO CANCEL SUCH PEACEFUL ELECTIONS- By Evans Tubonah

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu
Chairman INEC

There was no intention whatsoever to write a story and directly submit same to the office of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission {INEC} on the February 23rd 2019 Presidential/ National Assembly elections in Opu Nembe Bassaambiri, in the Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, but for the misrepresentation of facts through the media masterminded by some power seekers.
In that exercise, one can give kudos to INEC for engaging  the media across the nation which is a critical sector of the Nigerian project to both monitor and give a true reportage of the elections. And our medium, Golden Pen Newspaper feel honored in that respect, been accredited by INEC to play our role, moved down to Nembe Local Government Area and straight to Opu Nembe Bassambiri, on Friday the 22nd February, 2019 arrived a day to the election,and it was so interesting to see throngs of people from different parts of the nation going in and out of the city of  Opu Nembe Bassambiri. Some were coming from major cities like Abuja, Lagos, from neighboring states   and from every other state in the federation, while some entered home from their business locations, in other towns and villages in the vast area of the seven [7] wards that make Nembe Constituency 2 and Constituency 3 of the 24 members Bayelsa State House of Assembly.
Mr. Chairman Sir, the area we are talking about here, the seven electoral wards of Opu Nembe Bassambiri also include the autonomous Mini communities of Okoroba and Agrisaba and the people of Ikensi-Ibe is not just a compound or a street, but a vast area, in view of the fact that Opu Nembe Bassambiri is the City which Kingdom spreads through lands and mangrove forests, traversing rivers and creeks having many satellite towns and villages such as: Ikensi, Agada, Atubo, Obiata, Elemuama, Enyimama, Iseleogono, Biokponga, Oduani fishing settlements among others from the Ikensi area.  And the Oluasiri axis has many towns and villages such as: Ben-Ama, Tengele-Ama, Otuma-Ama, Dumoebikuma-Ama, Isaiah-Ama, Fekoru-Ama, Isere-Ama and others including  Ijawkiri that is adjacent the Oluasiri/Soku NLNG Gas Plant in Bayelsa State. Obioku is also one of the towns with many fishing settlements: Akananga, Twenny, Adumu-Ama etc.
Opu Nembe Bassambiri in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State share boundaries with the Kalabari, Bille and Abua Odual of Akuku/Toru, Degema and Abua/Odual Local Government areas of Rivers State.

Mr.Chairman Sir, I am very sorry for taking time to explain to you that we are not talking about a village or a ward or a unit, we are talking about such a large area, of two constituencies, of the state Assembly.

Kemela Okara

On Saturday the 23rd February 2019, Golden Pen went round and saw the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Opu Nembe Bassambiri the headwaters of the seven wards ready for the Presidential/National Assembly elections, with the Security Agencies: the Army, the Police, and the Civil Defense all there including the Media.
Distribution of electoral materials for the various wards and units was done by INEC, every other protocols of moving down to the wards and to the electoral units duly observed, there was accreditation of the electorates and a credible election was conducted across the seven wards, and it was a peaceful election all through for which INEC deserves commendation.
But it is sad to read on the pages of newspapers and other mediums that 'there was no election', in Bassambiri, Nembe Bassambiri or Opu Nembe Bassambiri, that'election didn't hold because of violence, this is a thing of serious concern to our medium and to shy away from telling the truth, may be disservice to the nation, hence this report.
On page 44 of the Nation Newspaper, is a news titled: "PDP rejects election result in Bayelsa Councils" reads:

Mr. Cleopas Moses
PDP Chairman , Bayelsa State

"The Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} in Bayelsa State has rejected the election results in the state. The party is demanding a cancellation of the election from some local government areas, and asking the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to conduct a rerun in the affected Councils."
"Members of the party yesterday, marched on the street to protest the result. They were led by Chairman Cleopas Moses, Secretary to the State Government Kemela Okara,Speaker of the House of Assembly, Kombowei Benson, House of Representatives member and Senatorial candidate, Douye Diri among others."
" They insisted that election did not hold in Bassambiri and urged INEC to reject the results that gave the All Progressives Congress APC victory.'
"Okara said there was no election in the seven wards of Bassambiri adding that results were written by APC leaders. He called on INEC to cancel the results and conduct fresh elections in the affected areas."
Sir,  all these persons shouting out, 'there was no election in Bassambiri', and that the elections should be rejected or cancelled by INEC are not citizens of Nembe, or of the Nembe Local Government Area of the State, and they must have been misinformed, because their actions are telegraphic of their not knowing the truth of the Opu Nembe Bassambiri seven wards success story of the 23rd February 2019 Presidential/National Assembly elections. And they don't know anything about what they are saying because, they all belong to different communities and LGAs and are all members of the PDP, just one of the many registered political parties.

One of the voting units at Opu Nembe

They are the ones urging INEC to cancel results of an election that has nothing to do with them because they were misinformed? If the above mentioned were all in their Local Government areas, at their polling stations to vote according to the electoral laws how could they have been in Nembe at the same time to give account of the elections there?
Summary: We are talking about elections in the seven wards that make Nembe Constituency 2 and 3  in the State House of Assembly  out of the 13 wards of the Local Government Area, which means that we are talking about the largest area of the LGA.Friday, February 2019, in the Opu Nembe Bassambiri, headquarters of the seven wards, all was quiet till about 5.p.m when the Army announced a curfew to commence 7.30 p.m - 6.am, and everybody hurriedly went home early to sleep and wait for tomorrow Saturday the 23rd for the elections.
In the morning of Saturday, there was news going round, that some defied the curfew, came out in the middle of the night and had a fight a young man whose name was given as Keneth Adeboh was reportedly killed and some reportedly injured and were taken to hospitals, it all happened in the night and those who were in their rooms and did not see what happened could not give account of that, only the Security Agencies are in position to say what they saw.

Evans Tubonah
Reporting.

On Saturday the 23rd at Opu Nembe Bassambiri, the headquarters of the seven wards, INEC distributed electoral materials to officials who went out to the various wards and units, and there was an election, a peaceful election. There was no violence, no rift among political parties on the election day at any location, as being canvassed by those who were not there and did not know the truth.
There is therefore no basis to cancel any election there.