Some residents of Yenagoa in Bayelsa State have declared that they voted for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief David Lyon, instead of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Senator Douye Diri because of the party’s humiliation of a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Timi Alaibe, during the primaries.

Shortly after the announcement of results at the polling centres on Saturday, thousands of residents in the Bayelsa State capital took to the streets to celebrate APC’s victory in their polling units.

The residents, including market women, who rushed to the market to display their wares and tricycle operators, said they mobilised to vote for APC candidate instead of that of the PDP because they were unhappy with the way the leadership of the PDP in the state worked against the emergence of Alaibe as the party’s governorship candidate.

Despite the delay in the arrival of electoral materials, voters turned out in their numbers and waited patiently for materials to arrive after which they cast their votes.

In Opolo Community Town Hall, where armed men attempted to stop voting by shooting indiscriminately and destroying electoral materials, voters returned to cast their votes after more than 50 policemen were deployed to the area to enforce law and order.

After the attack, a group of women mobilised themselves and staged a peaceful protest, declaring that nothing will stop them from voting.

Some of the residents, who expressed optimism that David Lyon of the APC will emerge victorious after collation and announcement of the result, said Opolo Community, like other communities in Yenogoa are traditional PDP strongholds, but voted for APC in protest.

They added that they had always dreamed of seeing Alaibe as governor and that the leadership of PDP had the opportunity of making that dream come true, but decided to field a candidate that is “unpopular.”

Some of the residents claimed that the state has been on a standstill in recent years, lamenting that they have not seen infrastructure that befits an oil producing state like Bayelsa.

A youth leader in Atissa Community of Yenagoa, Cyprian Dose, said that residents were mindful of the fact that the election was the only way to “ensure that Bayelsa begins afresh.”

He added: “The little child on the street may not know who Timi Alaibe is, but he hears his parents mention his name frequently because the man is truly loved in Bayelsa. Majority of PDP supporters voted against the party because they did not like the way Alaibe was treated by the PDP.

“If he had flown the flag for the PDP, you would not have seen the kind of crowd that came out to celebrate the anticipated victory of the APC.”

(New Telegraph)

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