Sylva, Bayelsa APC Chair May Face Prosecution Over Electoral Offences
Trouble appears in the offing for the governorship candidate of the APC in the November 11, 2023 in Bayelsa State over the fake results they generated during the election, which were equally tendered at the election tribunal.
The fake results were exposed when INEC tendered the authentic results with security features. The fake results which Sylva and the APC produced, according to the tribunal, had no security features. One of the witnesses who was used to tender the fake results at the tribunal even fainted when the truth was revealed.
On Monday when the tribunal gave its judgement, the APC chairman, Dennis Otiotio was thoroughly white-washed for his role in the shameful act, even as the tribunal chairman also pilloried him for presenting himself as a witness, when he was a member of the APC legal team.
Some stakeholders from Bayelsa area already getting ready to drag Sylva, Otiotio and the APC to court for prosecution over the fake results and all the illegal activities they engaged in, during the election, as were made public at the tribunal.
Revelations from the tribunal is already becoming a talking point in the state. On Tuesday, the governor, Senator Douye Diri expressed concern at the level of electoral fraud that was initiated by Sylva and his party as well as a former commissioner of police who was in the state at the time of the election.
The governor bared his mind at the King of Glory Chapel in Government House, Yenagoa, during the May edition of the state thanksgiving.
A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, quoted the governor as saying that during cross-examination at the tribunal, the APC witnesses shot themselves in the foot with frivolous claims and inconsistent exhibits.
The governor narrated how the former commissioner of police, Tolani Alausa, who was procured as a star witness in the case, tainted his image by tendering false evidence before the court and was humiliated for parading fake INEC documents.
He noted that although Alausa was no longer the CP in the state, the senior police officer presented himself at the tribunal to defend the fraud perpetrated by the APC candidate.
He said: “During one of the sittings, I physically went to the tribunal and I saw what transpired. Our party’s secretary, in the witness box, stated that most of the election materials the APC presented as INEC’s documents before the court were manufactured by the APC state chairman, Dennis Otiotio.
“To confirm this, our lawyers scanned an INEC form that they (APC) presented and it was established that the form was printed in Yenagoa. The counsel to INEC in his own cross-examination of Otiotio and their party’s witnesses said all INEC result sheets had barcodes but that presented as result sheets by the APC had none.
“We also witnessed how a commissioner of police made himself an APC commissioner in the state. This was an officer that had been transferred from the state following an indictment by the IG due to a misdemeanour but he got his way back through the APC candidate’s influence to supervise the election. The same person became the APC star witness in a case he was no longer party to, following his re-deployment out of the state.
“If you look at the veracity of our matter, you will know that it was between light and darkness. Technically, they were even knocked out by the tribunal and their case dismissed. But the panel did not only base their judgement on that. Rather the judges addressed their points one by one. So we are waiting for their appeal.”
Diri described the litigation process by Sylva as a deceptive plot by those who attempted to steal in broad daylight and still crying wolf about a miscarriage of justice by the tribunal.
It is not yet clear when the legal action would be instituted against Sylva and his party, but sources told TNN that some interest groups were working on the strength of the tribunal indictment of the APC leaders and were desirous of getting them prosecuted for their electoral maleficence.
