Following the announcement by the INEC to declare the Bayelsa polls inconclusive, facts have emerged of how militants loyal to former President Goodluck Jonathan bungled the electioneering processes.
Spearheading the move to derail the elections was High Chief Government Ekpompolo, aka Tompolo who with the electoral loss suffered by Jonathan, felt he was losing grip of his last stronghold as well as relevance in the Niger Delta.
The Bayelsa poll was seen as an opportunity to get a platform to ‘teach’ the APC a lesson as they feel with the APC controlling governance in the Niger Delta will be bad omen to them
It will be noted that the Federal government have frozen accounts belonging for former warlord Tompolo over alleged financial dealings with links to some past officials of the government.
To further lay credence to their mission, the ex-militants told Ijaw people that the All Progressives Congress was against them and as such should not allow the party win in the state. And this may have led to the attack on the minister of state for agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, whose residence was under siege from Delta towns of Ogudubiri, Ezibiri, Opruza and Krenkuko youths.
It will be noted that Tompolo is not alone in the grand scheme of things. Engozi Kime, Kinsgley Kuku and Patrick Akpobolokimi now undergoing trial are co-conscriptors.
According to information, Kuku is yet to honour an EFCC summon, as he is out of the country on medical grounds but the government trailed him to a neighbouring West African nation where he was said to have donated handsomely to the election project of the incumbent president.
Kime’s accounts frozen by the EFCC; he was handling the multi billion naira Maritime University contract before Jonathan’s loss while Patrick Akpobolokimi, the former head of NIMASA has also been picked by the EFCC to make account of his stewardship.
However, there are fears that similar scenario may play out in Rivers State if Governor Nyesom Wike loses his appeal and a fresh election is ordered to be conducted.