How PDP rigged polls in Burutu, by Clarks aide

AN aide of Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, Emibra Efrendi Agbeotu, has said the elder statesmans son, Ebikeme, who contested the House of Representatives seat was denied victory by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which did not allow the election to hold in Burutu federal constituency.Agbeotu, who reacted to reports in two national dailies yesterday on the defeat of Ebikeme, said the manner the stories were written was intended to ridicule Clark.Ebikeme was the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) candidate in the constituency.Agbeotu stopped short of saying that that the report was sponsored and presented sarcastically in order to politically ridicule Clark.According to Agbeotu, there was no election in most wards in Burutu and that what took place was a sad mockery of democratic strangulation meant to rape the electorate.He said: There was large-scale violence instigated by the PDP machinery that saw an exercise by the electorate to choose their leaders as a do-or-die affair. There was large-scale snatching of ballot boxes, stuffing of ballot boxes, using thugs to destroy polling booths where the DPP was leading in order to give avenue to INEC ad-hoc officials, many of whom were their collaborators to cancel legitimate votes, using threat to ask voters in the polling centres to vote for the PDP or face strange reprisals.Agbeotu said the PDP resorted to using thugs sensing it was going to be defeated, adding that results were cooked up.He expressed sadness at the conduct of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Delta State, Mr. Gabriel Ada, whom Agbeotu said, promised to act on their petition but that when they went to Asaba the following day to present it on the invitation of Ada, he was not in the office.There were equally no senior officers around to receive the protest, while all effort to contact the REC failed.While this has been very traumatic and painful to the electorate of Burutu federal constituency who had their choice to elect their leaders aborted, we appeal for calm as light will prevail over darkness.Mr. Ebikeme Clark as a law-abiding citizen is at present pre-occupied with the task of maintaining peace as he has urged aggrieved people of Burutu not to take the laws into their hands but trust in the resolution of the matter through legal means if INEC fails to do the right thing.
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