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We Have 17 President-Elects Of The Ijaw Youth Council – Donkemezuo

Factional President-Elect of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Elvis Donkemezuo has blamed the current crisis rocking the organisation on the Bayelsa State government. Speaking on … Continue reading We Have 17 President-Elects Of The Ijaw Youth Council – Donkemezuo


Factional President-Elect of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Elvis Donkemezuo has blamed the current crisis rocking the organisation on the Bayelsa State government.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, he alleged that Bayelsa State Commissioner for Ijaw Affairs, Felix Tuodolo, who was present at the election day disrupted the election.

Donkemezuo claimed that renowned Public Affairs Analyst, Ankio Briggs, was nominated to chair the electoral committee based on her reputation for uprightness, but was later removed because the Bayelsa State government was unable to make her rig the election in favour of their candidate.

He stated that there were actually 17 candidates laying claim to the title of President-elect of the IYC because the elections were not concluded.

He accused the Bayelsa State government of disrupting the election process by sharing the sum of 30,000 Naira (about 189 dollars)  to each delegate while the election was going on, in order to make them vote for a preferred candidate. He claimed that there were video evidences to back his claims.

Explaining the procedure that produced all eligible delegates who are 100 in total, from all zones of the IYC including Lagos, he said trouble started when on the election day, the votes for the post of Financial Secretary and Treasurer had a total of 106 and 104 ballot papers respectively.

However, according to Donkemezuo, the most crucial moment of the election was when the ballot papers were being counted and the Commissioner, Felix Tuodolo came into the hall and started distributing money to the private security hired by the government and arguments started amongst them due to dissatisfaction of some of the security men.

The internal fights created a chaotic scene that led to the disruption of the counting process, as aspirants protested and the Electoral Chairman, Sunny Diritolofari declared the election inconclusive.

Donkemezuo posited that the Bayelsa State Government knew that if the votes were counted, their candidate would have lost and that was why they opted to disrupt the election.

The twist to the incident came the morning after, when they woke up to be told via an SMS that there would be an election at 8am. On getting to the election venue, it was barricaded by soldiers with all the aspirants locked outside and they were told that the election had been held and a winner had emerged.

The said winner, Udengs Eradiri, a former Secretary General of IYC, was the only aspirant present at the election and he was said to have entered through the back door. He was allegedly whisked into the Government House where a press conference was held and he was declared president.

According to him, the electoral committee’s refusal to give any explanation on the development made all other presidential aspirants declare themselves president.

The development led to several peaceful protests on the streets of Yenagoa. “The protests continued into the late hours of that day,” he said.

The question asked by Elvis Donkemezuo and other presidential aspirants is, “who voted for Udengs Eradiri?”