People collected bribe to vote against me – ex-Bayelsa LP gov candidate

A former Labour Party governorship candidate, Udengs Eradiri, has attributed his loss at the November 11, 2023, Bayelsa election to cash strap and poor campaign funding.

Eradiri said he felt betrayed that his people could collect as little as N5,000 to vote against the dream of Bayelsa having a people-oriented government.

He expressed his disappointment at a town hall organised by the National Association of Nigerian Students for Youths and civil society organisations on the eve of the nationwide hunger protest in Abuja on Thursday.

Governor Douye Diri was re-elected after he was declared the winner of the governorship election.

The Peoples Democratic Party candidate polled 175,196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress, who garnered 110,108 votes while Eradiri came third with 905 votes.

However, the former LP governorship candidate rejected the result and challenged the outcome, saying it wasn’t free and fair.

Speaking on the need to support President Bola Tinubu’s administration despite the persecution it is passing through over its economic policies, the former NANS president lamented that money politics have taken over the electoral process in the country.

According to him, his scandalous loss at the last poll left him with a deep scar on how Nigeria’s politics has retrogressed in years.

He said, “To win an election in Nigeria is not easy. For me, if I can’t raise enough funds ahead of the 2027 election, I won’t contest again. I have learnt my lesson. Money dealt with me in the last election. I begged the electorate to let us do the right thing. These are the same Nigerians who said they want a change.

“I went to every community to plead with them to let us adopt a change from the old way of governance because these guys in government are going away with our money. I even proffered solutions to power, agriculture and every problem plaguing the state. I was everywhere talking about it and even went to every community.

“The same people took N20,000, N30,000, N40,000 and as little as N5,000 to vote against me. These are the people I have been worried about and thinking of how we can work together to change our fortune for good. Now, they are the ones calling me to give them money. How is that possible? So when people say they want to solve Nigeria’s problem, it is mere rhetoric.

“For the first time in history, we have a president dealing with every issue raised on social media. Let us give him time. Yes, I agree that he has bad eggs around him. The team he (president) has out together is having issues left, right and centre. That is because some of them didn’t come with the same mindset. That is why you are seeing all these problems we are having.”