Ahead of the council polls in Bayelsa, 76 political parties have called for the removal  of the acting chairman of the Bayelsa State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC) Ball Oyarede, within three days.

The parties under the umbrella of Party Advisory Council (IPAC) also directed members to withdraw from participating in the forthcoming elections.

Their stance was based on allegations that the chairman is a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to rig the elections.

The leadership of IPAC also directed all member political parties that have not conducted their primaries to put their primaries on hold until their demands were met.

State chairman of IPAC, Mr. Eneyi Zidougha, confirmed the report, threatening to drag the state government to court if their demands were not met after three days.

He said: “Our demand is simple. We are asking the state governor to remove Ball Oyarede, who is a card-carrying member of the PDP and replace him with a none PDP member, preferably somebody from the academia. And we are giving the Governor a three day ultimatum to meet this demand.” 

BYSIEC has yet to react to the allegations.

Mr. Oyarede was a serving member of the Bayelsa State sixth Assembly whose tenure ended on June 6, 2019.