Eighteen registered political parties participated in the Ondo State Governorship Election which took place yesterday. But in reality, only two parties were in the contest: The governing All Progressives Party, APC and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
By 7: 30 pm on Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had uploaded results from 3,543 polling units out of a total 3,933 polling units, comprising 90.08 per cent of the results from the election to its Result Viewing Portal. THEWILL can report that incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa is way ahead with the PDP candidate, Agboola Ajayi trailing.
The electoral commission is expected to officially declare results of the election later today in Akure, the state’s capital.
PDP’s Ajayi who cast his vote at Apoi Ward II, Unit 004 in Kiribo, Ese Odo Local Government Area, accused INEC and the security agencies of compromising the election in favour of the APC.
Agboola, who won the unit by polling 194 votes to defeat his main rival, Governor Ayedatiwa who scored 003 votes, said a preliminary report across all the local government areas had shown that the election was far below standard. He asked the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu to resign for conducting the most corrupt election in Nigeria’s political history.
He said, “If INEC cannot successfully organise an election in just one state, then you must know that we are running into anarchy in Nigeria. I have been getting reports across the state and they are the same. I am a victim here in my unit and I want to say it is deliberate on the part of the Ondo REC and the INEC. Don’t forget we have said earlier that we don’t trust Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola who is the REC. She can’t be fair.
“The system is compromised and there are complaints everywhere in the state, including vote-buying and BVAS not working. Don’t forget that the machine is a rigging tool for them. It is a very shameful exercise. I think Nigerians should just call on INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, if he can’t do the job, he should honourably resign because the system is compromised, this is sad.
“Under Professor Attahiru Jega as INEC chairman, our electoral process was getting to that international standard, but Professor Yakubu has drawn us back. This is sad and Nigerians are not happy.
“From my community here, the military operatives deployed more men to this area and I will take it up with the brigade commander. They can’t intimidate voters. How do you station seven to 10 armed soldiers? We are not at war here!
The incumbent governor who voted at Polling Unit 5, Ugbo Ward 5, Obenla community in Ilaje Local Government Area, where he secured 128 votes to defeat Ajayi of the PDP, who scored 3 votes, said INEC was transparent with the whole process.
He said, “I went through the process myself. I was accredited, given the ballot paper and I cast my vote. That is what they have been doing for every voter. So, I think that it is the process. They are adhering to the process.
“But for security, they are also on ground. And so far, we have not recorded any issue or crisis. Anyway, I’ve not heard of any violent incident. I can only be at one polling unit at a time. That is where I am.
“We have not heard of any violent incident, as it were. So, I want to believe that the election will be peaceful.
“Apart from 1983 when we had a major crisis, we have been peaceful. We’ve learned our lessons. We comfort ourselves. I want to also salute the youth. They have been very obedient. I want to believe the whole exercise will be peaceful, transparent, credible and conclusive.”
Governor Aiyedatiwa has said he will accept defeat if the conduct of the election is transparent.
ZLP’s Mimiko who won his polling unit at Ward 7, PU20, Mona Clinic, Agbogbo Oke, in the Ondo West local government area of the state with 65 votes to defeat the governor who polled 60 votes in the tight race, expressed confidence in winning the election, maintaining that voters were tired with the major political parties who have had their turns but failed to delivered democracy dividends to the people.
15 POLITICAL PARTIES MISSING IN ACTION
The Labour Party, which is structurally strong enough to be considered a third force, fell into a prolonged crisis that was complicated by the last-minute Appeal Court judgment last Wednesday. The judgement knocked out its candidate and restored the candidacy of another faction which INEC hurriedly included in the final list of contestants on Friday, a day to the polls. It created confusion for the party and its members, thus creating doubts in the minds of voters.
The National Exco of the party, however felt relieved that Mr Olorunfemi Ayodele Festus whom they had supported all along was confirmed by the Appeal Court ruling and enlisted by INEC.
According to LP Ondo Chairperson, Mrs Remilekun Ojo, the “reports of Mr Ebisemi’s disqualification by the court were all lies because the crisis had been internally resolved before the judgement.”
Efforts to contact the party spokesperson, Obiora Ifo failed as he did not respond to calls to his phone. His predecessor and member of the party, Abayomi Arabambi told THEWILL that Ojo and youth leaders were probably right in insisting that there was an internal settlement of the crisis, but they were wrong about the Appeal Court ruling.
He said, “I really do not know where they got their idea from. She (state chairperson), is speaking from a position of ignorance. It is true that the Federal High Court in Abuja confirmed Ebisemi and asked INEC to remove Olorunfemi’s name from the list of candidates. But the party appealed the case because Section 31 of the Electoral Act was violated. The section states that a candidate must submit a handwritten withdrawal letter, not a typed letter to the National Chairman, who will submit it with a covering letter to INEC. This was not done. So, the Labour Party candidate for the poll is Olurunfemi.”
APPEAL COURT JUDGMENT, INEC’s COMPLIANCE
Indeed, the Appeal Court ruling that state chairman, Mrs Ojo said was misreported by the press, is very explicit and conclusive. According to the Certified True Copy of the judgement obtained by THEWILL and signed by Hamma Akawu Barka, Justice of the Appeal Court and Judith M Jabbe, Deputy Chief Registrar, the suit with No: CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024, the three justices, namely Hamma Akawu Barka, Adebukunola A. Banjoko and Abba A. Mohammed, held that the appeal is against the Federal High Court in suit FHC/ABJ/SC/1105/2024.
They held that the judgement of the lower court in the referenced suit delivered on September 27 was “set aside and the suit before the lower court struck out for want of jurisdiction.”
Contacted on the development, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi forwarded a Friday statement of the commission on the final, updated list of governorship contestants to this newspaper.
He said, “The Commission was yesterday 14th November 2024 served with the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement of the Court of Appeal which set aside the judgement of the Federal High Court (FHC), Abuja Division. The FHC, in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1105/2024 had on 27th September 2024 ordered the Commission to accept Olusola Ebiseni as the candidate of the Labour Party for the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election.
“However, in the appeal with reference number CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024 filed by the Labour Party, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division struck out the judgement of the FHC for lack of jurisdiction.
“In obedience to the court order, the Commission has restored Olorunfemi Ayodele Festus, whose name was first published as the Labour Party candidate for the 2024 Ondo State Governorship election and uploaded the same to our website for public information.”
With that last- minute name substitution and supporters of each faction going into the election divided, LP had an uphill task contesting against the governing APC and main opposition PDP.
ENTER APC, ZLP, PDP
APC
As the parties rounded off their campaigns with less than two days to the poll, three out of 15 candidates withdrew from the election and endorsed the incumbent Governor of Ondo State and candidate of the APC, Lucky Aiyedatiwa. They jnclude Dr. Ajobola Faleye of the Accord Party, Hon Jenyo Ataunoko of the National Rescue Movement and Mr Oladele Rashid Ibrahim of the African Democratic Congress. They all stated that their decision to step down for Aiyedatiwa was because of the latter’s commitment to the development of the state.
The incumbency factor appears to have played a major factor for the governor as some though aggrieved members of the party, particularly members of his predecessors’ family had voted with their feet against APC. This division in late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu’s camp became noticeable when members of his family openly endorsed the candidacy of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Otunba Bamidele Akingboye.
Nevertheless, Aiyedatiwa counted on the subtle but powerful influence of President Bola Tinubu, who is eyeing his re-election in 2027, for his victory on Saturday. The President’s embarrassing loss to Labour Party in Lagos during the 2023 general election still rankles, according to government sources, not to talk of the PDP governing in two of the six southwest states, namely Osun and Oyo.
Ordinarily, for a party that controls all three senatorial seats, eight out of nine House of Representatives and 22 out of 26 Ondo House of Assembly members, the election should be a walk-over. But the dust triggered by in-fighting among party loyalists during the late Akeredolu’s illness and the fractious party primaries posed an initial challenge to the incumbent governor.
PDP
One of the strong points that could have swung votes for Ajayi, apart from the internal crisis within the APC, where he once held sway as Deputy Governor during Akeredolu’s first term from 2017 to 2021, from where he left to contest the governorship election on the platform of Zenith Labour Party, in 2022 is the hardship in the country induced by the APC-led administration.
Another factor was the issue of minimum wage implementation. Although the government had pledged to start payment in November when the wage implementation committee might have finished its work and submitted the outcome to the government, the general feeling is that the governor has politicised it by making it a campaign issue. Unfortunately, these permutations failed on the altar of vote buying and alleged compromise of the electoral process by INEC officials.
ZLP
Mimiko, who is younger brother to a former two-time governor of the state, Segun Mimiko, is said to be a dark horse in the election because he provided an alternative to new voters who are mostly youths, believed to be fed up with the APC and PDP, which they considered to have mismanaged the affairs of the country between them. He hails from Ondo Central zone. He said he joined the governorship race to rescue the state from “troubled times,” adding that he does not believe in zoning, just like the new voters whom he was able to sell his campaign message to.
NEUTRAL ISSUES THAT FAVOURED EITHER CANDIDATE
Zoning
The zoning formula that governs informal power sharing arrangement in many states in Nigeria is also at play in Ondo. Of the three zones in Ondo, namely Ondo North, Ondo South and Ondo Central, the South has produced a governor once and for one term, unlike the other two zones which have produced governors who did two terms besides rotating the office between themselves.
Curiously, Aiyedatiwa and Ajayi come from the south zone, meaning that they stood a chance of harvesting votes from supporters of the rotational principle as well as from their own areas within the zone. The zone is made up of six local government areas out of Ese Odo, Ilaje, Ile Oluji/Okeigbo, Irele, Odigbo, and Okitipupa. Aiyedatiwa comes from Ilaje, while Ajayi hails from Ese Odo. These local government areas are known to have voted for the APC in previous elections, but the prevailing reality of ‘son of the soil’, factor however failed to change the political dynamics for the election.
Increased voter population: According to INEC, 2.05 million were registered for the ballot and 1.75 million or 85.6 per cent collected their PVCs. This is a high collection rate, which may go a long way in determining the fate of each candidate.
INEC disclosed that 1,793,914 registered voters who collected their Permanent Voter Cards are eligible to vote across 3,933 polling units in the state.
There are 2,053,061 registered voters, a 3 percent increase from the 2023 general election figure. Youth participation is expected to be significant, with voters aged 18 to 35 years accounting for 35.41 percent of the electorate. Students, representing 33.85 percent, form the largest occupational group among registered voters, while persons with disabilities make up 0.09 percent.
Vote Buying
Compromising voters through monetary inducement has become a regular feature in Nigerian election, whether at the national or local level. In the last night before polling money bags will pour into town and position themselves in the areas of any opposition and pay for votes. The party with a big war chest to influence voting choices usually gets more voters to do its bidding.
In fact, the two major parties, APC and PDP, were said to have engaged in vote buying. A suspected vote buyer was, on Saturday, arrested at Ward 4, Polling Unit 007, near St. Stephen’s Primary School, Akure, Ondo State during voting.
He was arrested by officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) with two bags of naira cash which are suspected to be for the inducement of voters. A security source said the bags contained millions of naira.
Another source who is a member of one of the two leading parties in the Sunshine State said voters across the three senatorial zones got, at least, N20,000 to N30,000 per vote as money rained during the election.
INEC PREPARED
Speaking on INEC’s preparation on Friday evening, Mr Oyekanmi said most of the materials for the election were deployed by 2:30 pm and moved to the polling units by 8:00 am on Saturday, adding that the riverine areas were also adequately attended to. According to him, the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had the previous week, met with transporters and extracted commitment from them to deliver the materials promptly and safely.
Prior to the conduct of the election, INEC, Rotimi further disclosed, had conducted Continuous Voters Registration exercise in the state and made cards available to the people. It also conducted extensive voter education on radio and television, at markets, event centres and with traditional rulers just at carried out mock accreditation when the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, 4,000 of which were deployed to 3,900 polling units and an additional 13,000 kept as back-up.
He gave the assurance that, “votes will count because after voting has taken place at the polling units, the presiding officers and his assistant will count and declare the votes, enter the results into form EC and upload into INEC Result Viewing Portal, IRev, until it gets to the final level of collation.
In an update on voting on Saturday, the Commission said that of the 3,933 Polling Units (PUs) across the 203 Wards in the 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Ondo State, 3,823 (97 percent) opened by 8.30am. The remaining 110 PUs opened between 8.31am and 10am.
SECURITY
At least 30,239 Police personnel would be deployed to Ondo State for the November 16 governorship election in the state, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, disclosed on Thursday.
Egbetokun, who disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Thursday, noted that a breach of the peace or security can surely scuttle the success expected in the exercise.
IGP, represented by the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 7, Abiodun Olabisi, called on stakeholders to discharge their various duties with security-conscious approaches.
According to him, the areas of concern for security cover the voters, the electoral officials, the electoral materials, and the general public which will have to be effectively provided before, during and after the election. This can be efficiently achieved by concerted covert and overt operations by the synergised security agencies assigned for the election duties.
Other security operatives, including personnel from the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who have been deployed in large numbers to ensure a peaceful process.
The Defence Headquarters said it would station troops at border points and identified flashpoints, a move the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba described as a deterrent against interference and violence.
The Deputy Inspector-General of Police overseeing election security, Sylvester Alabi, and his men conducted regular tours of polling units and collation centres to ensure that voting materials remained intact and the counting and collation of votes were conducted in a fair and orderly manner.
Credit: THE WILL