2019 poll: Surprises, unanswered questions and the battle to come vanguardngr.com vanguardnews
In Ogun State, the result of the governorship election in the state completed the cycle of three friends who had desired to govern the state and had their dreams fulfilled.
Amosun at that period had become the Ogun Central senatorial candidate of the PDP and, together, the trio embarked on massive campaigns But Amosun will go on to win the state governorship election in 2011 after Daniel’s second term on the platform of Action Congress of Nigeria . Like Daniel did to Amosun when the latter wanted to succeed him, Amosun reportedly vowed to scuttle the ambition of Abiodun to succeed him as the governor of the state.
History repeated itself in this year’s election when Daniel and Osoba teamed up against Amosun who had also sponsored a favoured candidate, Akinlade of APM.Apart from Osoba, the governor was not in the good books of many APC leaders who include Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the National Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole.
But as the results of the governorship and the state House of Assembly polls started coming in, last week, the hope that APC was banking on evaporated. The party lost all the 11 local governments in Ibadan, the state capital, including Ibadan South-West which had the largest number of voters. Two persons were gunned down in Oba Akoko area of the state while attempting to overrun the INEC collation centre in the area while others were killed during a shootout between security operatives and some protesting youths who alleged fraud in the election in Odigbo constituency.
“There was sporadic shooting of guns in the state capital. No arrest was made. What happened in the last elections was vote-buying and selling.” The decision of INEC did not go down well with the PDP which has continued to contend that its candidate ought to have been declared the winner of the poll. Few days to the governorship/House of Assembly elections, the APC did not rely on incumbency factor but went the extra mile to penetrate all the nooks and crannies of Niger to sell itself to the electorate.
The state Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers , Comrade Ibrahim Umar, also threw his weight behind the second term bid of Bello. While Ishaku won 12 of the 16 local government areas of the state, Danladi, of the APC, claimed victory in the remaining four. The euphoria and glitz Alhassan enjoyed in 2015 was, however, not sustained till the 2019 governorship contest.
Of the five local government areas in the Southern Senatorial Zone of Taraba, Ishaku won by a landslide in four while Danladi of the APC won one with a slim margin. Senate President Bukola Saraki, the Director General of Atiku presidential campaign organisation and national leader of the PDP, ridiculously failed to retain his seat in the National Assembly. So also were all other contestants of the party in the National Assembly elections. Atiku also lost in the state.
Sunday Vanguard checks revealed that many of his political aides and those he helped into various elective posts were the architect of his political misfortunes as they literarily abandoned the people and lived large flaunting their wealth among angry supporters. The heightened tension went down immediately the APC governorship candidate, Senator Ayogu Eze, returned from Abuja on Thursday, March 7 to announce his withdrawal.Despite the APC candidate’s withdrawal based on the non-inclusion of his name on INEC’s manifest, his counterpart in the PDP, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, left nothing undone to ensure victory.
Eyewitness narrated that over 1,000 youths filled his compound in Enugu-Ezike, chanting songs and dared INEC officials who they alleged were responsible for their woes. To be fair to the Federal Government, there was no report of soldiers snatching ballot boxes or helping APC to rig in the state on March 9 as was feared before the polls, but what was very apparent was that suspected political thugs from outside the vicinities paraded many polling units.
In other senatorial districts of the state, Okowa’s ride on Ogboru was devastating. He won all the local governments in Delta South and Delta North senatorial districts. Former Secretary to the State Government, Comrade Ovuozorie Macaulay and others ensured that Isoko votes did not go to Ogboru. Ogboru, in the opinion of many, did not appear as one ready for the election. Analysts said unlike in the past when Ogboru contested, this time his campaign was less vigorous. Another factor that counted against Ogboru was the internal wrangling in his party. Until about a week to the election, some aggrieved members of the party were not ready to work for him. Some members of the party were not happy with the way he emerged as the governorship candidate of the party as a new entrant.
The governor’s landslide win will expectedly give wide acceptance and popularity to PDP in the state. Unlike in the presidential and National Assembly elections, where materials were distributed or arrived late in most polling units, especially those in rural areas and remote places, INEC delivered materials on time in most centres and polling started early.
Ayade polled 361,484, votes ahead of Owan Enoh, who got 131,161, votes, while Ekpo of SDP got 818 votes. For Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, he and his ruling PDP, this time, got more than they bargained from APC. Wike is at the receiving end of a weighty intimidation, as ‘federal might’ shifted to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
He displayed his capacity in the February 23 presidential and National Assembly polls when his party made some inroads in the state. In supposedly APC stronghold like Southern Ijaw local government area where the APC won the House of Representatives seat earlier, the APC failed to secure a single seat, ditto for Ogbia local government area where the party also made a good showing in the National Assembly election where it captured the East senatorial slot.
But for what happened in Edo North, where the APC took the seat for the Senate and three House of Representatives seats, the party would have been embarrassed in the February 23 elections having lost the entire Edo Central and parts of Edo South where it could not win the Senate and two of the four House of Representative seats in Egor/Ikpobha-Okha and Oredo federal constituencies although the party’s candidate for Egor/Ikpoba-Okha, Johnson Agbonayinma has rejected the result.
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