From the very start, the race for the succession of the outgoing Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has been crisis-ridden. First, it was the anxiety over who the incumbent governor would endorse for the plum job among the many aspirants jostling for the ticket of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Later, the fierce struggle for the ticket of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) caught the attention of pundits.
Many had expected that the dust of uncertainty raised by early events in the governorship race will clear after the leading political parties would have chosen their respective candidates. But that is not to be as uncertainty still pervades the political firmament of the oil-rich state about two weeks to the November 26 date of the election and several weeks after candidates have emerged from the two frontline parties.
For analysts, it has nearly become impossible to predict how the people may vote. What with the ruling party having its candidate changed midway to the election with the possibility of another change, as several cases are in court over who flies the banner of the PDP? The APC too is at the risk of having its candidate either changed or stopped on account of a case instituted by an aggrieved aspirant.
Thus, as the people, as well as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) count days in expectation of the much discussed election, it is with bated breath. For INEC, there is the worrisome uncertainty of whose name should be written on the ballot papers for the disputed tickets; for the people, it is the uncertainty of who will eventually fly the banner of their preferred parties.
To hold or not to hold
Such is the seriousness of the uncertainty in the state ahead of the scheduled date that talks are rife about the possibility of the election being postponed by INEC. Those angling for a postponement hinged their demand on the need for the electoral commission to allow for the resolution of the court cases over the candidates before holding the election.
Dr. Yomi Olowolafe, former spokesperson of the Action Alliance (AA) in the state, while speaking with The Nation during the week said it will be improper for INEC to continue with the election until the suit filed by Eyitayo Jegede, the substituted candidate of the PDP, is decided for or against him and his camp.
He argued that given INEC’s position that it is acting in tandem with the rule of law, it is expedient for the commission to prevent a constitutional crisis by ensuring that justice is done before proceeding with the election. I am very optimistic that except the case is speedily decided, as we hope, the election may not hold as scheduled.
“My candid opinion is that INEC should ensure that the suit filed by Eyitayo Jegede, the substituted candidate of the PDP, is decided by the courts before the election is held. It will be unimaginable to ignore the suits and go on with the election, fielding Jimoh Ibrahim, who the party says it does not know. The cases are important to the success of the election,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Mimiko had told party supporters that INEC) should forget about conducting the governorship election in the state if the issue of the candidacy of the PDP, was not resolved. At a stakeholders’ meeting held in Akure, the governor said the PDP as a party in Nigeria and Ondo State in particular, is a major stakeholder in election matters and no one can prevent the party from participating in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
“I don’t know how they will do it; it is impossible for them to deny us our right. Justice will stand and Jegede will contest this election. Election can’t take place in Ondo State without the PDP. Justice will stand and Jegede will contest the election. Election can’t take place without the PDP. We know those behind this. It is beyond the President. Their thinking is that without Jegede, they will win but their plan will fail, “he said.
But the opposition APC and INEC disagrees with Mimiko and other protagonist of a shift in the date. According to a statement by the state chapter of the APC, the crisis within the ruling party should not be allowed to disturb the conduct of the election as at when due. The party urged Mimiko and his party to manage their affairs well in the interest of the state.
For INEC, the commission will not abdicate its duty of deciding when election will hold to any other individual, group or institution. The commission also insisted that the Ondo election will go on as planned, irrespective of what is happening in any of the participating political parties.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said in an interview in Abuja on Wednesday that the commission would go ahead with the planned election. He said, “The process for postponing or shifting of elections is spelt out in the Electoral Act as amended. One of the reasons is natural disaster.
“No aspect of the reasons stated for this include intra-party crisis as we are witnessing in the party you have mentioned. Under the Electoral Act, intra-party conflict is not recognised as one of the reasons why INEC must shift the date of an election we have given notice of since March. As I speak today, there is no plan to postpone it. We are going ahead with the election as slated for November 26.”
Unending confusion
While the commission has allayed fears about the election being shifted, it can do little or nothing in allaying the confusion in the land over the candidates of leading political parties. Although many of them have been adequately sensitised and mobilised by weeks of electoral campaigns by the parties and candidates, quite a number of the would-be voters are uncertain about who the candidates of their preferred parties would be eventually.
For many who desire to vote for the candidates and not the parties, it is even a more difficult situation. The substitution of the candidate of the PDP, Jegede, with Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, and the subsequent court case instituted by the former, according to sources, have created confusion for voters willing to vote for or against the two contenders.
“I want to vote for a particular candidate. I need to be sure he will be on the ballot. If he is not on the ballot of his current party, I will rather vote for another party. But with the confusion over the ticket, it is difficult to make up my mind how to vote. Don’t also forget Amaechi’s experience in Rivers State. I wouldn’t want to vote for someone and another person get declared as governor on the platform of the same party,” a source said.
PDP is not the only troubled party ahead of the election. The candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Olusola Oke, is also struggling to keep his name and that of his deputy, on the ballot paper. The threat to his candidacy heightened during the week when a human rights activist and former governorship aspirant of the APC, Tunji Abayomi, said Oke was not qualified to contest the November 26, governorship election.
He wrote INEC to disqualify Oke and his running mate, Gani Dauda, for allegedly not being eligible to contest the poll, alleging that both Oke and his deputy did not participate in the primary of the AD, which according to him, was against provisions of the Electoral Act.
“Oke can only be a candidate of the APC where he contested but he didn’t win the primary. The Electoral Act says he must be elected by the members of AD and they must vote for him in a primary,” Abayomi said.
Similarly, the National Legal Adviser of the party, Kehinde Aworele, has filed a suit challenging the eligibility of Oke to contest as AD’s candidate in the November 26 governorship election. In a suit, number FHC/ABJ/CS/881/2016 before a Federal High Court, Abuja, dated November 4, he prayed the court to determine whether Oke is qualified to contest on the platform of the party in the election.
Other defendants in the suit are the AD National Chairman, Joseph Avaci, National Secretary, Akin Fashogbon, and the Independent National Electoral Commission. The suit was attached with a 42-paragraph affidavit in support of the Originating Summons and disposed to by one Babatunde Tijani of No. 7, Kwali Close, Area B, Abuja.
The plaintiff urged the court to determine whether Mr. Oke, being a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and contested in APC primary of September 3, can surreptitiously become the candidate of AD in Ondo State in the 2016 Governorship Election having regard to the provisions of Article 21.4 of the Constitution of AD.
The court is also to determine: “Whether by Article 21.4 of the Constitution of AD, Oke can be said to be eligible to contest on the platform of AD.
“Whether, having regard to the provisions of Article 21.4 of the Constitution of AD, Oke, not being a member of the AD for duration six months, can lawfully contest for the 2016 Governorship Election in Ondo State on the platform of AD.
The APC is also not spared some worries as Olusegun Abraham, one of the aspirants in the primary election that produced Rotimi Akeredolu as flag bearer is insisting that the court should rule that the purported governorship primary election in Ondo State held on the 3/9/2016 is in clear violation of sundry provisions of the APC Electoral Guidelines for Governorship Primary Election 2014 and provisions of the Constitution of All Progressives Congress, 2014 as Amended and therefore invalid, null, void of no effect.
Abraham said he is in court seeking an order setting aside the Ondo State Governorship Primary Election of Akeredolu held on the 3rd of September, 2016 for “non-compliance with provisions of the APC Elections Guidelines 2014 as Amended for Primary Elections, and Electoral Act 2010 as Amended, APC Constitution 2014 as Amended.”
“The situation in nearly all the three leading political party is such that nothing is certain. With INEC’s declaration that it will continue to obey court rulings on the matter of party candidacy, it is now nearly impossible to say who exactly is the candidate of any of these troubled parties. This is making the election really chaotic and voters confused,” a chieftain of the ruling party said.
Allegation and counter allegations
Determined to hold on to the ticket of his new party, Oke has blamed an alleged plot to stop him from participating in the election on a cabal in the ruling APC. He said this when he cried out to President Muhammadu Buhari to save him from those who want to stop him from contesting the November 26, 2016 governorship.
He named the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai, Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Badaru, Minister of Works, Raji Fasola, Minister of Solid Minerals, Kayode Fayemi and the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosu, and others, as people determined to prevent him from participating in the governorship election, so as to ensure the victory of Akeredolu, the APC candidate.
“This plot to stop Chief Oke from contesting the election is simply to clear the way for their protégé, Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who is also vying for the Ondo State governorship position. Their best joker, which has been lent credence to by the popular boasts in town in the past few days by Akeredolu and his minders, is the ploy to instigate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to invite and possibly detain Chief Oke days before the election, over phantom allegations.
“Chief Olusola Oke has been severally investigated and cleared by the anti-graft agency of any financial impropriety, but of recent, they have been putting a lot of pressure on the Commission to harass him of late with a view to make him look as if he is guilty, a development which is far from the truth,” his campaign office said.
In a related development, a group, Ondo Young Leaders in Diaspora, has accused governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Jimoh Ibrahim, of working for the APC. The group, therefore, warned Ibrahim against “trading the state into the hands of political merchants.”
In a statement issued by its president, Tomide Akinribido, the group warned Ibrahim against allowing himself to be used as “a tool in the hands of some people operating from the ruling APC government.” The statement said it became necessary for it to talk because of what it called “unfolding dangerous situation in the state.”
“It is of great importance to issue this press statement at this time, when our attention has been drawn to this revelation by an online newspaper on how controversial businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim, knowing full well that he cannot win an election, wants to cause distraction and commotion within the ruling party in the state, with intent to give way to the APC candidate, Rotimi Akeredolu.”
The statement said that Ibrahim has no good record either as public or private figure, alleging he was out to attract “cheap public attention not minding its outcome.”
But the APC has denied the allegation and instead, accused Governor Mimiko and his party of plotting to throw the state into crisis following realisation that the PDP will lose the governorship election. Akeredolu and his party warned its opponents to solve their problems and focus on the election ahead.
“We have been reliably informed of the intense mobilisation of thugs and militants, running into thousands, by the Executive Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko. The governor intended to use the recruits to ”protest and unleash terror on the good people of the state. He has also started disbursing money to mobilise militants and hoodlums from Delta and Edo states as well as a faction of Oodua People’s Congress from Ekiti and Lagos states,’ the APC said.
With the current state of the political atmosphere in the state, many pundits are already predicting a tough election, should the election hold as scheduled without the many contentious issues resolved before then.
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