Ahead of Saturday (today’s) governorship poll in Edo State, heavy security presence has made the atmosphere very tense amid concerns whether security agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission will deliver a credible election.
The tension in Edo State, which has the motto, ‘Heartbeat of the nation,’ is making many hearts beat faster as the state goes to the poll today.
There is tension in Benin City, the state capital, and other major towns as residents go to the ballot to either re-elect the incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki or send him out of the Government House for another occupant to direct the affairs of the state for the next four years.
Although there are 14 contestants, including two females, seeking to become the next governor of Edo State, the election is believed to be a two-horse race between Obaseki, who is contesting on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
The sour relationship between Obaseki and his godfather/ex-National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, had forced the incumbent governor to go to the opposition party for the ticket to contest in the poll.
Ize-Iyamu, who contested against Obaseki in 2016 on the PDP platform, had also defected to the APC to make the poll, which appears like a reverse fixture, to be more interesting.
The enmity between Obaseki and Oshiomhole and the violence experienced in the build-up to the election day (today) are a pointer to the fact that the contest, apart from determining who becomes the governor, may sink the political boat of one of the two political gladiators in the state.
The election is for the Edo electorate to decide the next governor but politicians from far and near have been neck-deep involved in the campaign for and campaign of calumny to discredit the candidates of their opposing parties.
The Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had engaged in a verbal war as soon as the Independent National Electoral Commission gave the go-ahead for campaigns to start.
A former Governor of Kano State and PDP chieftain, Ibrahim Kwankwaso, was also in Edo State to ask the Hausa community in the state to vote for Obaseki while a former Lagos State Governor, who is also the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in a sponsored message, asked Edo voters to reject Obaseki.
The incumbent governor, in a swift response, told Tinubu not to make any attempt to extend his political empire to Edo State. To drive home their point, Obaseki’s supporters have put up some posters with the inscription, ‘Edo is not Lagos,’ on electric poles on the streets to prove that they were not ready to become political serfs to anybody.
All the interests shown for and against the two leading candidates as well as the effect the poll is expected to have on the 2023 presidential ambitions of prospective aspirants are the reasons some believe the September 19 contest is going to be tense.
The atmosphere in the state was already tense as of Wednesday and this continued on Thursday and Friday as more people as well as security agents flooded the state. The influx of a huge number of gun-wielding security agents with sirens blaring on all major roads in the state as they embarked on a show of force seemed to have instilled fear in the minds of many who said they would rather not go to vote on the election day.
Disturbed by the drumbeat of war ahead of the election day, the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, called the two leading contestants and their running mates to a peace meeting where they promised to rein in their supporters. Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu also signed a peace pact in a symbolic ceremony organised by a former Military Head of State, General Abdusalam Abubakar (retd), and the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Mathew Kukah.
Despite the peace pacts and meetings and the presence of a large number of security agents, some believe the neutrality of the INEC and security agents will determine if the poll will be peaceful or violent.
To ensure a peaceful atmosphere, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Jos, Prof Nnamdi Aduba, said security agents should not take sides in the election.
He also advised INEC to ensure that the poll was free, fair, and transparent, adding that if the electoral umpire ensured fairness and transparency, the likelihood of violence after the poll would drastically be reduced.
He said, “INEC should arrive at the polling units with materials on time. They should ensure the election is credible. The security agents should be firm and fair; they should do their job. They should not take sides. What happened in Kogi State was a shame; it should not be repeated.
“How could somebody come to the polling units, carry the election materials, and run away? A civil society has pointed out all the trouble points in Edo State; the security agents should watch out and prevent the snatching of electoral materials.”
A former National Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Prof Lai Olurode, also called on the electoral body and security agents deployed for the poll to be professional in the discharge of their responsibilities.
He stressed that there should be no sacred cows and anybody who violated the law should be brought to justice.
The professor of sociology at the University of Lagos said high-profile politicians sponsoring hoodlums to cause violence and disrupt the election should be arrested and prosecuted.
According to him, if the rich and powerful politicians do not sponsor the miscreants, they will not have the effrontery to go and cause violence or snatch electoral materials.
Olurode said, “Though INEC is doing very well, we need to apprehend the power brokers – those who are behind these rascals, sponsoring them to snatch ballot papers, electoral materials and kill because they (masterminds) act on the fringes.
“The police should do whatever they can to reach them. They should not be regarded as untouchable, no matter how highly placed they are. They sit in the comfort of their homes, sponsoring hooligans and fraudsters to commit all kinds of electoral crimes, while they go scot-free. These acts are unacceptable.”
Also, a lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Osun State University, Prof Bolaji Omitola, said all eyes would be on INEC and the security agencies in the election.
He noted that the visa ban imposed on some political actors in the past elections by the United States was a shame. The don said outsiders should not be the ones telling Nigerians to do things the right way.
He said, “The security agents should be professional. They should not intimidate the voters and residents. They should not be biased in any way. They are not politicians and any of them who wants to go into politics should pull out of the security agency and join politics. They are professionals and they should be seen to be professional in their actions and utterances.
“Also, INEC should make sure that the process is transparent and credible. That is what will guarantee peace. If you are transparent, people will know that the people’s choice is the winner. There will be voter inducement and my take is that people should collect money from anybody who gives them but they should not allow such money to influence their decision in voting. Vote according to your conscience because your choice will determine who will run the affairs of the state in the next four years.”
Meanwhile, one of the election monitoring groups, the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement, Africa, has alerted security agencies that some politicians may have stockpiled arms and ammunition which may be used before or after the election to cause violence.
The group urged security agencies to prevent the warmongers from using their weapons while mentioning 13 local government areas in Edo State where the weapons had allegedly been kept.
The group said based on its observation reports, 13 of 18 local government areas were considered as potential flashpoints, namely Etsako West, Etsako East, Etsako Central, Owan West, Akoko-Edo, Oredo, Orhionmwon, Egor, Ovia North-East, Ikpeba-Okha, Esan Central, Esan North-East and Esan West.
The Director of Programme, YIAGA Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, also told one of our correspondents in an interview that politicians had changed from snatching electoral materials to inducing voters to buy their conscience. She appealed to the electorate to shun this act and choose whoever they wanted.
“Politicians are buying votes now because they are aware that the votes are counting. Before now, they used to give few people money to snatch ballot boxes and other malpractices but they have changed tactics now that they know the votes are counting.
“Voters need to be smart and know that this is the time to make the decision of choosing who will govern them in Edo State for the next four years. Their decision will determine who rules them. They should come out with their permanent voter cards and vote according to their conscience,” she said.
According to observers, the fact that Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu switched parties also made the political space in the state more choking.
However, the analysts said INEC was the institution with the biggest task of ensuring a peaceful poll, adding that the spotlight was on them to deliver a credible election.
With respect to this, the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, had visited Edo State for various stakeholders’ meetings and assured everyone that the commission was ready for today’s election.
He also appealed to political parties and their supporters to eschew violence to help the commission deliver a free, fair, and credible election that would be acceptable to all.
Yakubu noted that the ultimate objective of the electoral body was to ensure that the choice of who became the next Governor of Edo State was entirely in the voters’ hands.
“Our focus is on our processes and procedures, nothing more,” he said.
He also noted that the fact that this was the first governorship election to be conducted amid the coronavirus pandemic had changed the way the election would be conducted.
He said, “This is the first governorship election that the commission will be conducting in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The global health emergency has necessitated a review of our policies, processes, and procedures to protect the health of all those involved in elections in line with the guidelines issued by health authorities.”
He said as with previous elections, the commission would deploy magnifying glasses and braille ballot guides to assist Persons with Disabilities to vote unaided.
On the other hand, the Nigeria Police Force seems not to be leaving anything to chance as eight police commissioners, one Deputy Inspector-General of Police, and an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, as well as 31,000 officers, had been deployed for the election.
The police are also working with sister agencies like the Nigerian Army, Department of State Services, Nigeria Security Civil Defence Corps and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to ensure the safety of voters during the poll.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, who was in Benin City earlier in the week, called on politicians and other stakeholders to eschew vote-buying and other vices that could hinder the success of the election.
(PUNCH)
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