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APRIL 30, 2007 VOL. 21. NO 3

Operation Carry Go!

**President Olusegun Obasanjo**

The outcome of penultimate Saturday’s gubernatorial and State Assembly elections across the federation, it does appear, reinforces the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) nation stranglehold on the polity, sparking off fresh fears about the corporate existence
By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
When the two chambers of the National Assembly reconvene this week, on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 to consider President Olusegun Obasanjo’s request for a ratification of the extended emergency rule in Ekiti State, the federal legislators may have on their hands much more than merely ratifying the presidential proclamation. Their deliberations on the floor of the hallowed chambers, it does appear, could inevitably spiral into a searching look at the state of the nation, a post-mortem of sorts, on the just concluded general elections – an exercise that has left Nigeria intensely divided, bruised and laced with dashed hopes.
Instructively, the nation for all intents and purposes is on a cross-road, following the rancorous gubernatorial, presidential and National Assembly elections which have been patently adjudged flawed and malpractice-infested by opposition parties.
Notably, the opposition parties have stridently accused the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of flagrantly rigging the elections, thus according to them, subverting the free will of Nigerians to chose their leaders.
Therefore, in looking at the state of the nation, post-election, members of the National Assembly would probably be exploring various options already being canvassed as a way out of the impending political logjam which the nation is inexonerably drifting towards, courtesy the disputed elections. One of such options was last Thursday, some 48 hours to the presidential and National Assembly elections, laid on the table by a coalition of major opposition parties, namely the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), the Action Congress (AC) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), among others. The opposition had called for the postponement of the elections and the dissolution of the Professor Maurice Iwu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which according to them has become compromised, partisan on the part of the PDP and lacks credibility to conduct free and fair presidential and National Assembly polls, judging from, according to them, the Commission’s alleged complicity in the alleged rigging of the April 14 gubernatorial and State Assembly contests.
And should the National Assembly decide to act in tandem with the mood of the nation, vis-à-vis the intense charges of large-scale electoral fraud during the elections, it probably will be guided by sentiments so far expressed by keen watchers of the unfolding political drama in Africa’s most populous country. These sentiments are to the effect that the gubernatorial and presidential elections were a charade, a caricature of the real thing as INEC, according to them has proved incapable of being an impartial umpire. Notably, as such analysts opine, the entire elections should be cancelled and new one, to be organised and conducted by a new INEC and a new stop-gap government that will take over from the Obasanjo administration on May 29, held at a later date.
On this score, the analysts are of the opinion that the National Assembly should look beyond May 29, in its deliberations, for according to them, sections 135 and 180 of the 1999 Constitution ends the tenure of the current administration, willy-nilly on May 29, 2007, election or no election.
Following this, observers contend that the leeway out of a possible long-drawn political impasse, as it stands now, lies on sections 146 of the constitution which stipulates that the senate president should assume the office of the president for 90 days during which he is expected to establish new structures and agencies to organise credible elections acceptable to the generality of Nigerians.
In a strongly-worded editorial in its last Thursday, edition, The Guardian, one of the nation’s most authorative newspapers wrote: “For all intents and purpose last Satruday, gubernatorial and State Assembly elections were a charade, and their outcome unacceptable. They represented, not just a theft of the people’s mandate but a subversion of their rights to freely choose their leaders.”
Contending that the “situation calls for radical solutions,” as against the usual, easy route of advocating putting up with the charade so as not to rock the boat, The Guardian stated that “the first step is to cancel the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections held last Saturday. The presidential and National Assembly elections should also be postponed for now.”
But conscious of the fact that its pleas would not be heeded, the editorial called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to “recognise the seriousness of the country’s current situation and act in a statesmanlike manner,” warning that only this path would “save our nation from impending danger.”
Notably, as at Thursday, April 19, 2007 – just a fleeting 48 hours to the presidential and National Assembly elections, gloom still hovered over the all important national electoral exercise as threats of boycott of the election resounded stridently across opposition parties. For example, the Labour Party (LP) registered its loss of faith in the process by directing all its candidates for the National Assembly elections across the country to withdraw their participation.
In the words of the party’s national chairman, Dan Nwanyanwu, “ the party is of the opinion that because of the “electoral robbery” presided over by INEC the party has lost faith in the process and therefore cannot be part of such illegality committed with impunity in the country.”
And in Delta State, two Democratic People’s Party (DPP) senatorial candidates in the state also announced their withdrawal from the race. The two candidates, Frank Kokori and Tabunor Bedekeremo said they withdrew from the race in order not to dignity a fraudulent election. Kokori, a former secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), stated that “after careful and sober review of developments during the recent gubernatorial/State Assembly elections in Delta State on April 14, 2007, I have sadly come to the conclusion that the whole exercise was a charade.”
Just smarting from a protracted legal battle to have the disqualification of its presidential candidate, Vice President Atiku Abubakar by INEC upturned, the AC, as at Thursday, April 19, 2007 gave conditions for participating in the presidential and National Assembly elections. One of such conditions was that the party be allowed by INEC to inspect the ballot papers in order to be sure that Atiku’s picture and name were printed on them.
From the most unlikely quarters, the drumbeat of boycott threats also sounded and that is the PDP in Borno State, which 48 hours to the polls announced that it had withdrawn the participation of its senatorial candidates, to protest the outcome of the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections in the state which were massively won by the ANPP.
There was also reports that foreign observers were considering boycotting the exercise due to what they described as wanton irregularities and malpractices that characterised the April 14, 2007 elections.
In the event that the boycott threats came to fruition, analysts say the outcome of the presidential and National Assembly elections will most certainly lack credibility and acceptance, not just among Nigerians but also within the international community – a development which according to them would cause legitimacy problem to whoever emerged as president.
Instructively, the advert copy entitled “Same of Same” employed by one of the front runners in the Lagos gubernatorial race in the course of his campaigns, to describe what he considered the unchanging economic and social status of Lagos in the last eight years of Governor Bola Tinubu’s reign aptly captures the essence of the results in the gubernatorial contest released across the country, “Same of same,” perhaps, seems the fitting description of the results and the manner of emergence of the new Governors-elect in the electoral contest.
As it were, it does appear as though nothing has significantly changed in the nation’s political turf as regards the outcome of the election, for with the exception of a few states, the pre-election status-quo of the states, in terms of party dominance and balance of power somewhat remained unchanged, post election. Some of the states also curious maintained the voting tradition and pattern which first became manifest during the patently criticised 2003 general elections. On this score, the South south states readily come to mind.
In the 2003 gubernatorial contest, most of the states in the region recorded outrageous figures of over a million votes cast. Rivers State, in fact, recorded more than a million votes, a state of affair which was then described as unnatural by analysts, reason being that the figure according to them tended to represent more than the actual number of registered voters in the state. Four years down the line, the region has yet again recorded a repeat performance, prompting keen watchers of the unfolding drama of penultimate Saturday's gubernatorial polls to describe some states in the zone as “million votes states.”
In neighbouring Akwa Ibom State, it is still the same “million votes” story as the PDP candidate, Godswill Akpabio, scored over one million votes to win the tenancy of the state's Government House for the next four years, beginning from May 29. Akpabios, “million votes victory” is, however, not going down well with his opponents. Notedly, the Action Congress (AC) candidate James Iniama and the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) candidate, Group Captain Sam Ewang (rtd) have all pooh-poohed Akpabio’s victory, describing, it as a farce.
Emmanuel Uduaghan, the PDP candidate for Delta State, just like his counterparts in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, also rode home to a comfortable victory on the crest of a little over one million votes. Uduaghan defeated his opponents in the race by polling 1,004,403 votes. The import of Uduaghan’s “million votes victory” is that with a population of 1,629,875 registered voters and 1,071,805 total votes cast in the election, about 558,070 voters did not participate in the voting and that the PDP candidate left a paltry 67,402 votes for his 12 opponents in the race to share.
Those who have described Uduaghan’s electoral triumph as fraud-ulently obtained argue that the mathematical analysis above signposts a heavily flawed exercise as it, according to them, renders the result of the gubernatorial contest untenable. However, Uduaghan’s footsoliders have described those questioning their principal’s victory as bad losers, insisting that the PDP candidate won fair and square. According to them, Uduaghan’s comprehensive victory in the polls stemmed from the fact that he won convincingly in two senatorial districts – Delta North, with nine local governments areas and in Delta South – and then went ahead to share votes with his main challenger, Great Ogboru of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP) in Delta Central, the home district of the DPP candidate.
In Cross-River State, the PDP candidate, Liyel Imoke missed the one million mark by some fractions. However, the 836,207 votes which he garnered were enough to crown him the next governor of the state. Imoke’s closest rival, the DPP’s Eyo Etim Nyang, came a distant second with 14,067 votes. With a total population of 2,868,966 people, the Cross-River State gubernatorial result indicates that a little above one million people registered and cast their votes during the election.
And in Bayelsa State, with a population of 1,703,358 people, the gubernatorial contest in the state saw the PDP candidate, Timipre Sylva, emerege victorous with 77,671 – an indication that election in the sate was charactersised by low voter turn- out. It is instructive to note that polling in the state was marked by late arrival of materials, a situation that was probably responsible for the apathy. Sylva’s closest rival, AC’s Prince Ebitimi Agbare who came an unimpressive second with 10,769 votes swear his opponent’s victory was predetermined.
Edo State paints a picture of an outcome that was mired in metamorphosis, drama and suspense, all within 48 hours after polling. Remarkably, prior to the election, the AC’s candidate, Adams Oshiomhole, was widely expected to emerge victorious, but in a move that surprised many, PDP’s candidate, Senator Oserheimen Osunbor was declared winner with 329,740 votes, as against Oshiomhole’s 197,472. The twist in the whole saga in Edo State started on Sunday, April 15 , just a day after the polls when rumours became rife that Oshiomhole was coasting home to victory. This, The Source gathered greatly, rankled PDP bigwigs in the state, prompting the two-time governor of old Bendel state and top notch, of the party, Samuel Ogbemudia, to allegedly protest the turn of events and demanded the outright cancellation of the elections in the state. PDP’s protest did not, however, dampen the jubilant mood of the army of AC supporters who were eagerly waiting for their candidate to be officially declared winner of the electoral contest.
Curiously, however, 24 hours later, the table, dramatically turned, in favour of the PDP and to the detriment of the AC. Thus, from being a protesting and aggrieved party, the PDP metamorphosed into a victorious party as its candidate was declared winner, while conversely AC became a protesting and aggrieved party as its candidate was handed a result which has, at least for now, aborted his dream of being the first labour leader to emerge the democratically elected governor of a state.
The South east was to present a more brusque picture of manifest electoral gangsterism. Imo, Anambra and Enugu clearly painted such picture. In Imo where the coast was clear for the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Martin Agabaso to carry the day, the election was cancelled by INEC on the grounds that the exercise was fraught with large-scale malpractices. Curiously, however, the House of Assembly election in the state was upheld by the electoral body – a development which has raised a lot of questions. Keen watchers of Imo politics are wondering how one out of two elections that was conducted simultaneously and on the same ballot box could be singled out and cancelled. Observers, in fact, argue that whatever tainted the gubernatorial election to warrant its cancellation cannot be divorced from the House of Assembly election which was upheld.
The probable reason being adduced for the abortion of the Imo gubernatorial race is that it was a ploy by the PDP to field another candidate during the bye-election slated for April 28, following the expulsion of Ifeanyi Araraume from the party and the subsequent withdrawal of Charles Ugwuh’s candidature in obedience with the Supreme Court's judgement. To perhaps smoothen the grounds for the eventual emergence of a PDP governor, The Source gathered that all the House of Assembly seats in the state have been awarded to the party.
In Enugu State, it was equally a replay of the 2003 gubernatorial contest in the state, where despite the fact that voting did not take place in many, parts of the state, results and winners were declared. The April 14 gubernatorial and House of Assembly election in the state was notably marred by non-availability of voting materials, late commencement of voting and massive disenfranchisement of potential voters. As it were, the strident condemnation of the exercise in the sate by prominent indigenes including the senate president, Ken Nnamani, it does appear, has so far dissuaded INEC from announcing what from all ramifications was a non- election. As it were, calls are being made for the annulment of the election in the state and the schedulling of a new one.
Neighbourig Anambra State which in the last four years had been a hotbed of internecine political violence, seem set to erupt again following the “million votes” victory of Andy Uba, elder brother of the enfant terrible, Chris Uba. The elder Uba’s victory came on the heels of violence and massive disenfranchisement of voters which trailed the election in the sate. Angry youths protesting the handling of the exercise in the state by INEC attacked INEC offices in Onitsha, Ihiala, Awka and Achalla. They also attacked a police station in Nnewi.
And despite INEC’s claim that election did take place in the state, prominent indigenes of the state are strident in their insistence that no election took place there. For example, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) presidential candidate, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu complained that he could not vote in his home town, Nnewi. Ojukwu: “I went to Nnewi, spent practically the whole day there, there were no material and I was unable to vote… How can you vote .. even the returning officer told you the result sheets were not there.”
Other prominent indigenes of the state who allegedly could not also vote as a result of the absence of electoral materials and INEC officials include the state Governor, Peter Obi, Igwe of Onitsha, Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe and NAFDAC Director-General, Dora Akuyili, Edwin Ume-Ezuoke and Senator Ben Obi, the AC Vice Presidential candidate.
As it were, the Anambra electoral debacle has attracted the acidic judgement of international and local observers who confirmed that election never held in the state. Analysts predict that Andy Uba’s “million votes victory” signposts unmitigated violence and carnage in the state should it be allowed to stand. It is instructive to note that Uba, according to INEC, garnered an eye-popping 1,093,004 votes to become a Governor-elect.
Like Enugu, neghbouring Ebonyi State recorded absence of voting materials, violence and late commencement of polling, but despite all these the resident electoral commissioner in the state, Mrs Maria Owi Inibiye, gleeful announced as victorious the PDP candidate, septuagenarian Martin Elechi, who according to the INEC commissioner defeated his rivals with 506,444 votes. The import of Elechi's triumph at the polls is that when he is sworn in on May 29, 2007, he will be taking the oath of office as the oldest governor in Nigeria.
The outcome of the contest in Abia seems to have once and for all settled an old political rivalry. Notably the dramatic triumph of Theodore Orji, the candidate of Governor Kalu’s People’s Progressive Alliance (PPA) as the next governor of the state, even when still a guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), analysts posit, tend to make a bold and emphatic political statement to the effect that as far as Abia politics is concerned, Kalu is on ground and that the mass of Abuja- based politicians namely the PDP’s secretary, Ojo Maduekwe, Vincent Ogbulafor, Mao Ohuabunwa and of course the defeated PDP candidate, Onyema Ugochukwu, who have in the last eight years tackled him are afterall paperweight politicians. Thus, the defeat of Ugochukwu by the PPA candidate, analysts say, has reconfigured Abia politics and set a trend which may be difficult to be altered in the nearest future. For one, keen watchers of Abia politics argue that the PDP lost the gubernatorial election the very day Governor Kalu opted out of the party and formed the PPA. This, they say, is because the governor, an acknowledged grassroots politician is intensely popular in the state and would automatically bring that to bear on the governorship, House of Assembly, National Assembly and presidential elections in the state.
In the North west, whereas Kalu was able to utterly dwarf his Abuja-based adversaries by working to ensure his party and candidate emerged triumphant, his Sokoto State counterpart, Governor Attahiru Bafarawa could not achieve a similar feat. Just like Kalu, Bafarawa had dumped the party, on which crest he rode to power, the ANPP and formed his own party the DPP and became its presidential candidate. However, the outcome of the gubernatorial election in the state was somewhat a sad commentary for Governor Bafarawa, the DPP and its reach and acceptance in the state, as the party’s candidate got a thorough beating from the PDP candidate, Dr. Aliyu Magatakarda, who ran away with 392,058 votes, as against DPP’s Muhammed Dingyadi’s 296,419 votes. One factor which analysts suggest may have worked in favour of the PDP is the Shagari factor as Muktar a cousin of Nigeria’s first executive President, Shehu Shagari, was alleged to have invoked his uncle's name in the course of the PDP’s gubernatorial campaign in the state. The ex-president is adored in the state and Muktar who was the immediate past Minister for Water Resources initially indicated interest in the race.
Kano State presents an equally interesting scenario. With an all-time high population of 9,383,682, and about four million regisered votes, the entire votes recorded by the top three parties in the state, namely the ANPP, PDP and the AC in the election amounted to a paltry 1,426,888. This is of course, indicative of the fact that there was extreme low voters’ turnout. Another leg in the surprise in the Kano gubernatorial election lies in Governor Ibrahim Shekarau’s slim victory margin over his closest opponent, the PDP candidate, Ahmed Garba Bichi. Shekararu garnered 671,184 votes in the election while Bichi got 629,469. Instructively, with a difference of mere 41,715 votes, Governor Shekarau broke record as the first ever Kano State governor to secure a second term ticket.
Kebbi, Katsina and Jigawa States are three other states in the region where the emergence of the new state executives, prior to the election, seem fait accompli. Notably, PDP’s victory in Katsina, the home state of two of the leading presidential candidates – Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP and ANPP’s Muhammadu Buhari – was somewhat inevitable. For one, the party is in power in the state, thus, expectedly the state deployed all machinery to ensure victory for it, as a defeat would have been an acidic commentary on Yar’Adua’s candidacy in the presidential election.
In the case of Jigawa and Kebbi States, hitherto ANPP states, analysts contend that the dramatic defection of their governors – Adamu Aliero, Kebbi and Saminu Turaki, Jigawa – to the PDP laid their states bare to the party’s inevitable victory. The PDP’s victory in Kaduna did not also unfaze analysts, for according to them, the party is the only one in the state with a solid structure on ground thus Namadi Sambo’s victory was also somewhat fait accompli, misgivings of his candidature from the Southern half of the state, populated mainly by Christians, notwithstanding.
Apart from the unexpected upset in Bauchi where against all permutations, the former Aviation Minister, Isa Yuguda defeated the PDP candidate Muhammed Nadada Umar in the election, the North east zone largely maintained its pre-election status-quo. Instructively, in the April 14 gubernatorial contest, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno and Yobe’s Mamman Ali coasted home to easy victory on the platform of the ANPP, while Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Dambaba Danfulani of Taraba and Monammed Goje of Gombe rode to victory on the crest of the PDP. Analysts say Nyako’s victory, just like in the case of Katsina State, was a fait accompli, a victory which according to them was necessitated by the PDP’s determined effort to render Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the AC’s presidential candidate, politically irrelevant in his home state. It is instructive to note that the coast widely became clear for Nyako’s victory following the AC candidate, Alhaji Ibrahim Baptel’s sudden disqualification from the race, 24 hours to the election.
In the case of Bauchi, Yaguda, analysts say, might have benefited from protest votes against the PDP. Many PDP supporters were said not to be happy about how the out-going governor imposed Umar on the party as its candidate. Yaguda, observers say, also garnered sympathy votes from voters who felt sympathy for him due to his ordeal in the hands of Governor Adamu Mu'azu. It is instructive to note that Yaguda’s traducers, allegedly at Governor Mu'azu’s behest, had prior to the election alleged that he, Yaguda, was not an indigene of the state. They accused him of being an immigrant from Taraba, while some others insisted he was not even a Nigerian but a Camerounian.
The outcome of the election in the North central, remarkably, did not present a picture different from that which pundits had painted of the zone long before the exercise – that is, to the effect that the PDP will sweep the states there. And true to their predictions, the PDP utterly dwarfed other parties in the zone. There are, however, salient factors that titled victory to the party in the zone. For instance, in Nassarawa and Niger States, religion seemed to have played a major role. For one, a predominantly Moslem state, it was quite inconceivable that David Umar, a Christian and ANPP’s candidate would defeat the PDP’s Muazu Babangida Aliyu. Thus, Aliyu ran away with 443,76 votes while Umar trailed behind with 210,359 votes. The same scenario also played itself out in neigbhouring Nassarawa where the appreciable Moslem population in state, analysts say, voted en masse for one of their own, Alhaji Akwe Doma of the PDP, as against the ANPP’s Solomon Ewuga. This religious sentiments and enormous state machinery thus cooperated to award victories to Alhajis Doma and Aliyu respectively.
In the South west, Lagos and the AC has emerged as an orphan. Apart from Lagos State, the party did not establish a convincing foothold in the zone in the April 14 gubernatorial election. Indeed, the AC’s victory in Lagos, analysts say, was predicated on some salient factors. These include the party’s massive but well structured and co-ordinated campaign in the run-up to the polls. Another factor was the massive deployment of state machinery to ensure victory for the party. The cosmopolitan nature of the state, analysts further say, also played a role in the party’s victory. Populated by more than 75 per cent non indigenes, analysts argue that voters in Lagos, unlike other states in the federation, are urbane and liberal in their voting culture, thus they, the voters, exercise their franchise without necessarily being led by the nose by local politicians.
However, beyond the AC’s victory, analysts are of the view that just like Kano, considering the population of the state – 9,013,534 – the total votes cast in the election in the state which were a little above one million out of the over four million registered voters, there were, indeed, low voters’ turn out in the state. However, when juxtaposed with that of Kano, it does appear as though there was more voters’ turn- out in Lagos than Kano. For example, whereas the AC candidate, Babatunde Fashola rode home to victory with 828,484 votes, his Kano counterpart, Shekarau scored 671,184. Again, while Fashola defeated his closest rival Musiliu Obanikoro with a wide margin, 439,396, Shekarau triumphed over his closest rival with a watery 41,715 votes. It is instructive to note that Obanikoro got 389,088 votes to lag behind Fashola.
Other states in the region with the exception of Ondo, recorded results which from all ramifications has long been predicted by political watchers. In the case of Ondo, against the pre-election permutations of analysts, the incumbent governor, Olusegun Agagu, was announced winner, much against the widely anticipated victory of Segun Mimiko of the Labour Party. Thus, analysts swear that Agagu’s 349,258 votes, as against Mimiko’s 226,021 was a monumental fraud, perpetrated to ensure that the Labour Party candidate lost. The controversy which characterised the announcement of the gubernatorial election result in the state has further reinforced the believe that Mimiko was rigged out. For one, the announcement was delayed without any plausible reason. Later, long before the state resident electoral commissioner, Josiah Uwazuruonye finally announced the result, INEC headquarters in Abuja had already curiously made the announcement. The alleged theft of ballot boxes in the full glare of voters by the state deputy governor also lent credence to the fact that Agagu all but won the election. Observers say the powers-that-be are not well disposed towards Mimiko as governor of the state.
Prior to his entry into the race and emergence as Labour Party candidate, Mimiko, a former Minister for Housing and Urban Development and erstwhile member of the PDP was reportedly instructed by President Olusegun Obasanjo not to join the race, but the former minister allegedly ignored the president, resigned his ministerial position, dumped the PDP and pitched tent with the Labour Party and emerged as the party’s candidate, becoming in the process the main issue in Ondo gubernatorial race and Agagu main challenger, all to the consternation of the presidency. Thus, it was not a surprise that during President Obasanjo’s visit to the state in the course of the PDP’s presidential campaign, he described Mimiko as corrupt and vowed that the EFCC would descend on him when the chips are down.
The picture in Oyo State was not different from the pre-election permutation of analysts. For one, Adebayo Akala’s victory, analysts argue, cannot be divorced from the Lamidi Adedibu factor. Adedibu, the famed strongman of Ibadan politics, observers insist still has a strong influence over voters in the state, especially the capital, Ibadan, said to have enormous voting strength. However, Akala’s 357,972 votes, as against 239,189 recorded by Abiola Ajimobi of the ANPP, analysts postulate shows that Akala’s victory did not in any way come on a plater of gold. The ANPP, they insist, gave the PDP a good fight in the gubernatorial contest. This is made manifest in the outcome of the House of Assembly result in the state in which the PDP won 13 seats, ANPP 11, AC 4 and Labour 1. The import of this is that the PDP does not have absolute majority in the House, thus it will be difficult for Akala to ride roughshod over the lawmakers. The Governor-elect, in fact, will need the co operation of the opposition lawmakers to have a smooth reign.
The same scenario also played itself out in Ekiti State. Though the PDP’s Segun Oni won the election, his party won only four seats in the House of Assembly election, while the opposition, AC garnered 16. It is instructive to note that despite Governor Rashid Ladoja’s last minute effort to ensure that his deputy, Akala fails at the polls, the deputy governor rumped into victory. Notably, few days to the polls, Governor Ladoja allegedly instructed his supporters to vote massively for the ANPP candidate.