Alhassan, Okorocha, Ihedioha… governorship aspirants whose fate will be decided today

The Nigerian voting population may largely be feeling its has fulfilled its civic obligation to the country after participating at the March 28 presidential and April 11 governorship elections, but the elections are far from over.

Today in Abia, Imo and Taraba states, the governorship contests will be decided in supplementary polls in wards and local governments where, in a few cases, voting did not take place two weeks ago or where, in most cases, voting did take place but the results were cancelled. This is in addition to eight more states where senatorial, federal constituency and state constituency elections will be held in some parts.

The high point of Saturday’s elections will be whether or not Aisha Alhassan, female candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), becomes the first woman governor in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

TARABA

In Taraba state, the contest has been narrowed two a two-way race between Alhassan, fondly called Mama Taraba, and Darius Ishaku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Before Muhammad Kyari, the Taraba state returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared this election inconclusive on April 13, Aisha had polled 262, 368 votes, while Ishaku polled 317, 198. This left a difference of 63,817 between the votes of the two candidates. Meanwhile, more than 100, 000 votes were cancelled.

Aisha, who is the only female governorship candidate in the 2015 governorship election, feels there is a grand scheme to dishonestly favour her opponent in the contest.

Three days after INEC declared the election inconclusive, she called for the total cancellation of the April 11 vote and the scheduling of an entirely new election, citing irregularities in 11 local government areas out of the 16 in the state.

Shortly after that, two non-governmental organisations, Ladies of Grace and Agape Sisters, threatened to protest nude on April 25 if Alhassan is intimidated.

INEC had earlier scheduled the rerun election to take place in only Donga local government area, but later changed its position. Now, the rescheduled election will take place in 10 local government areas: Bali Zing, Takum, Yorro, Donga, Wukari, Ussa, Karim Lamido, Kurmi and Jalingo.

A total of 159 polling units are involved and 127,125 registered voters are expected to exercise their franchise.

ABIA STATE

Residents of Aba, the commercial city of Abia state, on Thursday woke up to a frightening sight. Coffins with inscriptions, “Vote against Ngwa interest and die”, littered major points in the town.

But the two major contenders in the election, PDP’s Okezie Ikpeazu and Alex Otti of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), have condemned the act, denying any tacit sponsorship of it.

Going by the results announced by INEC, Ikpeazu polled about 248, 459 votes while his prime challenger, Otti, polled 165, 406 votes. Therefore, Ikpeazu was leading by 83, 054 votes, but it is still too close to call because the rescheduled election will take place in nine local government areas: Aba north, Aba south, Ikwuano, Ohiafia, Osisioma, Ugwunagbo, Umuahia north, Umuahia South and Umunneochi. In addition, 276 polling units are involved in the election, and 179,224 registered voters are expected to vote.

IMO STATE

Having contested for the APC presidential ticket, one would have expected Rochas Okorocha to easily win the April 11 gubernatorial election in the state, but the election was declared inconclusive after peels of violence.

Okorocha’s nemesis, Emeka Ihedioha, deputy speaker of the federal house of representatives and first-time governorship candidate on the PDP platform, pulled a summer surprise, polling 306, 142 votes against Okorocha’s 385, 671.

However, Okorocha goes into the rescheduled election with the momentum, as the four local government areas (Isiala Mbano, Isu, Oguta and Ikeduru) where the supplementary election will hold are his bastions.

In all, 256 polling units are involved in the election and 1,44,715 registered voters are expected to vote in the election.

APC will be monitoring the Imo situation with arguably the keenest interest, seeing that an Okorocha victory is its one and only chance of controlling a state in the south-east. Should he lose, the party has totally lost the geopolitical zone.