October 07, (THEWILL) – As voters gear up for the 2024 governorship election in Ondo State, available data from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, shows that many of the political parties expected to participate in the poll exist only on paper.
Although 18 political parties are presumed to be registered for the upcoming election, two are clearly in the contest. They are the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the governing All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Labour Party, which was a force to reckon with barely a month ago, has virtually collapsed in the face of an internal crisis compounded by court judgements over who should be the right candidate of the party in the election.
According to INEC data released on Friday, the 18 participating political parties nominated 24,148 polling and collation agents out of the expected cumulative figure of 74,790 agents.
Three of them have no agents for the polling and collation levels. From the Commission’s data, only 32.3 percent of party agents would be available for the election.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, who disclosed this information at the weekend while giving a summary on the number of polling and collation agents submitted by political parties for the poll, further said, “Three political parties have refused to nominate agents at all levels of polling or collation ahead of the November 16 Ondo governorship election.”
With the closure of the portal for the uploading of polling and collation agents for the election, at midnight of Monday, September 30, 2024, this means the affected political parties have effectively shut themselves out of the election.
It also means that 3,933 polling units, 222 collation centres, 203 ward centres in the 18 local government areas and the state collation centre in Akure, the state capital, will be ineffectively manned by all the political parties.
Olumekun noted, “A political party fielding candidates in the election is expected to nominate 4,155 agents. From the 18 parties participating in the election, the commission expected a cumulative figure of 74,790 agents.
“However, only 24,148 were uploaded to the portal, made up of 22,689 polling, 1,249 ward, 196 Local Government and 14 State collation agents. Put together, the 18 political parties nominated 32.3 percent of the expected number of agents.”
For the political parties, the coming one month plus has opened opportunities to work on their weaknesses and showcase their strengths.
For the governing APC and Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, support has been increasing. Farmers in the state are the latest to declare support for the incumbent after eight out of nine members of the National Assembly and the South-West ex-council chairmen, recently declared support for his candidacy.
The farmers, led by Alhaji Abdukabir Adinoyi and Mr Akingbade Jayeola Francis, said they would mobilise their members across the 18 LGAs of the state to canvass and vote for the APC in the November 16 governorship election.
They expressed their gratitude to the governor for prioritising farming as an essential occupation in the state.
Also, the candidate of the rival PDP, Agboola Ajayi, has continued to increase his support base to pose a challenge to the incumbent governor, Aiyedatiwa. His source of strength is coming from the crisis-ridden Labour Party, LP.
Since the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the INEC to accept and recognise Olusola Nehemiah and Ezekiel Awude as the governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the LP, the party’s woes have increased.
Justice Emeka Nwite gave the order while delivering judgement in a suit filed by the duo of Nehemiah and Awude, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1105/2024 between the Labour Party and six others vs. INEC.
The judge held that the second primary election held by the Labour Party, which produced Nehemiah and Awude, was valid and must be upheld by the electoral body. The judgement polarised the party as the Julius Abure led faction of the party insisted on having Ayodele Olorunfemi as its candidate.
In this self-inflicted crisis, some party leaders have chosen to defect to the PDP. One of such leaders is a governorship aspirant on the platform of the party, Prince Eniola Ojajuni. Last Wednesday, he said he had collapsed his structure for the PDP.
Ojajuni, who is National President, Afenifere National Youths Council, and Obi/Datti South-West Election Coordinator, conveyed his decision to collapse his structure in a letter delivered to the PDP’s governorship candidate, Agboola Ajayi, at the PDP secretariat.
He mentioned another party aspirant in the state, Otunba Charles Fanimoyo, as part of the collaborative effort with the PDP.
He added that the arrangement also involves some of the party’s stakeholders across the state’s 18 local government areas.
According to the letter, the LP governorship aspirant agreed to collapse his structure for the major opposition party in the scheduled election, after due consultations among his own supporters in the LP across the 18 LGAs.
The letter also mentioned that preparations are in top gear for a public declaration of the decision, at an event the LP leader said would be grand.
Following this trend, some members of the members of the governing APC from across the 10 wards of Akoko North West LGA, defected to the PDP at a carnival-like crossover ceremony which took place at Oke-Agbe Akoko.
The defectors include Hon. Omojola, the immediate past councillor of Arigidi Ile Ward, who led hundreds of members to the PDP from the APC.
Omojola lamented the failure of the APC to deliver on its campaign promises, thus impacting negatively on the credibility of its members in the ward.
Mr Danladi Abu who spoke on behalf of the defectors from Ward 2 likened the APC to “a secret cult that treats members unfairly.”
Registering his optimism of a PDP victory in the November election, Abu said the mass defection exercise is a significant setback for the APC in the state, ahead of the forthcoming election.
Another defector, Tayo Onifade, said the cross over ceremony “marks the end of the APC in the 10 Wards where we defected from.
“You can see that we have all left the APC, could you have ever imagined that APC members from the ward of a serving Minister of Interior can abandon the party the way we did today and the cross-over ceremony held here in his ward peacefully
“This place we are right now, where this event is taking place, is the Ward of the Minister of Interior, Bunmi Ojo. Unfortunately, he will return to meet an empty ward,” Onifade said.
Some of the APC leaders who led their members to the PDP include Babatunde Ijaya, Yaya Saka, Olori Adedeji, Hon. Omolola (former APC counselor in the local government), Ade Adewebi and Hassan Helen.
