- 137, 973 agents to participate in polls
- Odds favour APC, Ododo in Kogi
- Court rejects Apapa’s motion to replace Imo LP’s candidate
- Jonathan urges kinsmen to vote massively for Diri in Bayelsa
After weeks of preparation, the Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that approximately 5.4 million voters have been registered ahead of tomorrow’s governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo States.
The 5.4 million voters were the number of people who collected their Permanent Voters Cards when the deadline to collect the cards ended.
The electoral umpire insisted on Thursday that no one would be allowed to vote without PVC.
Indeed, there was hope and anxiety among Nigerians as candidates and political parties rounded off campaigns across the three states.
INEC’s National Commissioner of Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, has said that “For the forthcoming elections, there are 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State; 2,419,922 in Imo State; and 1,932,654 in Kogi State, making a combined total of 5,409,438 registered voters for the three states.”
According to him, political parties running in the elections will receive soft copies of the entire voter register for each state.
The National Commissioner added that “In Bayelsa State, 16 political parties are sponsoring candidates; in Imo State, 17; and in Kogi State, all 18 parties are sponsoring candidates.”
INEC has also said that there are no registered voters in 38 voting units in Imo State and two in Bayelsa State.
The electoral commission likewise stated that only 2,318,919 permanent voter cards were gathered from the state’s 2,419,922 registered voters for the governorship election.
Imo would hold off-cycle gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections on Saturday along with two other states, Bayelsa and Kogi.
According to INEC, 1,199,263 (49.9%) of the total registered voters are males, while the females are 1,220,659 (50.1 per cent).
The affected 38 polling units are spread across 13 local government areas in the state.
The LGAs include: Aboh Mbaise (four), Ahiazu Mbaise (1), Ezinihitte Mbaise (one), Ideato North (two), Isiala Mbano (one), Isu (one), Njaba (one), Ohaji Egbema (five), Orlu (five), Orsu (seven), Oru East (six), Owerri Municipal (one), and Owerri North (three).
Also, youths and middle-aged groups make up 66 per cent of all registered voters.
According to the representation, youth in the 18-34 age brackets represent 801,278 registered voters (33 per cent); the middle-aged group in the 35-49 age brackets has 783,120 registered voters (32 per cent).
Others include the age bracket 50-67 for the elderly, which has 559,122 (23 per cent) registered voters, and the old age bracket less than 70 and above, which has 276,402 (12 per cent) registered voters.
In addition, INEC also noted that there are 1,225 registered voters with varying disabilities.
Albinism (428), autism (42), cognitive learning difficulty (34), blindness (115), deafness (56), physical limitation (5), and short height (239) are all represented.
Similarly, INEC reported 1,056,862 registered voters in Bayelsa State.
Males comprise 566,095 (54%) of registered voters, while females comprise 490,707 (46%).
A total of 880 people with disabilities are scheduled to vote in the state’s governorship election on Saturday.
Meanwhile, INEC stated that there are 1,932,654 registered voters in Kogi State.
In addition, just 1,833,160 PVCs were collected, according to INEC.
Unlike Imo and Bayelsa, Kogi State has no voting units with no registered voters.
Males make up 953,941 (49%) of registered voters, while females make up 978,713 (51%).
There are 1,153 disabled voters registered.
A total of 5,409,438 registered voters will be heading to 10,510 polling units spread across 649 electoral wards in 56 local government areas to cast their ballots in electing the governors of Kogi, Imo, and Bayelsa States on Saturday.
The off-cycle governorship elections are crucial because they are coming after the conduct of the 2023 general elections with Bayelsa and Imo governors seeking re-election, and the Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, seeking to install a successor.
This is the first time that the commission will be conducting three off-cycle governorship elections simultaneously across different geo-political zones. This is made possible by the coincidence of the end of tenure of the current holders of the offices which fall within the constitutional timeframe of not earlier than 150 days or later than 30 days before the expiration of their terms of office as enshrined in Section 178(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).
137, 973 agents to participate in polls
INEC has said that 137,973 polling and collation agents would participate in the Saturday Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States governorship elections.
This was disclosed in a statement signed by the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, on Tuesday.
According to the statement, 34,704 agents were uploaded for Bayelsa State, 65,274 for Imo State and 37,995 for Kogi State.
The statement read, “Sixteen political parties are sponsoring candidates for the election in Bayelsa State and 18 in both Imo and Kogi States. The elections will be held in 10,470 polling units (excluding the 40 polling units without registered voters).
“Each political party is expected to nominate polling agents for all the polling units as well as 649 Ward, 56 LGA and three State collation centres.
“However, at the close of the deadline for uploading the list of agents to the INEC dedicated portal by political parties, 34,704 agents were uploaded for Bayelsa State, 65,274 for Imo State and 37,995 for Kogi State, making a total of 137,973 polling and collation agents for the three states.
“However, the detailed breakdown shows that not all the parties nominated agents for the polling and collation centres across the states. Indeed, some political parties have no polling unit or collation agents in some states despite having candidates in the election.”
APC, Ododo will win because of Yahaya Bello’s performance, says Ahmadu
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Youths and Students Affairs, Dr. Jibril Ahmadu, has expressed optimism that the APC will win Saturday’s governorship poll.
Ahmadu disclosed this on Thursday, saying that everything, including the performance of the governor, favoured the APC to win.
“APC is winning this election; our chance is bright as the moon and the sun.
“We are already putting in our best, and very optimistic with the effort so far victory is guaranteed,” Ahmadu said.
According to him, looking at the thematic politics in terms of incumbency, political structure and existence of a pattern of elections, the APC has an upper hand above other political parties and their candidates.
He said the track record and performance of the outgoing governor being used for the campaign remained another selling point for the ruling party to retain the state.
“The APC in Kogi, over the years, has been able to maintain a spread in the dividends of democracy and governance in all the three senatorial zones.
“Hospitals are built across the whole state, roads are constructed across the whole state as well as education and school facilities.
“These are dividends of the APC. The party has done well in the state, let our good works speak for us,” he said.
Stating that the party has been using its achievements to campaign, Ahmadu decried that instead of opposition parties to focus on their manifestos, they had been engaging in politics of ethnicity, hatred and hegemony.
He added that the APC Candidate, Alhaji Usman Ododo, who had been spreading “the Kogi Agenda”, would make the party coast home with victory.
Ahmadu said the APC flag bearer in the Saturday’s poll, remained the youngest candidate on the ballot and most experienced in governance with huge administrative prowess.
According to him, as a successful chartered accountant and auditor per excellence with youthful strength, Ododo has proven to be a man to beat in the poll.
He said that being part of the Kogi government for the past seven years, Ododo understands governance and intricacies of running a state as sensitive as Kogi.
He also predicted APC’s victory on the fact that the party had been in power in the last eight years and also delivered 100 per cent votes to President Bola Tinubu in the February 25 presidential election.
“Tell me, where the opposition parties’ agitations and imaginations are coming from to win Kogi, it is not possible. APC is unrivalled,” he said.
On pockets of pre-election violence, Ahmadu said that the situation had been grossly amplified by people who were not friends of the government.
He said that APC, whose selling point was its achievements on security of lives and property, could not be master-minding violence as being insinuated by some politicians.
“Don’t you think that if APC is encouraging violence, it is trying to destroy its name that it is supposed to use for campaign? It is laughable.
“APC members have been severally attacked but we are law-abiding people. We work with strategy in approach to governance and winning elections.
“We will not come with some politicians to exchange banters of violence,” he said.
On some analysts predicting doom for the ruling party because some senior APC members seemed not to be with the party’s candidate, Ahmadu described this as untrue.
According to him, most stakeholders of the party are with the government and the governor, except one of two ‘Judases’ who cannot influence elections in any polling unit.
“APC is going to win hands down,” he reaffirmed.
Court rejects Apapa’s motion to replace Imo LP’s candidate
A Federal High Court in Abuja has declined to grant a motion brought by the Lamidi Apapa-led faction of the Labour Party to stop Athan Achonu as the governorship candidate of Saturday’s election in Imo State.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a short ruling, refused to grant the prayer of the plaintiffs for an order of interim injunction recognizing their candidate, Joseph Ukaegbu, as validly elected standard bearer of the party.
The development followed an ex-parte motion moved by counsel to the plaintiffs, Mohammed Mohammed, SAN, to the effect.
Rather, the judge directed Mohammed to put INEC, which is the sole defendant, on notice.
“I am going to allow you to adopt it (the motion) but I will not grant it.
“I am not granting you the application today as you have to bring them to court.
“Let it be that they have been served and they are not in court,” the judge said.
According to Justice Ekwo, “I have studied the prayers on the motion ex-parte and also studied the averments in support.
“I am of the opinion that I need to hear from the defendant (INEC) before making further Order on the motion,” he said, adjourning the matter until Friday for INEC to show cause.
The plaintiffs include LP; Apapa (Acting National Chairman); Lawal Saleh (Acting National Secretary) and Abayomi Arabambi (National Publicity Secretary).
Others are Anslem Eragbe (National Youth Leader); Akingbade Oyelekan (National Legal Adviser) and Joseph Ikechukwu Ukaegbu (gubernatorial candidate, Imo State) as 1st to 7th plaintiffs respectively.
The plaintiffs, in the motion ex-parte marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1357/2023, sued INEC as sole defendant.
They had sought an order of interim injunction restraining INEC from “recognising any other person or persons laying claim to the LP gubernatorial ticket in Imo governorship election slated for 11th November, 2023 other than the plaintiff (Ukaegbu) who emerged from the primary conducted by the Alhaji Lamidi Apapa-led National Working Committee (NWC) of LP on April 16.
They also sought an order of mandatory injunction directing or compelling INEC to recognise, upload and publish Ukaegbu’s name as LP governorship candidate in Imo, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed contemporaneously with this ex-parte application.
They equally sought an order of mandatory injunction directing INEC to upload Apapa and Saleh’s names as the acting national chairman and acting national secretary, including other Apapa-led NWC members, pending the pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice filed contemporaneously with this ex-parte application.
Jonathan urges kinsmen to vote massively for Diri in Bayelsa
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has told his kinsmen in Ogbia Local Government Area to reciprocate the good developmental gestures of Governor Douye Diri in the area by massively voting for him in Saturday’s governorship poll.
Speaking at his country home in Otuoke on Wednesday when Governor Diri led a high-powered delegation to visit the former Nigerian leader, Jonathan said Diri had demonstrated love towards the Ogbia kingdom in different ways and that the people needed to reciprocate this by re-electing him and his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo.
It was the second time in 24 hours that the former president endorsed the governor’s second term bid, coming immediately after prominent leaders of the PDP, including governors, former governors, National Assembly members as well as members of the National Working Committee visited him on Tuesday at his Yenagoa residence.
Jonathan commended Diri for choosing one of his political sons, Mitema Obordor, as the Director-General of his governorship campaign council, stating that it is a signal of more good things to come to the East Senatorial District of the state.
He said, “I thank the Otuoke community for giving the governor and his team this warm reception. For us in this senatorial district, one thing we should know is that when somebody picks one of your own to lead him in a political contest that means that person will never forget you.
“For the governor to select Obordor from this senatorial district and indeed from Ogbia as his campaign DG, it means that Governor Diri has the mind to do something for you and will not forget you. And I plead with you all to reciprocate so we can get the benefit in store for us.”
He urged the people to renew the governor’s mandate on Saturday by voting massively for him.
In his remarks, Governor Diri thanked the former president and his wife, Patience, for the warm reception and his endorsement, which he said was given freely.
Diri described Jonathan as a unique democrat and patriot that always desired the best for the state and the country.
He also stated that Jonathan had always been a father to all and not a political godfather.
Diri said those speculating that his endorsement by the former president and the former governor, Seriake Dickson, was due to godfatherism were either ignorant or being mischievous.
He stressed that they lacked the understanding of honouring those placed in position to lift others like Jonathan and Dickson.
“I have had the endorsement of the immediate past governor of the state. Today, I also have been endorsed by the former president of the country, who happens to be our own, and some people say that is godfatherism. I say a thousand times no. We must honour those that God has placed in position.
“Let me make it clear that the former president has never asked me for anything. Some ignorant people were writing on social media that it was because of what the governor is giving to the former president. That is ignorant and very mischievous.
“If there is anything that I convinced myself to do, I support him out of my conviction, the same thing with the immediate past governor. We must recognize our leaders because if we do not, when it comes to your turn, nobody will support you,” he said.
Diri recalled that his relationship with Jonathan dated back to when the former president was deputy governor and later governor of the state and that he alongside Dickson served under Jonathan as commissioners.
