YESTERDAY’S re-run elections for some state and National Assembly seats in Rivers State lived up to pre-election fears. There were incidences of violence, electoral malpractices, moves and counter moves by the leading parties to outwit one another.
The polls were huge and strategic in many respects. It is the first time in many years that National and state Assembly polls would be held on the same day.
The re-run elections took place in three senatorial districts, 12 federal constituencies, and 22 of the 32 state assembly constituencies.
Known for wholesale support for any party they choose, the Rivers electorate started sharing their votes in 2015, hence the feverish battle for their votes, yesterday.
The oil-rice state had been a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, enclave since 1999. This is apart from the fact that the state had always aligned with the party at the centre right from inception until 2015 when it became an opposition party state following the loss of the PDP at the centre to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
killed pdpFollowing frosty relations between former President Goodluck Jonathan and immediate past governor and now Transportation Minister, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Rivers briefly became an APC state months to the 2015 general elections. Amaechi, who was the Chairman of the main faction of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, led four other PDP governors, some former governors and a host of aggrieved PDP leaders, who congregated on the banner of new PDP (n-PDP), to defect to the APC ahead of the March 28, 2015 presidential poll.
The defection was decisive and swung victory in favour of the APC presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, whose over 15 million votes were 2.5million higher than Jonathan’s over 12 million voters. It was the first time an incumbent President was losing an election in the annals of electioneering in Nigeria.
However, in Rivers, the electorate chose to remain with the PDP in the elections that were characterised by violence and irregularities.
It was a tough battle between Amaechi and Governor Nyesom Wike’s camps. Amaechi and Wike are from upland Rivers. While Amaechi wanted the Riverine part of the state to produce his successor, Wike, who was Amaechi’s Campaign Director General and former Minister of State for Education, disagreed and insisted on running for the governorship on the grounds that Rivers deserved the best person for the job. His disagreement with Amaechi was one of the issues that polarised Rivers PDP and the state House of Assembly. It remained so until Amaechi left for the APC, leaving PDP for Wike’s camp.
At the 2015 general elections, the PDP had the upper hand, winning all the electoral slots – the governorship, three Senate, 13 Reps and 31 House of Assembly seats. The APC won one House of Assembly seat.
The PDP swept all the three senatorial zones via Senators George Sekibo, Rivers East, Osinakachukwu Idoezu (Rivers South-West) and John Olaka-Nwogo (Rivers South-East).
However, alleging massive irregularities, the APC challenged the PDP’s victories. After legal battles at the Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, the election of the three senators and 12 Reps and 22 state legislators elected on PDP’s platform were nullified. The INEC was ordered to conduct re-run polls in the affected constituencies within 90 days from the date of judgment. The order paved the way for yesterday’s elections.
Wike, nine state lawmakers and one member of the House of Representatives, Hon Uche Nnam Obi of Ahoada West/Egbeama/Ndoni Federal Constituency, escaped the Court of Appeal hammer. The Supreme Court upheld the victory of Wike and overruled the judgment of the Appeal Court which upheld the nullification of his election by the Election Petition Tribunal.
Since the 2015 polls, the Rivers political atmosphere had been tense. The cloudy political climate became thicker following the Appeal Court’s sack of the affected lawmakers and the INEC’s scheduling of the re-run for yesterday.
Before yesterday’s elections, the PDP and APC had traded allegations of plans to unleash violence and rig the polls. There was massive deployment of police and other security operatives to ensure peaceful elections. However, the fear of violence still loomed large ahead of the polls following the killing of two soldiers and one Department of State Service (DSS) operative during shoot-outs with gunmen less than 48 hours to the polls.
Thus, the electorate went to the elections, yesterday, amid fear of violence.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
