THE defeat of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello in the Ogun Central senate election was not just rooted in the internal crisis that bedeviled her Peoples Democratic Party, PDP but also influenced by the firm grip of Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN gubernatorial candidate in the politics of the Ogun Central senatorial district.

Iyabo who voted with her father, former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the polling centre at the African Church Grammar School, Ita Iyalode in Abeokuta, lost in her own polling booth. The results there showed that while she scored 64 votes, the ACN candidate Gbenga Obadara polled 167 votes. The PPN candidate, Mrs. Lola Abiola-Edewor scored 5 votes.

At the Agbeloba polling unit, directly opposite the head office of Obasanjo Holdings; ACN scored 191, PDP 36 and PPN 10 while at the African Church Primary school where Senator Amosun voted, his party scored 259 votes as against PDP’s 40 and PPN’s 9 votes.

Senator Obasanjo-Bello’s loss is reflective of the first suspicion given her father in 1999 when he lost in his polling booth in his first entry into the democratic arena.

The Obasanjos, it may be suggested, had used the power of incumbency to consolidate their political leverage in Ogun State in the 2003 and 2007 election, but may have now lost out when exposed to a free and fair electoral setting.

Her loss at the weekend election was despite her seemingly active legislative agenda at both the Senate where she is presently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and in her constituency where she extended her gestures through a number of community outreaches. Her activities were chronicled in a local publication she styled as Ogun Central Rocks.

Cast against the formidable political machinery of Senator Amosun who himself represented the senatorial district between 2003 and 2007 in the Senate, Obasanjo-Bello was really positioned against a daunting obstacle. Her chances were not helped by the internal crisis in the PDP which led to the split of the party and the vengeance of Governor Gbenga Daniel through his Peoples Party of Nigeria, PPN.

Senator Obasanjo-Bello’s defeat undoubtedly consolidates the position of Senator David Mark in his bid to retain the office of Senate President in the next Senate. Though Senator Mark who was struggling as at press time to press home to victory in his own contest in Benue South may not have seen Mrs Obasanjo-Bello as a direct threat, it would be reassuring that her ouster would make his bid to be the first Senate President in the Fourth Republic to win back his seat and re-contest for the office of Senate President.

Obasanjo-Bello was one of the factors that was said to be in the frontline in the race for the office of Senate President as it was being speculated that the office of Senate President was to be re-zoned to the Southwest to put her in reckoning for the office.

Apart from Mrs Obasanjo-Bello other major casualties from the Southwest at the weekend National Assembly polls were Senators Iyiola Omisore (Osun Central) and Gbenga Ogunninya (PDP, Ondo Central). Both men were like Obasanjo-Bello also believed to be running for a leadership position in the next Senate.

As at press time only Senator Bode Olajumoke of the lot of incumbent Senators in the PDP from the Southwest was said to be hanging on for possible victory despite the onslaught by Labour Party in the state.

The rout of ranking PDP Senators from the region throws the next Southwest Senate PDP caucus to an open bid from the new members or leaves Senator Olajumoke if he is confirmed winner of the Ondo North contest in an unassailable position of leadership of the Southwest in the zone.