Chief Obasanjo voting in Abeokuta

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor
THE determination of President Goodluck Jonathan and Independent national Electoral Commission, INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega to ensure that every vote counts in the 2011 polls started taking its toll on Saturday as some established political gladiators and godfathers lost in their polling booths to rival opponents.

Vice-president Namadi Sambo, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Governor Ibrahim Shekarau were among the prominent Nigerians with major political stake in the ongoing elections who lost in their polling units.

Sambo relocated to his Kaduna base some few days to the rescheduled National Assembly election following intelligent reports from party agents that his Peoples Democratic Party, PDP would have been completely disgraced had the earlier National Assembly election of April 2 proceeded as planned.

In the rescheduled poll of April 9, 2011, Sambo voted at Kabala/Camp Road Polling Unit. In the Senate contest the PDP scored 165 votes to the 256 votes scored by the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC. In the House of Representatives contest the CPC equally trounced the PDP by 277 to 103 votes. The PDP was reported to have trailed the CPC in most of the House of Representatives contests in the Kaduna North senatorial district.

Feelers from PDP agents after the April 2 botched polls were that the party was heading for a disgraceful outing and that despite the continuing popularity of the incumbent Senator, Ahmed Makarfi. The PDP was said to have been damaged by the intra party issues that have continued to bedevil the party in the state especially since the elevation of Sambo as Vice-President last year.

Sambo who is regarded as the leader of the party in the State according to sources has not been available to attend to local party issues.

“The security around him in Abuja and the business of attending to state matters has made him unavailable to attend to local party matters that he used to solve before,” a source privy to the developments in Kaduna told Vanguard.

The other power centre in Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi who is the incumbent Senator it was learnt had out of political exigency opted not to meddle in the political crisis in the zone in order not to be seen as usurping authority from the Vice-President.

President Obasanjo alongside his daughter Iyabo who is incumbent Senator for Ogun Central on the platform of the PDP, were unable to deliver the polling booth where they voted in Abeokuta.

At the African Church Grammar School, Ita Iyalode in Abeokuta where father and daughter-candidate voted, the PDP lost scoring 64 votes, to the 167 votes scored by the ACN candidate Gbenga Obadara.

At the Agbeloba polling unit directly opposite the centre of Obasanjo’s business empire, that is the head office building of Obasanjo Holdings; ACN scored 191, PDP 36 and PPN 10.

The results are reflective of the vote gathering capacity of President Obasanjo in his immediate neighbourhood. The President as a candidate was reported to have equally lost his polling booth in his first political outing in 1999 and also to have lost the same polling booth in 2007.

However, the result from the polling booth was reportedly cancelled in 2007 allegedly for security reasons, though doubters say it was to avoid the embarrassment that the then All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP candidate Ibikunle Amosun won the PDP in the President’s home!

Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau the outgoing Governor of Kano State and also the presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP equally lost in his own polling unit 022 at Giginyu ward.

In the Senate contest, the CPC scored 92, PDP 81, ANPP 52 and ACN 9. In the House of Representatives election in the same ward, CPC scored 91, PDP 47 ANPP 88 and ACN 6.