By JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU
AFTER weeks of  preparation, today is a decisive day for former governor of Cross River State and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Liyel Imoke. The Cross River electorate will go to the polls to give or deny him a second term at the Government House, Calabar.

Battle ready to stop him are 11 candidates including Pastor Usani Usani of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Mrs. Mary Ekpere of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Mrs. Imah Nsa-Adogeke of the Labour Party and Dr. Theo Onyuku of the Hope Democratic Party. The rest are Chief Patrick Okomiso (ANPP), Victor Udom (ALP), Odey Ekunke (APS), Cletus Inyang (CDC), James Ebri (DFPF), Goddie Akpama (PPA) and Dr. Ebiti Onoyom Ndok (UNPD).

To ensure a hitch-free exercise Cross River State Police Commissioner, Mr. Samson Wudah said everything had been put in place to ensure security for all. And Project Swift Count, a conglomeration of Election Observers in the country has deployed 628 monitors to observe the polls.

Factors that may shape today’s polls

Ahead the polls, the leading candidates have rounded up their campaigns with all the arsenals at their disposal.

Imoke anchored his campaigns on his achievements in office in the last four years especially his rural development programme, which some analysts said had touched the lives of rural dwellers. Some of them are Project Hope and Project Comfort, which provide free medical service for pregnant women and children below the age of five and the Conditional Cash Transfer where the poorest people in the rural areas are given monthly stipends for their upkeep.

Aside having structures in all the 18 Local Councils of the state, there are hordes of political associations struggling to identify with Imoke, perhaps, for political patronage if he won.

The women factor may be another advantage for Imoke as his wife, Obioma has been a great boost for his re-election.

ACN in wave making

Within the ranks of the opposition parties, the ACN seems to be making some waves despite the fact that it is factionalised. The inability of the opposition parties to present a consensus candidate may make it an upheaval task to dislodge the ruling PDP in the contest.

The LP candidate in the election is articulate and serious and has been organizing about 10,000 thousand widows in the state through her NGO for empowerment.

Mrs. Mary Ekpere of the CPC and Dr. Theo Osim Onyuku of the HDP also put up serious campaigns even though they do not seem to have structures that could give them victory.

However, all the candidates are optimistic that they will make it at the end of the day. Today the electorate will decide.

Police deploy 9000 men

Cross River State Police Commissioner, Mr. Samson Wudah said everything had been put in place to ensure a hitch free election today.

Wudah, who spoke through the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Hogan Bassey, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, said over 9, 000 security personnel involving sister security agencies had been deployed for the election, adding that six units of Mobile Police Force with 63 officers from different parts of the country were involved in the exercise.

The CP said  the police had identified some flash points where the officers had been drafted to maintain peace and order.

Sources from the 13 Brigade Nigerian Army, Akim Barracks also said that the force is on standby to ensure sanity throughout the exercise.

628 observers arrive

Project Swift Count, a conglomeration of Election Observers in the country has deployed 628 election observers for the polls.

Addressing the press, Friday, Mr. Mashood Erubami, second co-chairman and chairman of Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, explained that out of the number, 600 would be deployed to pre-randomly selected polling units spread across the 18 Local Councils, while the remaining 28 would  rove.

PSC said that it would use the swift count methodology to observe the election and that the methodology involved the use of information and communication technology, ICT, and statistical principles which enable observers provide more representative and  accurate information about the electoral process in real time to voters, political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC).

Erubami stated that the observers have been accredited by INEC having met the commission’s stipulated requirements for the exercise.

The group called on the people of the state to come out en mass to exercise their civic responsibility by voting for their preferred governorship candidates. It also advised the INEC to conduct its operations transparently and treat all contestants, citizens, political parties, civil society and domestic monitoring organizations, media and security services fairly.

It further advised the commission to guarantee the secrecy of the ballot, and the security personnel to remain neutral and note that electoral security was part of the larger human security framework.