By EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s activism on ground in the form of rehabilitation of abandoned infrastructure and have been lauded even by the blind in Edo State. However, the way and manner the governor’s party won last Tuesday’s council polls in Chief Tony Anenih’s backyard raises issues of the sacredness of democracy in the state.

It was envisaged to be the final battle between the two leading political figures from the Heartbeat State. In the first phase of the battle last April when the local government elections were conducted across the state, it turned into a stalemate in Esan North East local government area, the home base of Chief Tony Anenih, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Anenih is also revered as a national leader of the party who has been dubbed Mr. Fix It on account of his capacity to resolve problems of the party.

In the April elections, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN one of the legacy parties in the new All Progressives Congress, APC swept the polls in the 17 local government areas where the polls were acclaimed to have been conducted.

The sweeping victory of the ACN in the election was not totally surprising given what many across the state have praised as the impressive performance of the Comrade Governor in the provision of infrastructure. Roads that have for decades been abandoned have under the Oshiomhole administration been reconstructed. New roads have also surfaced across the state as part of Oshiomhole’s administration’s efforts in reaching the rural areas.

*Gov. Oshiomhole and Chief Anenih

In Anenih’s Esan North East council, the Oshiomhole train, however, met a stiff resistance. Eventually, the election was declared inconclusive after the returning officer for the area failed to declare the results.

Based on the general performance of the PDP in previous statewide and council offices, the party was not given a chance in the April council polls. However, in Esan Northeast, the home base of Anenih, the PDP apparently behaved out of context with its reputation.

Not only did the party allow primaries, the party went for what many believed to be its best material, Mr. Joe Yakubu, a former council chairman who was first elected during the Osehreinmen Osunbor administration but whose tenure was cut short by the court decision to install Oshiomhole as governor. Yakubu and the other 17 council chairmen elected during Osunbor’s regime were sacked at the advent of the Oshiomhole administration in 2008.

Just like Oshiomhole in last year’s gubernatorial election, Yakubu sought re-election with a record of performance garnered during his brief stint as local government chairman when a number of feeder roads, council buildings and other projects came to life through his efforts.

His opponent, Sam Oboh was a former member of the PDP who crossed over to the ACN and initially tried and failed to enter the State House of Assembly.

Following the inconclusive election of April, the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC fixed the bye-election for last Tuesday. The approach to the bye-election was as characteristic with Edo politics marked with intrigues and controversy. It was not surprising given the heavy interests involved. Besides Anenih, it is also the base of the Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen, one of the several political godsons of Anenih from the region.

At the end of the voting last Tuesday, both sides expressed confidence. The APC’s confidence arose from the fact that having defeated the PDP in the last general and gubernatorial elections in that area, that there was no way that it would not win the council elections.

“Just in 2012, ACN, now APC ,won Esan North East Local Government in the gubernatorial election and that was an election conducted by federal INEC, the same people that voted for us in that election and many more people that joined us again voted for us in this last election,” APC interim state chairman, Thomas Okosun said.

The confidence of the PDP it was claimed was based on what party officials described as their tracking of the votes at the wards and returns from agents which they claimed were in favour of the party. The result and the declaration of the result was no less controversial. The returning officer for the election did not declare the result in the local government as was expected. Rather, the result was declared in the state capital by EDSIEC chairman, who declared the APC candidate, Oboh as the winner with 12,672 as against the 3,314 votes polled by PDP’s Yakubu.

The fiery state chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih was quick to counter the results giving detailed ward by ward results as collated after the election saying that the PDP polled 11,332 votes to the 6,248 votes scored by the APC.

In the statement entitled “How PDP won the chairmanship and councillorship election in Esan North-East Local Government”, Orbih said: “The Local Government Returning Officer absconded from Uromi without announcing the collated chairmanship result only for EDSIEC chairman, Mr Solomon Ogoh to announce a doctored result in Benin in favour of All Progressive Congress, APC, candidate while collation was still going on in Uromi. We challenge the APC to contradict these figures.”

Responding, the interim state chairman of the APC, Mr. Thomas Okosun said: “We read in the papers that PDP said they were rejecting the results of the election and Orbih was saying that the authentic result sheets were with the Police, SSS and Civil Defence, without saying that the result sheets were with the EDSIEC staff who are the authentic umpire for the election.”

APC chieftains including Governor Oshiomhole were also quick to throw back allegations of rigging leveled against their party by accusing the PDP of using federal advantage to flood the area with security personnel. APC officials gave graphic presentations of how PDP officials allegedly connived with policemen mostly from outside the state to harass electoral officials and APC supporters.

Works Minister, Onolememen who was present for the election was particularly accused by the APC officials of having influenced the presence of the policemen.

It was an allegation that brought out the ire of the minister who responding through his Chief Press Secretary, Tony Ikpasaja accused the Edo governor of bending the rules of electoral conduct to achieve a predetermined objective.  He said: “Governor Oshiomhole may be crafty in his game of fooling Nigerians all the time with his rhetoric, but it is time the Nigerian public, especially the media, began to beam searchlight on this personality and hold him accountable all the way, as he poses serious risk to our nascent democracy in his pronouncements and acts.”

Executive lawlessness

“Executive lawlessness of the kind being displayed by Governor Oshiomhole should never be tolerated in Nigeria if the current democracy is to endure. Those who exercise executive powers on behalf of the people should never use those powers to disenfranchise the same people in a mere local election, just because it did not go their way.” ‘the onus is now on the judiciary to restore the hope of the common man because it is glaring that the election was still on going when the result was being declared by EDSIEC, so the question is, which result did the state government use declaring the APC candidate?’

‘For Governor Oshiomhole to cancel an election that was fair and proven to be one of the best so far shows his level of incivility.

He needs to wake up from his slumber and be told the truth that no one is above the laws of the land.’

Abuja based lawyer JohnBull Adaghe speaking against the background of allegations that the EDSIEC did not give the breakdown on how it arrived on the results declared expressed his disappointment saying: ‘the onus is now on the judiciary to restore the hope of the common man because it is glaring that the election was still on going when the result was being declared by EDSIEC, so the question is, which result did the state government use declaring the APC candidate?”