By Peter Duru
There is so much uneasy calm across Benue State following the outcome of the last presidential and National Assembly elections in the state.

Benue until now had been a predominantly Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, state but the outcome of the last elections it seemed, changed the situation.

The opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, led by Senate Minority Leader, Senator George Akume, Chief Barnabas Gemade and former Minister of State, Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom asserted their political influence in the state, by staging a major upset in the political space with the defeat of the PDP in the state in the penultimate Saturday elections.

At the end of the presidential election, the APC polled a total of 373,961 votes to PDP’s 303,737 votes.

The upset also trickled down to the National Assembly elections which saw the APC winning two out of the three available Senate seats with the party taking six out of the 11 House of Representatives seats in the state.

Perhaps, one of the major attractions of that election was the failure of Governor Gabriel Suswam to win the Benue North East senatorial seat which was before then considered a foregone conclusion.

He was defeated by Senator Gemade, a former national chairman of the PDP who crossed over to the APC after Suswam took the PDP ticket from him.

Another feature of that election was the fact that the PDP garnered most of its votes from the Benue South senatorial district, where the Senate President, David Mark, Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and former Minister of State for Niger Delta, Sam Ode held sway for the PDP.

However, in the Benue North West district, a renowned hotbed for opposition politics and constituency of the Senate Minority Leader, Akume, the APC once again proved its mettle by winning all the available four House of Representatives seats capping it with the senatorial slot.

With the outcome of that election now settled, the major political actors and gladiators in the state have all gone back to the trenches, strategizing and plotting to undo the other in the coming governorship and House of Assembly elections.

It is pertinent to note here that following the outcome of the last elections, which perhaps has turned the table against the PDP, both parties have been hit by waves of realignment of forces and decamping of party supporters and faithful across the state.

In the meantime, the two leading parties have been engaged in somewhat secret and most times nocturnal meetings with notable politicians, across board, in order to sway the support of the electorate.

The parties and candidates have also adopted the neighbourhood campaign strategy, whereby candidates gather and address voters in small settings in order to drive home their messages so as to win more votes.

There is no gainsaying that the parties are not giving anything to chance, while the PDP is working hard to turn around its fortunes in the coming elections, the APC is bent on taking advantage of the victory of the President-Elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to rout the hitherto dominant PDP.

At the moment, the political environment is fully charged and pundits believe that Benue would witness the mother of all elections, come April 11th.

Speaking on the issue, Benue state chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, Mr. Baba Agan said, “the last election was like a tsunami, in the entire country, and as it is, the PDP has lost its dominance of our state.

“But I know that they will not give in cheaply, even though the APC is obviously enjoying an edge over the ruling party, I expect a titanic fight on Saturday, though as a strong supporter of the APC which I expect to win, I know that the PDP will definitely fight for its life and it’s going to be a fight to finish.”