Niger East bye-election: APC, PDP in yet another battle

The opposition party, the All Progressives Congress ( APC) last Saturday locked horns in a bye-election  with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the vacant Niger East Senatorial seat in the National Assembly.  The exercise was stalemated forcing INEC to declare the election inconclusive  leaving over 13,000 votes still up for grab.   AIDELOJE OJO reports

 

The Niger state College of Education Minna, venue of the collation of the Niger East Senatorial bye- election results conducted August 30th 2014 was soaked in tension as results arrived from the nine local governments of the constituency.
The supporters of the All Progressives Party (APC) candidate, David Umaru and those of Dr. Shem Zagbai of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) clustered around the returning officer, Professor Wle Morenikeji eager to hear the final results and the winner. The returning officer raised his hands to plead for the ears of the audience and declared the bye-election inconclusive prompting supplementary bye-election in 7 polling units next Saturday.

However, before the returning officer took his seat, the results announced, had put the PDP candidate at about 89,634 votes while that of APC candidate was 84,689 votes which gave PDP an advantage of over 3000 votes for the time. Blueprint learnt that over 13,000 votes are up for grab in the supplementary election in the seven polling units to conclude the election.
Our correspondent gathered in Minna that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s decision to conduct supplementary election, did not go well with the ruling  PDP and the opposition APC, thereby making the commission to be hooked to double edge sword. The PDP was said to be angry with the commission for not announcing its candidate winner of the bye-election, while the APC held the commission responsible for allegedly aiding and abetting PDP to operate its rigging machine in polling units in Gurara and Tafa in order to turn the tide against  Umaru.

The APC spokesman, Jonathan Vatsa claimed in an interview with Blueprint  said while PDP was rigging in Tafa and Gurara, it also  instigated violence in  Umaru’s strong holds characterised by use of guns and snatching of ballot boxes. “In a nutshell, the poling units where supplementary bye-election would be conducted next weekend are in the stronghold of the APC candidate and this has constituted nightmare to the PDP and its candidate”, Vatsa said.

But for the candidates the war is not over yet. In  a post election press conference on Sunday, the APC standard bearer   urged his supporters to come out and vote him next Saturday, adding that they should not be deterred by the antics of PDP.
Prompting them up not to be discouraged, he said, “victory is surely ours and we will enthrone true democracy in the state.” While Umaru was addressing journalists at the APC secretariat in Bosso, Zagbai , the PDP candidate  was holding a similar conference few distance away, in which he admonished his supporters not to give up on him at the supplementary bye-election. The words of the candidates were clear and concise with a common massage of peace and order during the rescheduled exercise.
Blueprint learnt that while the PDP and APC candidates are pleading for votes for a clear winner on  Saturday, the gladiators of the parties have started to flex muscles over the inconclusive bye-election. There are accusations and counter accusations over what went wrong in the bye-election while INEC, the umpire had refused to play to the gallery. However, there are major upsets for the ruling PDP which lessons the Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu would not want to learn as simple elementary.

The first upset was the defeat of the governor at his polling unit and the fall of Chanchanga, his immediate constituency to the opposition. Secondly, the deputy chairman of PDP, Barrister Tanko Beji who was leading party efforts to write off the APC in the exercise also fell to the onslaught of APC in his Bosso area.

Apparently wondering why PDP could not crush APC in a senatorial bye-election for which his aides claimed victory even before its conduct, Govenor Aliyu summoned a meeting of his commissioners, political appointees and PDP officials from the zone B on Monday at Government House minna.  The governor’s aides were said to have quickly shifted blame to INEC, alleging that the commission fouled in not allowing enough time for accreditation of voters.

Analysts believed that the gallant outing of APC in the bye-election despite the deployment of huge resources by the ruling party was a clear indication that the people were disenchanted with the administration and had spoken whether the government like it or not.
Instead of focusing on the conduct of the supplementary bye-election, the leaders of the parties are locked in mudslinging that re enacts old rivalries that had recently become the hallmark of politics in the state.
However, observers are watching to know if the ruling party stands to survive the APC onslaught  in the supplementary bye-election. On the surface, Niger East Senatorial  bye-election battle appears to be a raging between APC and PDP but deep inside,  it is actually between  Umaru the self styled lion and the governor,  the self acclaimed elephant. So where the lion and the elephant fight, the people cannot suffer but decide the winner.