Sanwo-Olu is candidate to beat in Lagos

AFTER several weeks of intense campaigns and alliances laced with some drama by the various political parties, Nigerians will be trooping to the polling booths once again today to elect governors for 29 of the 36 states. Also to be elected today are legislators for all the state houses of assembly. Although 1, 066 candidates were cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the governorship polls, and 14, 583 for the state assembly elections, some have since been declared ineligible by the courts while some others have stepped down following alliance talks among the parties.

One of the state assembly candidates died on Wednesday. He is Adamu Kwanate, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Nasarawo/Binyeri (Mayo Belwa 1) in Adamawa State. He was said to have collapsed during a campaign in Kwanate and rushed to a hospital in Yola, the state capital where he died. The INEC which is still fresh with its experience from the February 23 presidential and national assembly elections,says it is ready for the latest round of polls. The police and the army say they are equally ready although the army has warned that its men will be ‘tough’ this time around.

As it was during the presidential/national assembly elections,today’s polls will be a straight fight between the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). But more attention will be on Lagos,Ogun,Oyo,Kwara,Sokoto,Kaduna,B enue,Imo,Plateau , Adamawa, Zamfara and Akwa Ibom States largely on account of the outcome of the last presidential election, and in some cases the events leading to the emergence of the governorship candidates ,and the personalities involved in shaping the results of the polls. There will be no governorship election in Anambra,Bayelsa,Edo,Ekiti,Osun and Ondo. In Lagos State, Mr.Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC is the candidate to beat.

He is the most visible of the candidates and has done more campaigns than everybody else in the race,including PDP’s Jimi Agbaje . Sanwo-Olu has also been endorsed by a former governor of the state and the current minister of Power,Works and Housing, Mr.Babatunde Fashola ,and the incumbent governor of the state,Mr.Akinwunmi Ambode.

The APC beat the main opposition party, the ‘PDP, in the presidential election, even if it was with a narrow margin of130,000. The ruling party also showed it’s supremacy by winning all the Senatorial seats and most of the House of Representatives seats. The outcome of the election spurred Sanwo-Olu and his party on to embark on an aggressive campaign drive across the state, wooing more interest groups. Sanwo-Olu’s candidacy received a great boost during the week,Tuesday precisely,

when the Ifeanyi Ubah-led Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) announced its endorsement of the APC candidate for today’s election. Ubah, who emerged as the only senator from the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the February 26 election, said he was taking it upon himself to mobilise Igbo residing in Lagos State to vote for the APC candidate with a view to “putting in a round peg in a round hole.” He said: ”TAN is a national platform but also we have our ethnic structure. For the Igbo in Lagos, we are speaking for them, we have consulted with them widely. ”We have told them why it is important to support APC structure and to vote in Sanwo-Olu on Saturday. ”Visible work starts tomorrow but we have done some underground work prior to this news briefing. ”The most important thing is that we will not want to have friction with the Yoruba or any other ethnic group in Lagos. ”I think we are coming in at this time to swiftly get involved by putting in a round peg in a round hole.” Sections of the Igbo community had earlier endorsed SanwoOlu’s candidacy.

The APC candidate is thus tipped to win the poll. The APC also went  on a fresh offensive in Ogun State with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo  personally leading the party’s ward-to-ward campaign.With him on  the Abeokuta ,the state capital  campaign on Wednesday were  Chief  Olusegun Osoba who is a former governor of the state and the party’s governorship candidate,Prince Dapo Abiodun. Abiodun has a battle to fight with Adekunle Akinlade of the  Allied Peoples Movement (APM), PDP’s Buruji Kashamu and Gboyega Isiaka of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). But following the re-alignment of political forces in the state within the last 48 hours,the race   seems to be have been reduced to a two-way battle between Abiodun and Akinlade. The Director General of the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation,Chief Gbenga Daniel, went beyond political differences by directing his supporters to vote for APC’s Abiodun, while another PDP chieftain in the state,Ladi Adebutu,asked his own supporters to back  Akinlade after the two sides had reached an agreement on the sharing of appointments  and contracts in the event  of Akinlade winning.

Adebutu had been parading himself as the party’s governorship candidate until the courts affirmed Kashamu as PDP’s duly elected candidate. Observers brand the race for the Oyo State Government House too close to call between Mr. Adebayo Adelabu of the APC and Mr.Seyi Makinde of PDP after the two men succeeded in getting some governorship candidates to step down for them earlier in the week The strongman of Ogbomoso politics and former governor of the state,Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) threw in his lot with Adelabu while Olufemi Lanlehin of the ADC and Sharafadeen Alli of  Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) made way for Makinde. Senate President Bukola Saraki returned to Ilorin during the week to personally take charge of the PDP campaign and see what he can salvage of his political empire after the February routing he and the party suffered in the hands of the APC and the O to ge movement.

Notwithstanding,Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of the APC looks set to beat Alhaji Razaq Atunwa of the PDP. The APC says its performance today will remove once and for all whatever is left of the Saraki political dynasty in the state. Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State will square up with his former deputy,Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu who is flying the APC flag. It  will be a make or mar contest for Tambuwal who joined the governorship race only after defecting to the PDP and losing out in the party’s presidential primaries. It will also show who,between him and his erstwhile political godfather,Senator Aliyu Wamakko,holds the ace in Sokoto politics. It is no less a make or mar contest for Governor Nasir El-Rufai in Kaduna State. He will be facing a revved up PDP machinery manned by former Vice  President Namadi Sambo,former governor of the State,Senator Ahmed Makarfi, and the party’s governorship candidate,Isa Ashiru. There is also the massive opposition from the Christian- dominated southern part of the state.

The contest in Benue State will determine the strength of  Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and the man who made him governor,Senator George Akume. The PDP proved the stronger of the two sides in the presidential and National Assembly elections,but Ortom and Akume,who is now supporting Emmanuel Jime of  the  APC, are now poised for a rematch. In Imo State,Mr.Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP is favoured ahead of Senator Hope Uzodinma of the APC and Uche Nwosu of Action Alliance (AA) who is enjoying immense support from his father in law and incumbent governor Rochas Okorocha. Okorocha is currently under suspension by his party,APC,for campaigning for Nwosu at the expense  of the party’s candidate,Uzodinma. The PDP is encouraged by the outcome of the last presidential election in Plateau State  to go all out to claim the State from the APC,whose candidate,Simeon Lalong is seeking a second term. Flying the PDP flag is 76 year old Jerry Useni,a retired general and former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Adamawa is another battleground for the two parties. It is currently governed by APC’s Bindo Umaru Jibrilla who wants a second term on the platform  of the party.His main chanllenger is PDP’s Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri. Not only did the PDP win the state during the last presidential election,it is also the home state of the  party’s presidential candidate,Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The governorship race in Zamfara State is a special case.

It was heading in one direction – PDP’s- until two weeks ago when the Court of Appeal allowed the APC to join the race. The primaries had split the party into two,resulting in litigations. At a point,the courts ruled that the party did not hold proper primaries and was not qualified to present candidates for all elections save presidential. Now,the party is presenting Moukhtar Idris Shehu who will square up with PDP’s Bello Mohammed Matawalle. Following its improved performance in the Southsouth during the last elections,the APC is looking charged to do even better in Delta and Akwa Ibom States today. Its governorship candidate in Delta,Great Ogboru, is banking on his popularity to wrest power from Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, while Nsima Ekere who is heavily  backed by Senator Godswill Akpabio,  is confident of turning the table against  the incumbent  Udom Emmanuel. Army,Police: We’re set to protect Nigeria’s democracy The army and the police have spoken of their determination to ensure that the democratic process  is not harmed in any way during and after  today’s elections.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai ,warned that soldiers are now ready more than ever before to deal with “those who are determined to undermine   our   electoral   process.” He said the army was in possession of intelligence showing that some people want to upset the process. “There are indications of their intent to take advantage of and to use the farmers/herders crisis, armed political thugs and ethnic militias to perpetrate acts of violence including bombings,’ he said. He added:” Some of them also intend to infiltrate domestic staff of political opponents, employ mercenaries to carry out acts of assassinations, use the social media for smear campaigns, hate speeches and spread fake news in a bid to disrupt the peaceful conduct of the elections. We must not allow them to succeed. “We shall not allow those who are determined to undermine our   electoral process   to succeed.

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These forthcoming gubernatorial and state assembly elections are very crucial. These are elections that touch on the interest of the people at the grassroots and could likely be volatile in nature. “I want to state, and categorically warn that the Nigerian Army will not tolerate any acts that will undermine national security. This time around we shall be tough on those who plan to rig or disrupt the electoral process.” Yobe State Police Commissioner  Sunmuno Abdulmailiki and his Borno State counterpart   Damiam Chukwu have pledged maximum security of lives and property during and after the elections. “We have enough men on ground to police the election and ensure that voters are not intimidated in carrying out their civic duties. I am confident that the elections will be peaceful,” Abdulmaliki said in Maiduguri while Chukwu said deployments are strategically done in collaboration with other sister security agencies to ensure safety of voters across Borno State. Residents of both states want security to be beefed  around voting areas.

Many residents  have travelled to their local government areas of origin to exercise their franchise. A security source in Maiduguri said: “The last elections were relatively safe  for those that travelled out and that serves as a morale booster for them towards the coming Saturday’s elections. “Though, there might be a little apprehension, note that  security operatives have also upped  their game in order to ensure safety of lives and property during this elections.”

The Abia State Police are equally ready for the elections,according to   Police Commissioner Ene Okon. “We are fully prepared. We have done the deployment of the command’s personnel,” he said by phone He added: “INEC offices across the state are fully fortified with security. In each of the INEC local government offices, I have 12 Mobile Policemen to take care of security there. We have finished operation order for the exercise which was released since Monday and the relevant bodies have gotten theirs as well.

“We have done deployment of policemen, Civil Defence, Immigration, Customs, Road Safety etc to all the 2, 750 polling units in the state. We have done deployment of four Mobile Policemen to each of the RAC centers. “We have deployed 10 armed Mobile Policemen to all the local government areas. We have equally covered all the wards and collation center with three Mobile Policemen respectively. The Anambra State Police Command said it  has mapped out strategies to address major threats such as thuggery and cultism during the election. Briefing reporters in Awka, Police  Commissioner Mustapha Ladodo warned ballot box snatchers, their masters, agents and mischief makers to desist from such plans or have themselves to blame. He implored the electorate to come out enmasse to exercise their franchise as security would be around before, during and after the elections to protect them.  •