Assistant Editor, Sam Nwaoko, examines the contending issues raised by the Ekiti State Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the build-up to Saturday's rerun election for the Ekiti Central Federal Constituency II seat in the House of Representatives.THE intense conflict between the two major political parties in Ekiti State, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was brought to the public glare on Monday, as they clashed ahead of Saturday's House of Representatives rerun election in Ekiti Central Federal Constituency II. The ACN called chieftains of the PDP in and outside Ekiti State names, claiming that they were plotting to disrupt the election. The PDP, on its part, raised the alarm, claiming that the ACN was training thugs 'to unleash terror' on the people of the federal constituency during the election.These antics were made official on Monday, when Tai Oguntayo issued a statement on behalf of the ACN, while Jackson Adebayo issued another on behalf of the PDP. The respective positions of the parties were meant to attract the sympathy of the voting public and portray each other in negative light.But the ordinary people of the state, who the tricks are meant to win over, from their reactions, seem to have gone beyond that level. The voters now appear wiser and have been sieving the political parties based on their performances, juxtaposed with the promises they made while using them as their stepping stones on their way to political office.Thus, should the ordinary voter be allowed to decide parties' fate in Saturday's rerun, no political party in the state would say for certainty that it has the upper hand going into the election.The Election Petitions Tribunal in Ado Ekiti had, on September 21, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct another election within 90 days for the Ekiti Central II seat in the House of Representatives. The Court of Appeal sitting in Ado Ekiti on 17 November upheld the ruling of the lower tribunal, thereby setting the stage for the December 10 election.The court pronouncements were sequel to a petition filed by the candidate of National Transformation Party (NTP), Mr. Bamidele Peter, in which he complained that the name and logo of his party were omitted from the ballot papers used by the INEC to conduct the 26 April election won by the candidate of the ACN, Mr Oyetunji Ojo. The lower tribunal had, on 21 September, ruled that the exclusion of the name and logo of NTP by INEC was unlawful. But Ojo, who was the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Communications, until the annulment of his election, went to the Court of Appeal to contest the judgment.However, the Court of Appeal, in a split decision, dismissed the appeal and held that election should be conducted in Ekiti Central Federal Constituency II, with the presiding judge, Justice Sotonye Denton-West, delivering the minority judgement. Justice Tom Yakubu and Justice Obande Ogbuniyahad upheld the verdict of the lower tribunal, saying the logo and name of the NTP candidate that were missing on the ballot contravened the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.The Appeal Court affirmation of the verdict of the lower tribunal heightened the talk among some politicians in the state that an 'amorphous NTP and its barely-known candidate' had upturned the mandate 'freely' given the ACN and its candidate by the people of the state on 26 April. The ACN, which says it knew that the NTP was obviously being sponsored, focused on that fact and, of course, the fact that the election was upturned not because it was unpopular, but because of the mistake of the INEC.In a recent interview, Tai Oguntayo, the ACN spokesperson in the state, had said, 'as far as we are concerned, we are back to the drawing board and we have put all machineries in place to ensure that we sweep the polls again, as we did in the first instance.' He had also noted that 'the election will be an acid test for the local government election coming up on in January 2012. We are already on the field.'The new Ekiti ACN mouthpiece harped on the performance of the symbol of their party in the state, Governor Kayode Fayemi, saying the governor's his first year in office was the joker that would win the election for their candidate. 'We are already on the field now while our main challenger is busy boasting about former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Minister of Police Affairs, who will storm Ekiti State for the rerun, as if they have forgotten that ACN beat Obasanjo in his state and constituency, including his ward, in the last election. Mark my words, the forthcoming election will be free, fair and won massively by the ACN,' Oguntayo had stated.On the one hand, Ojo has the advantage of the incumbency factor of his party in the state as he goes into the election. On this, he has the duty of convincing the people of the constituency to 'do it again.' On the other hand, the ACN in and outside the state would bring its clout and pedigree to work for him to be able to return to the House of Representatives.However, Oguntayo did not say what the ACN candidate had been able to do in the five months he had gone to represent the people at the National Assembly, with regard to the expression that 'morning foretells the day.'Another factor, perhaps the bigger factor in Saturday's election, is the main challenger, the PDP. The PDP has tailored its arguments and chances in the election to suit what it refers to as the 'poor performance' of the ACN-led government in the state in the past one year. The party has organised various events in parts of the state in which the party tried to mobilise its members towards achieving effective reconciliation. Secretary of the party in the state, Mr Gboyega Akinola, in a recent interview, pointed out that the PDP had analysed the policies of the ACN-led government to the people and contended that the people were now wiser and better educated on what he said were 'the lies of the ruling party in the state'.As a means of driving home his point that the PDP stood a better chance on Saturday, the party's scribe alluded to the disenchantment of the people of the constituency with regards to the quality of representation they had got so far. 'We have sensitised our people and we have made them realise the difference. This apart the fact that we have put our house in order and we are more united than before,' Akinola stated.The candidate of the PDP in the election, Mr Kehinde Odebunmi, was the member representing the constituency in the House of Representatives until June this year. He has the advantage of experience and the common reference to him as 'a nice fellow.' But these seemed not to have worked for him in the April election How well they would work for him this time round is another poser.Ordinarily, the parties should just campaign and lay their programmes bare to the people for them to chose who would best represent them. But the current resort to calumny by the ACN and the PDP, out of the 11 political parties that INEC said would vie for the seat, is ugly and may mar the election. The Ekiti people spoke of their abhorrence of that and they view the denigrations as an obvious diversionary ploy to detract from the real issues.The INEC in Ekiti State has said it is not happy conducting the rerun because it has learnt the hard way. The commission will also handle an interesting twist to the election, which is the withdrawal of the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Mrs. C.O. Oluwafemi, from Saturday's poll. Her withdrawal from the race is sequel to her defection to the ACN after she lost in the general election of April.In all, the people are ready for the parties and their candidates while the umpire also says that it is set. Where the pendulum will swing will, indeed, be known on Saturday.
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