THE court-ordered rerun election in Irepo-Orelope-Olorunsogo federal constituency of Oyo State once again reignited the rivalry between the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).For the PDP, the rerun election slated for February 11, will be an opportunity to relaunch itself and regain some lost stature. Meanwhile, the ACN plans to use the rerun poll to consolidate its hold on the state.Former governor Adebayo Alao-Akala led the PDP campaign in the three councils just as his successor Abiola Ajimobi is leading the ACN campaign. Alao-Akala is looking for a platform to payback ACN after his truncated second term bid.The ACN candidate in the April polls, Lanre Agoro had petitioned against the victory of the PDP candidate Hafeez Jimoh Adelowo. Agoro, a PDP member of the House of Representatives since 2007 was denied the ticket by the PDP after he fell out with Alao-Akala. He joined the ACN, and won the election.The tribunal granted Agoro's prayer and ordered a rerun in the federal constituency within 90 days. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) then fixed Saturday January 28 for the polls.Signs of tension and anxiety surfaced late on the Friday night when a truckload of soldiers was seen in the three councils. They were supported by troops of armed policemen.While some residents of the constituency braced the odds to cast their votes, many stayed away. Despite the heavy presence of security agents, dangerously armed hoodlums were apprehended attempting to foment trouble or rig the election. Their attempt to snatch ballot boxes was resisted by security agents amidst sporadic shooting. An outbreak of violence in some of the units caused the cancellation of election results in the areas.Politicians became agitated when the supervising electoral commissioner, Alhaji Hussain Pai announced that the rerun election was inconclusive and would be rescheduled. The INEC chief said the difference between the highest score by the PDP and that of the ACN was too close when compared to the results cancelled by the commission. As a result, he said that there was no way the commission could declare a clearcut election result.In his breakdown of the result, the Returning Officer, Prof Jelili Akinlade said PDP polled 16,344 votes against ACN's 14,573 while 3,373 votes were being expected from the polling units where election has been rescheduled. The result, according to the returning officer indicated that there was a difference of 1,821 votes between the parties. He announced the results for other parties as: Accord 330; ANPP 101; CPC 152; DPP 141; LP 25; MPPP 20 and NTP 57. According to him, five units were cancelled in Irepo, one each from Orelope and Olorunsogo because of violence.Ahead of the February 11 election in the remaining seven polling units, Pai said that the electoral guidelines states that, 'where the margin of win by votes of the leading candidate is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling stations where the election was cancelled or not held, there shall be no return for the election until another poll has taken place in the affected polling stations.'The development has elicited varying reactions from members of PDP and ACN as they trade accusations of rigging.A group in the PDP, 'Synergy League' led by Dotun Oyelade, a former aide to Alao-Akala on public communication, insisted that the PDP won the rerun poll and should be declared winner by INEC.He warned INEC 'against any collusion with the state government to reverse the will of the people by attempting to either cancel or declare ACN as the winner of the election.'Oyelade said that INEC should not insist that the poll is inconclusive because the commission has the complete results from 210 out of the 217 polling units in the federal constituency.He said: 'In Orelope council, there was disruption in only one out of 78 units; five units in Irepo out of 75, while Olorunsogo recorded only one complaint in 64 units. There is no justification for not declaring the PDP as winner after INEC admitted the candidate polled over 16,000 votes, beating ACN with over 2000 votes.'The group said that it would take all legitimate steps to ensure that all votes count.The ACN dismissed as laughable the accusation that the ACN was colluding with a federal agency. According to the party, 'Nigerians know that when the PDP begins to complain of rigging in an election whose umpire is under its care, the party must have either stolen votes that went awry or it was on the verge of falsifying election results.'The fact that the PDP was not bold enough to append its name to an allegation as grave as this and had to give the job to a faceless group, as well as complaining of an election, which INEC had proclaimed upon, 12 hours after, was an indication that it would not face up to the reality.'We campaigned all round the three local councils and deserve to win. If INEC had not declared the voting inconclusive, we were coasting home to victory.'The PDP'boycotted the meeting called by the INEC chief where a new date was picked as its chieftains maintained that there was no basis for any rerun in the seven polling units marred by electoral violence.The PDP'state party secretary, Alhaji Bashiru Akanbi insisted that Adelowo won the poll and accused the Returning Officer of going the extra miles to play with figures.The PDP claimed that while voting took place in the seven polling units, ACN thugs attempted to snatch the already thumb printed ballot papers, which made the presiding officer and the polling agents and party agents to move the ballot papers to the police station.Pointing out that it is the duty of the Returning Officer to comply with section 27 sub-section 2 (d) of Electoral Act 2011, which states that, 'the returning officer shall announce the result and declare the winner of the election at the Federal Constituency Collation Centre for the House of Representatives' the party noted that, 'our belief is that he needed to declare only the collated results and the winner, leaving the participating parties to take their case to the tribunal for further clarification.'The party accused INEC of disenfranchising voters in 210 polling units and concluded that this is a serious matter of thought for INEC.The PDP appealed to INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega to issue a certificate of return to Afeez Jimoh Adelowo and commended security agencies for closing down the suspected political thugs.But the ACN accused the PDP of using federal might to intimidate voters and wondered why more than 1,500 soldiers, as well as over 2,000 policemen had to be deployed in the constituency for a bye-election.According to ACN publicity secretary Dauda Kolawole, 'it is unfortunate that PDP has not yet shed the toga of do-or-die politics. The reality has not yet dawned on the party that the people, as a result of its woeful performance it in the last eight years, have rejected it.'It was the fear of losing face that dragged them to deploy soldiers in the area and to wage a psychological war against the people who have unanimously decided to team up with ACN in enthroning good governance in Oyo.''The Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory, Chief Jumoke Akinjide said soldiers were deployed in the constituency to prevent the ACN from going ahead with its planned rigging.'It is hypocritical for the ACN, which praised the military during the 2011 election for maintaining order to now malign the security operatives and accuse them of intimidating voters. Their attention should be pointed to the fact that the same no-nonsense Federal Government led by President Goodluck Jonathan deployed soldiers for the last year's election.'If the ACN-led government in Oyo could be so cruel and wicked in mobilising thugs and criminals to swoop on its people because of election, then it behooves on the Federal Government to safeguard the lives of the people, which is a fundamental responsibility of those in government.'Meanwhile, Kolawole in a statement faulted the position of Akinjide and stated that, 'the fact that the minister owned up to this was an indication that the PDP was anti-democratic. The statement credited to the Minister of State is reckless and unbecoming of a highly placed public official expected to be at the vanguard of protection of the rights of the people. PDP and its destructive conservative politics are history in Oyo and indeed the South West.'With its position on its candidate, the question is what will PDP do if INEC insists on the elections and refuses to declare the PDP candidate winner. Whether or not it will participate in the rescheduled poll is yet unclear, only time will tell.
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