Posted by AUGUSTINE AVWODE, WILLY EYA (Lagos), DAVID MALOMO & PETER ANOSIKE (Yola) on
As results of yesterday's re-run governorship election continue to trickle in, feelers from exit poll suggest that the former governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd) is set to re-enact another victory to the Dougirei Government House, Yola.
As results of yesterday's re-run governorship election continue to trickle in, feelers from exit poll suggest that the former governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako (rtd) is set to re-enact another victory to the Dougirei Government House, Yola.
To ensure a violence-free poll, the police high command beefed up security with the deployment of no fewer than 10, 000 men to various polling areas.
It would be the second time in one year that elections would take place following the nullification of last year's poll by the Appeal Court on the ground of exclusion of the Action Congress (AC) candidate, Alhaji Ibrahim Bapetel. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had returned Nyako of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as duly elected last year.
Sunday Sun gathered that one week before yesterday's poll, the two major contestants - the AC and the PDP - were equally matched, but certain factors have since intervened to tilt the scale in favour of the former governor.
The PDP, it was gathered, had an edged over the opposition in 18 out of the 21 Local Government Areas of the state. The AC had a commanding influence in Toungo, Jada and Ganye.
Besides, the PDP in the last two weeks held crucial stakeholders meeting both in Abuja and Yola, which effectively united all the seeming differences within its rank.
Most essentially, it was gathered that the resolve by the former Lagos Military Administrator, Gen. Buba Marwa and the former Petroleum Minister, Senator Jubril Aminu to put their differences behind them and shore up the chances of the party in no small measure.
The same new-found family spirit, it was learnt, made the acting Governor, Hon. James Saibu Barka, to dump a hard line posture he adopted on assuming office. He had sacked all the political appointees of the former governor, thus throwing PDP into confusion regarding where his loyalty lay.
It was gathered that another factor which actually had come to play a deciding role in the election was ethnic agenda. Sunday Sun gathered that as the most heterogonous state in the country with over 70 different ethnic groups, the ability of any candidate to relate well with the numerous small ethnic groups apart from the two dominant Hausa and Fulani stocks has been of tremendous importance.
The Marwa/Aminu factor, it was also gathered, actually lifted the PDP in a way that has been phenomenal.
Feelers suggest that a chunk of the about 1.3million registered voters may have decided to return Nyako because of his prompt attention to abandoned projects in the state.
Yesterday's election was conducted by 5218 people mobilized from across the country. While about 80 per cent of the number were permanent staff of the commission, the rest 20 per cent are from the National Youth Service Corps.
A total of 12 candidates were cleared for the election but that of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) died recently. Also three national commissioners were deployed from the headquarters to man the three senatorial districts and were to assist the resident electoral commissioners in the zone.
The Adamawa election, for the record, was the second governorship re-run election by INEC. The first was in Kogi on March 26, 2008. But unlike Kogi state, Adamawa remains a very significant state both to the ruling party and the opposition. The reasons, of course, are obvious.
While the contest is between Bapetel and Nyako, many believe that, that is just on the surface of it. Behind it all is a battle of supremacy among political heavyweights in the state and the involvement of the PDP national secretariat in the contest. Indeed, many are of the belief that the national secretariat of the PDP would be more interested in seeing the contest as a chance to humiliate former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, rather than merely defeating Bapetel.
For the former, it is the only opportunity for him, now, to prove that he is still politically viable and a force to reckon with and that he still controls the politics of the state.
He was a founding father of the PDP and wielded much influence within the party. But he had to abandon it for the AC in the heat of the crisis of confidence between him and former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
He eventually became the presidential candidate of the AC. Before he decamped, Atiku called shots in the state. But bye and bye, many other heavy weight politicians have risen in the state to challenge his domination of the political landscape. The likes of Professor Jubril Aminu, General Buba Marwa and Nyako himself have since appeared to be forces to reckon with in the state.
The court verdict which nullified Nyako's election was interpreted to mean an opportunity by the AC to assert itself while the PDP also has another chance to prove that the mandate to govern Adamawa State was truly given to the party in 2007, as claimed by the party and INEC at the tribunal.
Final result may come quicker than many people anticipate and in Yola and its environs. Indeed, expectations are high that from this evening, the state's new governor would emerge.