Esan North East: Unending power game in Anenih’s backyard

Attempts by some to show that a man nationally revered as The Leader is politically lame in his backyard continued this week in Esan Northeast Esan North East could be just one of the 18 local government areas in Edo State in the eyes of many. But not for Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his antagonists in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The base of Chief Tony Anenih, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has been at the centre of an unending political game that escalated last Tuesday with the annulment of the election of Mr. Sam Oboh as the chairman of the local government area by the Edo State Local government election tribunal. Mr. Oboh was elected on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria, All Progressives Congress, APC. The tribunal judgment ironically has been rejected by the two leading political parties in the area, the APC and the PDP. Given the well commended infrastructure revolution executed by the Adams Oshiomhole administration, Esan North East had been expected to follow the rest of the state in endorsing all the local government chairmen presented by the comrade governor in the local government elections first conducted last April. However, the PDP which had in the past been accused of imposing candidates for election went clean when it allowed the winner of its primary, Joe Yakubu to fly its ticket. Yakubu was to the people of Esan North East what Adams Oshiomhole is to the rest of Edo State: A Performer. Yakubu had served briefly as local government chairman in the Oserienhmen Osunbor administration and performed in a way that other chairmen had not done before him. So when he was presented against the APC’s Oboh, the PDP believed they had a genuine case. However, the election last April ended in a stalemate as the result was not announced forcing a rerun last October. In that rerun, the PDP mobilised its top chieftains from within and around the area for the election. At the end of the election, the returning officer could not be found and the result was announced by the state chairman of the Edo State Independent Electoral Commission, EDSIEC Mr. Solomon Ogoh in Benin City, the state capital. He declared the APC winner with 12,672 as against the 3,314 votes polled by PDP’s Yakubu. The results were disputed by the PDP which claimed that results by its officers and security agents showed that the PDP polled 11,332 votes to the 6,248 votes scored by the APC. It was not surprising then that the APC latched unto the assertion by the PDPD as it claimed that the confidence of the PDP was in the use of security agents which are in the control of the PDP controlled Federal Government. The Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen who is from the area and is alleged to be eyeing Oshiomhole’s seat in 2016 was particularly accused by the APC officials of having mobilised security agents to rig the election. Though he was around for the election he, however, denied the allegation of rigging. In the end, the PDP went to the tribunal which last Tuesday faulted the polls and declared another re-run. Bizarrely, the two parties were not satisfied with the judgment. The APC whose candidate was ousted has pledged to appeal the judgment. Speaking through its state publicity secretary, Godwin Erhahon, the party said:”as a law abiding party and promoter of the rule of law, we will abide by the final judgment after the final determination by the appellate tribunal. We shall appeal the judgment at least for the development of the law because we need to exhaust all the legal processes.”The PDP on its part has claimed that it was denied justice as it said the tribunal should not have ordered a rerun, but should have installed its candidate, Yakubu as the validly elected chairman. “The original plot was for the Tribunal to declare the APC candidate winner of the election but that failed due to the good work of our team of lawyers and the witnesses we called on. “They were, however, confronted by a deluge of evidences we presented including EDSEIC ward returning officials who attested to the fact that PDP won the elections and they quickly made a detour.” ”the verdict falls short of our expectations as our candidate would have been declared winner if justice had been served. Now that the tribunal has ruled that there was no collation of result, from where did EDSIEC get the result it announced,” the chairman asked? Meanwhile, the political spectacle continues.