Let the truth triumph in Ogun State

FEW weeks to the kick-off of the 2019 general election, some intriguing political currents in Ogun State have continued to attract the attention of many well-meaning Nigerians.

There was a reported pandemonium in Abeokuta on Thursday, January 31, 2019, as supporters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Ogun State clashed during campaign tour of Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state.

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It was reported that trouble started when the campaign teams of the state APC governorship candidate, Dapo Abiodun, and the team of a member of House of Representatives representing Abeokuta North/Odeda/Obafemi-Owode constituency and a candidate of the APM, Mikky Kassim, met at Elega junction in Ward 4 of the local government.

The report had it that the two groups met at the junction where a road construction was going on, causing traffic.

It was gathered that Kassim reportedly alighted from his vehicle to control the traffic but tension built up when the supporters of APC sighted him and assumed that he was at the place to attack Abiodun and his supporters.

The armed policemen in both campaign teams were however said to have managed the situation as they fired into the air to scare the hoodlums.

It was, however, gathered that despite the efforts by policemen to avert the clash between the supporters of the two parties, they attacked one another with dangerous weapons.

To the average Nigerian, politics is a dirty game and its practitioners are viewed with suspicion. This is not unexpected, given what many regard as the failures of the political class to say the truth at all times.

The idea behind this write-up is to document for posterity, how the current political saga in Ogun State began, about four months ago.

It is a well-known fact that the presidential primary of the APC held across Nigeria on Friday, September 28, 2018. Consequently, party members in Ogun State trooped out in their thousands to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari.

On Saturday, September 29, 2018, the news media was agog with the news on the APC Governorship Primary Election Committee for Ogun State under the Chairmanship of Retired Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Indabawa and Senator Gbenga Aluko, as Secretary.

The Indabawa Committee was scheduled to arrive at Abeokuta on Saturday, September 29, 2018, preparatory to the gubernatorial primary the next day.

On Sunday, September 30, 2018, party members turned out for voting across the 236 wards in Ogun State in accordance with the directive of the National Secretariat of the party.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the 8-man Indabawa-led committee was nowhere to be found in Ogun State. Worse, there was no official communication to their host, the Ogun State APC. The whereabouts of the committee was not known to anyone.

Rather than the Indabawa-led committee getting in touch with the Ogun APC Chairman, Chief Derin Adebiyi, on the reason for its absence in Abeokuta, the state party was kept on tenterhooks. Chief Adebiyi made several phone attempts and eventually got the chairman of the committee on phone, who said- to the chagrin of the Ogun APC- that the committee members were still at the APC headquarters in Abuja, waiting to collect Ballot Papers for the direct primary in Ogun State.

The mention of Ballot Papers by Indabawa alarmed the Ogun APC Chairman due to the fact that the use of Ballot Papers, according to Section 16 (c) of the APC “Guidelines for the nomination of candidates for the 2019 general elections – Direct Primaries,” shall NOT be applicable to Direct Primaries.

At about 9:00 am on Monday, October 1, 2018, Chief Adebiyi put another call across to Mr. Indabawa, in order to inquire why the committee did not arrive the previous night. Again, the committee chairman said he was still waiting for the Ballot Papers. The Ogun APC chairman also raised the questions on the issue of Ballot Papers, which is outside the party guidelines for direct primaries.

The committee members eventually arrived at Abeokuta at about 4:00 p.m. and lodged at the Green Legacy Hotels, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Complex. The committee later visited the Ogun APC secretariat as well as the office of the Commissioner of Police and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In the evening of the same day, the committee members held a meeting with six APC aspirants at the MITROS Hall of Residence, Abeokuta, namely, Hon. Adekunle Akinlade, Mr. Jimi Lawal, Prince Dapo Abiodun, Senator Gbenga Kaka, Otunba Bimbo Ashiru and Mr. Abayomi Hunye. The committee announced at the meeting that the governorship primary will hold on Tuesday, October 2, 2018.

At the rescheduled gubernatorial primary election on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, faithful APC members turned out massively across the 236 wards and voting was conducted and the collation of results was concluded. Unfortunately, the Indabawa-led committee members did not make themselves available to announce the result.

Therefore, the election having been concluded and result collated in line with the APC guidelines on the conduct of primaries, the result was announced by the APC chairman in Ogun State State, Chief Adebiyi. In the result, Hon. Akinlade polled 190,987 votes; Mr. Jimi Lawal polled 5,046 votes; Prince Dapo Abiodun polled 3,648 votes; Otunba Bimbo Ashiru polled 898 votes; Senator Gbenga Kaka polled 833 votes and Mr. Abayomi Hunye polled 208 votes.

Interestingly, the same scenario played out in Lagos State and the party chairman, Chief Tunde Balogun, announced the result of the gubernatorial primary where Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu defeated the incumbent governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. Although the chairman of the committee, Mr. Clement Ebri, a former governor of Cross River State, objected to the announcement, the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, affirmed the authenticity of the result. If the process is authentic and was allowed in Lagos State, why should it be ignored in Ogun State?

Strangely, the Indabawa-led committee on October 3, 2018, announced the purported result of a gubernatorial election in a Lagos hotel.

For the purpose of records and posterity, the gubernatorial election which Prince Dapo Abiodun allegedly won never took place. Where did Prince Dapo Abiodun vote on that date? Let him produce evidence! That his purported victory at the gubernatorial election was a fraud had been attested to by at least three of the six aspirants namely Hon. Akinlade, Mr. Lawal and Senator Kaka.

The APC Ogun State gubernatorial primary election was held on Tuesday, October 2, 2018 as scheduled by the Indabawa-led committee and agreed to by all the gubernatorial aspirants at the meeting held on Monday, October 1, 2018.

When the national leadership of the APC failed to respect the wish of the overwhelming majority of members of the party, if the party must win the 2019 elections in Ogun State, Hon. Akinlade and some other aggrieved candidates defected to another party (the APM) to actualize their freely-given mandates.

On Thursday, November 29, 2018, Akinlade formally dumped the ruling APC. Akinlade announced his defection to the APM on the floor of the House of Representatives, Abuja. In the same vein, the Majority Leader of Ogun State House of Assembly, Yinka Mafe, and the Chief Whip, Idowu Olowofuja, as well as two state legislators defected from the APC to APM. The other two lawmakers are Tunde Sanusi, representing Obafemi-Owode state constituency, and Ganiyu Oyedeji, representing Ifo II state constituency. Also, 26 members of the APC later joined Akinlade in the APM.

Just as Akinlade who was displeased over the outcome of the primary election of the APC that led to the emergence of Abiodun, the defected members were aggrieved members of the party that were denied tickets for the State House of Assembly by the party in the election held on October 8, 2018. The defectors announced their defection while addressing journalists through their spokesperson, Lamidi Olatunji.

The group blamed their fallout with the APC on persons who were bent on frustrating the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The group vowed to work for the victory of President Buhari, the APC presidential candidate in the 2019 election.

At this point, it should be emphasised that if members of the Indabawa-led committee had been faithful and loyal to their party and country, the subsequent and tragic events in Ogun State would certainly have been avoided. The leaders of thought in Ogun State – politicians, students, media men – were vehement in their attack on the Indabawa-led committee for announcing the result of an election that never took place. Empirical evidence abounds of how electoral violence affects the credibility of the electoral system, the democratic system and the rule of law. This ugly trend raises a fundamental question about the capacity and ability of the Nigerian state to curtail electoral violence and fraud. In fact, the nature, extent and magnitude of violence and rigging associated with elections in Nigeria are posing a serious threat to the national quest for stable democratic transition, as well as the attainment of the long term goal of consolidated democracy. As a problem that has ravaged and permeated the entire bloodstream of our political system, it has become imperative for Nigerians to know the danger that it poses to strengthening and deepening the nation’s democracy with concomitant effect on national development.

For Nigeria to be able to achieve this and strengthen democratic institutions and deepen democracy, politicians, their supporters and the electorate alike should shun all forms of electoral and political violence, while apprehended perpetrators of electoral violence and politics of bitterness should be punished according to the existing law.