Benue LG poll: It was still ‘business as usual’
The much ado about local government election in Benue State was finally put to rest last Saturday, June 3, 2017. The exercise, which was conducted across the various councils in the state, was perhaps the easiest poll ever witnessed in the state in recent times.
Despite the fact that a faction of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had kicked against their exclusion from the onset, the exercise was unhindered and the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner in all the 23 councils in the state by the Benue State Independent Electoral Commission (BSIEC).
The chairman of BSIEC, Dr. John Tsuwa, announced the results of the election in Makurdi, declaring the APC unopposed in 182 councillorship seats out of 276 wards across the state. The party, however, contested 94 seats with other parties and won all, except one taken by the Labour Party.
According to Tsuwa, eight political parties took part in the exercise, held across 3, 691 polling units across the state. He described the exercise as the most peaceful and credible poll ever conducted in the history of the state.
Expectedly, the APC had a field day because the list of parties which participated in the exercise showed that there was no real challenger in the race. The election appeared to most people as an endorsement of preferred candidates.
Before the date for the poll, the PDP in the state was set to contend the chairmanship and councillorship positions in all the 23 local government areas with the ruling APC. But the internal wrangling and leadership tussle at the party’s national secretariat dealt a big blow on its state chapter as the list of candidates from the former Governor Ahmed Makarfiled faction was rejected by the state electoral umpire.
The chairman of BSIEC had said he acted based on a directive from the PDP national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, who formally wrote the commission to recognise his faction of state executive, led by Mr. Dan Ale for the election.
Following the development, the Makarfi-led PDP was ousted from the race despite being screened earlier by the commission to participate in the exercise. The aggrieved faction went a step further by dragging the BSIEC to court. However, they lost their quest to stop the exercise on the eve of the election.
At the end of the day, the Sheriff group, who were favoured by the commission, fielded only six candidates for the election, after the party’s name was earlier conspicuously omitted from the list released by the BSIEC for the exercise.
The state chairman of the Sheriff-led PDP, Ale, had told our correspondent in an interview in Makurdi that all his candidates had been screened in their various local government areas and that preparation for the election was already on top gear.
“The BSIEC has already given us a go-ahead for the contest, and as far as we are concerned, we have no problem. Sheriff is the recognised national chairman and we are the legal officials of the PDP in the state. The other faction parading themselves is illegal,’’ Ale said.
The commission, which cleared only seven political parties, excluding the PDP at the initial stage of the exercise, on the ground that the screening and opportunity to replace candidates had been closed, later accommodated the Sherriff ’ faction.
According to Tsuwa, the APC, CPP, Accord, Labour Party (LP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Action Congress Democracy (ACD) and National Conscience Party (NCP) were cleared for the exercise.
The BSIEC chairman had told Daily Trust on Sunday that while the list of the Makarfi-led PDP was rejected, following a directive from the party’s national secretariat not to deal with the faction, the Sheriff group did not field any candidate for the election nor showed up for screening, which was closed at the time. But briefing newsmen in Makurdi two days before the poll, he included the PDP to make up the eight parties that stood for the election. The other parties that participated in the election had no structures or presence at the grassroots to win any election in the state, except in the event of protest votes against an unpopular candidate
Political pundits had said that from the onset, the APC had no rival in the poll as its strongest opposition was dismantled.
It was observed that following this development, some of the electorate who have an axe to grind with the APC-led government on allegation of poor performance in the past two years, were highly disappointed as their hope of using their votes to speak out was dashed because there were no choices to be made at the poll.
A political pundit, James Kaaser, opined that, apart from the APC, the other parties that participated in the election had no structures or presence at the grassroots to win any election in the state, except in the event of protest votes against an unpopular candidate.
Kaaser stressed that ordinarily, if the PDP had participated in the exercise, the battle would have been tough for the APC due to what many have come to regard as the abysmal performance of the ruling party in two years. The voter apathy that characterised the election appeared to have supported Kaaser’s argument.
The case filed by the Makarfi group over their non-inclusion was thrown out by a Federal High Court in Makurdi on the ground that the court did not have the jurisdiction to entertain it.
As a result of the ruling against them, the state chairman of the Makarfi-led PDP, Sir John Ngbede, had enjoined members of the party to sit in their homes during the election, assuring them that the party would appeal.
The exercise was also believed to have witnessed a low turnout because most voters were not interested. They rather went about their normal businesses, defying the state government’s movement restriction between 8am and 3pm. It was observed that some markets, petrol filling stations and commercial vehicles operated.
Unlike other parties, the ruling APC fielded candidates for all the available positions. Some parties fielded only one candidate for the vacant positions.
In Tombo ward of Logo Local Government Area, where a Labour Party candidate won the councillorship seat, political pundits said the victory was an aftermath of sympathy votes in solidarity with former Governor Gabriel Suswam who hails from that axis.
Michael Eche of the PDP in Otukpo Local Government Area said the election was an easy ride for the APC because his party did not participate. He further said that considering their minimal spread at the grassroots, the Ale group wouldn’t have made much impact even if they had fielded candidates in all the positions. He said the Makarfi-led faction of the party had the magic wand to unseat the APC at the council level.
The state publicity secretary of the Makarfi-led PDP, Bemgba Iortyom, had alleged that the rejection of their list of candidates by the BSIEC was a plot to pave way for an easy victory for the ruling APC.
But the acting publicity secretary of the APC in the state, Alfred Berger, advised the PDP to resolve its internal crisis rather than blame the ruling party for their predicament.
“How can the APC have a hand in the crisis rocking the PDP? They elected Sheriff and other leaders of the party without the prompting of the APC, and they are turning around to accuse us of being responsible for the internal wrangling in their party,’’ Berger said.
Meanwhile, members of the APC have a lot of cases pending in the court over irregularities that shrouded its primary elections in most of the local government areas. It is, however, expected that the cases would be resolved in-house now that the exercise is over.
Although there was no reported case of violence or formal protest from any quarters during the exercise, it was learnt that an election petition tribunal would soon be set up to entertain cases from aggrieved parties.