Elections Won't Hold In Some States.

 

Nyako, Fayemi, Imoke, and Oshiomole

As the nation goes to the poll today to elect governors who will administer the affairs of the states, only two-thirds of the 36 states would go to the poll to elect their chief executives for the next four years. For the remaining 12 states, the battle of who would be at the helms of affair has been shifted to another day. The reasons for this development vary, ranging from outright postponement due to security reasons, as is the case in Bauchi and Kaduna states, where election would hold on Thursday April 28; to constitutional restraint stemming from either tenure elongation through the courts, as is the case in Cross River, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Sokoto and Kogi states or due to Court of Appeal induced situation like the case of Ondo, Anambra, Edo, Osun and Ekiti states.
In Kaduna and Bauchi states, it is not only the governorship election that would not hold, the House of Assembly election would also not hold. This is as a result of post-presidential election riots where dozens have been reportedly killed and property worth billions of naira destroyed. According to the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega: “This is to allow for further cooling of tempers and for the security situation in those states to improve.” Jega added that the extension would have been more than that but for the constitutional provision which requires all elections to be concluded 30 days before the handover date, which in this case, is May 29. For Cross River, Bayelsa, Adamawa, Sokoto and Kogi states, which are under the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), governorship elections would not hold today, because there were re-run elections after the 2007 elections were annulled by the Court of Appeal for various reasons in those states.
 The governors of the affected states, Liyel Imoke, Timipriye Sylva, Murtala Nyako, Magartarda Wamakko and Ibrahim Idris respectively had gone to court to stop the INEC from conducting governorship election in their respective states and penultimate week, the Court of Appeal upheld their prayers, after it was first affirmed by the High Court. So for these states, the term of office of the governors would expire as follows: Cross River, August 28, 2012; Bayelsa,May 29, 2012; Adamawa, April 30, 2012; Sokoto, May 28, 2012 and Kogi, April 5, 2012.
The governors of those states are having a hearty laugh. Reprieve has for now come their way as some of them were before now battling to save their jobs from the formidable opposition threatening to over-run them. The electoral umpire had relied on the amended Section 180 (2) of the 1999 Constitution which had stipulated four-year tenure for a state governor, but which the amendment now stipulates that where an incumbent wins a re-run election, the number of days he had already spent before the re-run would be taken into account. INEC had wanted to apply the amended section retroactively.
In the case of the other five states, Anambra, Ondo, Edo, Ekiti and Osun, election for the office of governor would not hold because the Court of Appeal nullified the election of the governors declared as winners in the 2003, for Anambra and 2007 elections for other states, for various contraventions of the Electoral Act 2006. Incidentally, all these states were PDPcontrolled states before the wind of change turned around their fortunes. Chris Ngige was declared winner in the 2003 elections but lost out to Ngige after almost three years in the saddle after a protracted court battle instituted by Peter Obi of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA). Dr. Olusegun Agagu was returned for a second term in Ondo State after the 2007 elections, in spite of the overwhelming support of the people of the state for Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of the Labour Party (LP). Like Ngige, Agagu lost out both at the Election Petition Tribunal and the Appeal Court, which sat in Benin City.
The same scenario played out in Edo State, where Prof. Oserhemwen Osunbor lost to Adams Oshiomhole of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN); Segun Oni and Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Ekiti and Osun states lost out to the duo of the Kayode Fayemi and Rauf Aregbesola of the ACN. Governorship election would hold in Anambra until 2014, where the incumbent, Obi is on the last lap of his tenure after winning the election last year for a second term in office, while it would hold in Edo and Ondo in 2013 and in Ekiti and Osun in 2014. So as the nation goes to the poll today to elect governors and members of the Houses of Assembly, 10 governors would be spectators and watch from the sidelines, however, for them, the battle has not been called off, but postponed to another day. In the case of the remaining two states, Kaduna and Bauchi, the battle was only shifted forward for just 48 hours. However, the state House of Assembly election would hold in all the states across the federation.
culled from National Mirror.