The race for the succession of the outgoing governor of Ondo state, Olusegun Mimiko has been characterised by crisis and drama leaving little for imagination. Initially it was the question of who succeeds the incumbent governor, under the PDP, which rules in the state.
Later the struggle for the ticket of the opposition, All Progressives’ Congress became the centre of attention.
50 party chieftains reportedly signified interest in the governorship position in the oil rich state, out of which 25 took up the challenge to buy the nomination form,.
One later opted out while four stepped down, leaving 20 political juggernauts fighting for the number one position of the sunshine state.
Following the APC primaries, Rotimi Akeredolu emerged as its candidate with 669 votes defeating others with, his closest rival Segun Abraham who polling 635 votes.
The emergence of Akeredolu for the APC was greeted with mixed feelings as others say the former chairman of Nigerian bar association is an alien who just came to Ondo to contest.
Interestingly, the eye of the nation is on the outcome of the November 26 election for a number of reasons.
First, while some Ondo people are still contemplating accepting Akeredolu, the PDP is facing more serious crisis with the party appearing fragmented as two factions; the senator Ahmed Makarfi and Sen. Modu sheriff are fighting for control, with both fielding a candidate.
However, tension heightened in the last few weeks with a rumoured possible postponement of the elections by INEC and a court order replacing Jegede from the Makarfi faction with that of Ibrahim from the Modu Sherif’s faction by the electoral umpire.
While the commission has allayed fears about the election being shifted, it can do little or nothing about the confusion that still looms over the candidates of leading political parties. PDP is not only the troubled party ahead of the election .
It is also of interest that the candidate of the alliance for democracy Olushola Oke, is also struggling to keep his name and that of his deputy on the ballot paper as a human rights activist and former governorship aspirant of APC, Tunji Abayomi said Oke was not qualified to contest the November 26 governorship election.
There is hardly any day that comes without controversial news on the election as the countdown zeroes.
In the next four days, the people of Ondo will go to the polls. However, it is still with bated breath as the battle of the contenders rage on with more intrigues.
some of the contending issues on the legal front are getting clearer with ruling of the supreme court on Tuesday ordering the Abuja division of the appeal court to continue its hearing in the tussle for the Ondo state’s Peoples Democratic Party governorship ticket, following the suspension of hearings on October 18 due to the various applications pending the decision of the highest court.
But another issue still belies the vote of supremacy.
20 other political parties have demanded the independent national electoral commission, INEC to post pone the exercise, advancing security reasons and pending court cases as some of the reasons.
A lot is brewing , uncertainty is the order of the day, how will this play out?
