Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of All Progressives Congress, APC secured a mandate to govern Ondo for another four years with his victory at the state’s governorship election conducted last Saturday. Akani Alaka examines how and why Akeredolu defeated the other candidates on the ballot for the election.
As the returning officers for each of the local governments came forward to reel out the scores of each of the 17 candidates on the ballot for the previous day’s Ondo governorship election early Sunday morning, it became clear that those who characterized the bid to lead the Sunshine State for the next four years were mistaken.
The much-vaunted third horse – Agboola Ajayi of Zenith Labour Party, ZLP who is also the incumbent deputy governor of the state, failed to put up a respectable performance on the ballot to the disappointment of some who had boasted before the polls that he may cause an upset and torpedo the two other major candidates in the race to the Alagbaka Government House.
Akeredolu’s Road To Victory
With results from 12 out of the 18 local governments of the state – Idanre, Ifedore, Ile-Oluji, Akoko South West, Akoko North West, Owo, Irele, Ondo East, Akoko North East, Akure North, Akure South and Akure South East – announced before Professor Idowu Olayinka called for break early Sunday, it became clear that the race is really between Eyitayo Jegede of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu who is seeking a mandate for another term in the election.
Akeredolu won in nine out of the 12 local governments, while the PDP candidate was victorious in three. The tally of the votes from the 12 local governments revealed that the APC candidate polled 178,944 votes while his main opponent polled 141,083 votes. The ZLP candidate was then lagging behind the two with 32,060 votes.
Also, Akeredolu and Jegede put up a strong showing in their polling units and local governments. The incumbent governor and his wife, Betty voted together at Ijebu 2 Ward 5, Unit 6 of Owo Local Government. When the ballots were counted at the polling unit, APC polled 413 votes while PDP’s Jegede scored only 12 votes.
In the same vein, supporters of the PDP candidate were thrown into wild jubilation when the result of the Igbogin/Isikan Ward 2, unit 9, where he voted was declared. Jegede polled 220 votes against the 60 votes recorded by Akeredolu at the polling unit. With the declaration of the result, PDP supporters burst into singing of a special song composed in praise of Jegede who also witnessed the counting of the ballots. The two candidates also ‘held the ground’ in their respective local government areas. In Owo Local Government Area, APC polled 35,957 votes while the PDP candidate had 5,311 votes with Akeredolu defeating his main opponent by over 30,000 votes.
But the PDP candidate cancelled out the huge win in his Akure South Local Government where he also defeated his APC opponent with over 30,000 votes with a score of 47,627 votes to APC’s 17,277. Jegede also won in Akure South and Ifedore local governments at the end of the declaration of the first batch of the results.
Aside Owo, the other nine local governments won by Akeredolu in the first batch of results declared are Akoko South West where he polled 21,232 votes as against 15,055 votes scored by Jegede and Akoko North West where he scored 15,809 votes to Jegede’s 10,320 votes.
In the same vein, the APC candidate defeated his PDP opponent in Akoko North-East by 16,572 to 8,380 votes while the verdict also went the way of Akeredolu in Ile Oluji-Oke Igbo where he had 13,278 votes to 9,231 votes polled by Jegede. Also, Akeredolu won in Irele scoring 12,643 votes while Jegede polled 5,493 votes while in Ifedore, APC scored 9,350, while the PDP candidate had 11,852. The APC candidate also won in Idanre with 11,286 where the PDP polled 7,499 and as well as Akoko South East with 9,419 votes to his main opponent’s 4,003 votes.
The first batch of results from the 12 local government areas sent APC supporters into jubilation. But PDP supporters were still hopeful that their candidate might be able to overtake Akeredolu when the results of the six remaining local governments were declared.
However, their hopes were dashed when the announcement of the results resumed on Sunday morning as Akeredolu continued with his winning streak. The governor extended his lead over Jegede by adding Ondo West, Odigbo, Ose and Okitipupa local government to the string of the state where he was victorious in the governorship election.
In Ondo West, the APC candidate polled 15,977 votes to defeat his main opponent, who scored 10,627 votes while in Odigbo, Akeredolu recorded a massive win over his opponent, polling 23,571 to Jegede’s 9,485 votes. He also defeated his PDP opponent in Ose Local Government with 15,122 votes to 8,421 votes and Okitipupa where he had 19,266 votes to PDP’s 10,367.
It became clear when the results of the remaining two local governments – Ilaje and Ese Odo – were declared that Akeredolu had received a fresh mandate of another four years from Ondo people. The result from Ilaje showed that the APC candidate garnered 26,657 votes to 11,128 votes scored by his PDP opponent.
Akeredolu also massively defeated the candidate of the ZLP in his Ese Odo Local Government Area. While the APC candidate scored 13,383 votes, the ZLP candidate polled 4,760 votes above the 4,680 score of the PDP at the local government.
The declaration of all the results from the 18 local governments sets the stage for the declaration of Akeredolu as the winner of the governorship election some minutes later. While declaring the Akeredolu reelected for another term of four years, Professor Idowu Olayinka, the Returning Officer for the election said Akeredolu polled 292,914 votes to defeat the PDP candidate who garnered 195,431 votes.
He added that Akeredolu met all conditions required to be returned as governor-elect for the state. Ajayi, deputy governor of the state and candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, came third with 69,127 votes. The outcome was a repeat of the 2016 election in which Akeredolu defeated Jegede to assume the office of the Ondo State Governor for the first term.
In his reaction to his party’s loss, Debo Ologunagba, the agent of PDP at the INEC’s collation centre said APC procured its victory through wide-scale buying of votes.
On his part, Pereti Kenedy, the PDP Publicity Secretary in Ondo State told journalists that the party would take actions on the result of the election in the next few days.
But coming few weeks after it lost the Edo governorship election, Akeredolu’s victory has thrown supporters and members of APC into wild jubilation. President Muhammadu Buhari led the cheers from party members who have been sending congratulatory messages to the Ondo State Governor since the announcement of his victory on Sunday.
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Akure people’s hope undone by zoning
The Nigerian Xpress findings revealed that the issues of primordial sentiments, zoning and performance influenced the voting patterns and consequently, the performance of the two candidates in the election. In Akure, there are widespread disenchantments with Akeredolu over the increase in school fees for students of the state-owned tertiary institutions, mismanagement of mega schools built by his predecessor, Olusegun Mimiko and unexplained deductions from salaries of civil servants.
Though those who spoke to this newspaper agree that the governor had carried out some infrastructural developments within the city, there were also claims that the Senior Advocate of Nigeria is arrogant.
But it was gathered that voting in the area was also influenced by the desire of the people of the state capital to ensure that one of them also occupies the Alagbaka Government House. Akure has not produced a governor for Ondo since the creation of the State on 3 February 1976.
Therefore, the people went out to vote overwhelmingly for Jegede who had promised to reverse the increase in school fees in addition to the fact that he is an indigene of the capital city.
But Jegede’s ambition and the desire of Akure people run counter to the unwritten zoning policy which some key political actors say the state has been observing. It was noted for instance that Akure is in the central zone of the state which also includes Ondo town where Mimiko, who vacated office in 2016 after spending eight years in office hails from.
Hence, it was argued that electing Jegede will be tantamount to allowing the Ondo Central to produce a governor again four years after the eight years spent by Mimiko in office.
On the contrary, Governor Akeredolu was from the Northern part of the state and the argument was that he should also be allowed to complete his eight years in office after which somebody from the Southern zone of the state should succeed him.
These permutations partly influenced voting in Owo and Akoko areas of the state where Governor Akeredolu earned a substantial portion of his votes.
The quest to keep to zoning may have also influenced voting in the Southern part of the state where Akeredolu won all the local governments although their son, the candidate of the ZLP was also on the ballot.
APC/PDP Factors
Also, the APC went into the election united behind its candidate who had worked to secure the support of all the aspirants who contested against him during the primary and key party chieftains like former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The governor was able to manage the defection of his deputy governorship candidate to the ZLP in a way that it did not affect his efforts to get reelected. On the contrary, speculations about who is in support or not in support of Jegede’s ambition among the governors of PDP persisted until a few days to the election.
Also, Ajayi who was said to be the preferred candidate of some of the PDP governors as the candidate for the Ondo governorship election had defected to the ZLP where with the backing of former Governor Mimiko he picked the governorship ticket. Some PDP chieftains had made efforts to get him and Mimiko to support Jegede before the poll without success.
It was believed that if Ajayi and Mimiko had agreed to work with Jegede, the result of the governorship election may have been different.
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The PDP candidate had also rejected suggestions that he should choose Ajayi as his deputy, opting instead for Ikengboju Gboluga, a member of the House of Representatives representing Okitipupa/Irele Federal Constituency.
But some PDP chieftains who described the choice of Gboluga as wrong were proved right when he lost the three wards in Ilutitun, his hometown and his local government area – Okitipupa – to the APC. Akeredolu defeated the PDP deputy governorship candidate in the LGA, polling 19,266 votes to PDP’s 10,367.
Worse still, the Southwest chapter of the PDP could not unite behind Jegede as a result of fighting for the control of the structure of the party by former Governor Ayodele Fayose and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
The harassment of Fayose during the grand finale of the PDP campaign for the governorship election at Ondo town was evidence that chieftains of the party were not united in support of the governorship ambition of Jegede.
Incumbency factor/ Performance
Incumbency factor also worked in support of Governor Akeredolu as he has access to resources to pursue his ambition. Besides, Akeredolu’s supporters and his party said the governor’s achievements in the areas of industrial and infrastructural developments across the state earned him the second term victory.
“As a party, while we thank the Ondo electorate for voting for good governance, industrialisation, security, empowerment and general welfare of the state, we will continue to advocate for, and support safe, free and credible elections that guarantee that valid votes count and the people will prevail”, the APC said in a statement by Yekini Nabena, its spokesperson few hours after the announcement of the result.
Vote Buying, But Credible
But vote buying was also a factor in the outcome of the election, according to Yiaga Africa. The NGO, an election monitoring group, while briefing journalists on its findings during the conduct of the election and the result of its verification exercise of the outcome on Sunday noted that the election was characterized by massive vote-buying by political actors.
“Across several polling units, the secrecy of the ballot was severely compromised despite attempts by polling officials to prevent voters and party agents from showing how ballot papers were marked. On election day, votes traded between N1,000 and N7,000 at the polling unit”, it said.
The NGO also noted that “the massive vote buying employed by political actors in the election made it difficult for voters to freely cast their ballots in the polling units where it occurred.
Nevertheless, Yiaga Africa urged political parties and their candidates to accept the outcome of the election as released by INEC as a true reflection of the voting pattern of the people.
“The INEC official result for the 2020 Ondo State gubernatorial election falls within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimate. Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA or state collation centres, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa WTV estimated ranges.
“Because the official results fall within the estimated ranges, governorship contestants, parties, and voters should have confidence that INEC’s official results for the 2020 Ondo gubernatorial election reflect the ballots cast at polling units”.