By Emmanuel Unah, Vanguard News Nigeria
- Will Ayade deliver the first poll after defection for APC?
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has slated the bye-election for the Ogoja /Yala House of Representatives vacant position for February 26, 2022, the same date with the National Convention of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Stating that the election is an important one may be an understatement because the fate of the two major political parties, the APC and the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and their major political gladiators in the area hang on the outcome of that contest.
The vacancy was created by the swearing-in of Jarigbe Agom its erstwhile occupant as Senator for Cross River North after a protracted legal battle with Senator Stephen Odey who was earlier elected and sworn in as Senator for the district.
In retrospect, Senator Ben Ayade, the Governor of the State, who is serving his second term, was elected on the platform of the PDP but he defected to the APC on May 20, 2021 following alleged injustices meted out to him by the leadership of the PDP.
His defection heralded the defection of most of his political acolytes such as Commissioners, Special Advisers, Federal and State Assembly members, Council Chairmen and a large percentage of PDP members across the State, who joined him in his new political sojourn.
Flagbearers
The two political parties, APC and PDP which are the only ones in the race have picked their standard-bearers: Jude Ngaji emerged for the APC via consensus while PDP chose Mike Usibe through a primary election.
The flag bearers and their parties would soon go round the 24 wards of the federal constituency to sell their manifestos to the electorate in readiness for the election coming up in the next three weeks.
High Stakes
Basically, there is so much at stake in the election because it is the first contest since the defection of Governor Ayade to the APC and he would want to use the opportunity to “bury” his erstwhile political party, the PDP while the PDP would want to use the election to “rubbish” the Governor as they are singing the symphony of “Cross River is PDP State.”
Though the winner of the election will serve for just 15 months, political gladiators know that the election is a foreshadow of things to come in 2023, and victory in the election would underscore their success or failure in 2023, and so none of them is leaving anything to chance or taking anything for granted.
“Any party that loses the election should forget it because the string of defections that would come after this would completely debilitate its chances in 2023. We have to guard against violence because the losing party would want to sabotage the election and that won’t do our people any good.” Jones Oboh, a political analyst, told Vanguard News Nigeria.
The bandwagon effect from the outcome of the debacle would be tremendous and the social media is already agog with predictions and all sorts of insinuations. This is an election INEC cannot afford to make mistakes as the Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency has been without representation in the Green Chamber for close to six months.