- Ailoba Ahonkhai
It is no longer news that the much awaited September 10 2016 governorship elections has been postponed despite INECs stated readiness to conduct the elections. The rumors about the postponement of the elections were rife by the early hours of yesterday the 8th. INEC initially dispelled these rumors by announcing on the radio and television that the elections would hold tomorrow on the 10th and there was no going back but later gave in to pressures from “above” and postponed the elections.
As at 10 a.m. yesterday the 8th of September, rumors about the impending postponement of the election filtered into perceptive ears in Benin . The initial gist was that inspite of the preparedness of INEC, the SSS and the police said there were security threats from the Boko Haram particularly on the 12th and 13th the days slated for the sallah holidays by the federal government and the APC report that the adjoining PDP states like Delta state were exporting militants to Edo state for the election which informed their advice to postpone the elections. Adams Oshiomole and Osaro Onaiwu of APGA immediately spear headed a campaign calling for protests if the elections held on the 10th.
Osaro Onaiwu a nonentity in the politics of Edo state sited the 1700 candidates in Edo seating for the mathematics WAEC exams as a reason to move a constitutional responsibility to a further date, while Oshiomole worked more subtly underground tasking the state commissioner of police to find a way around INECs steadfast refusal to move the election to a further date.
By noon the Inspector General of police had come out with a statement that the police well were able to handle the security situation in Edo state were any to arise but the commissioner of police in Edo state demurred and said his men were not adequately prepared to handle the security for the elections. An election that has been scheduled over a year ago.
Even with all the antics of the comrade governor and the police commissioner in the state INEC still held it’s ground and insisted on conducting the elections by Saturday the 10th of September as continuous announcements through the radio and television stations about the non-postponement of the election continued till 6p.m. yesterday.
Oshiomole was said to have put harried phone calls to the presidency asking it to prevail on INEC to shift the election date. The pressure from the presidency eventually turned the tables and by 7p.m. the election had been postponed. INEC pointed at another agency, the Nigerian Youth Servive Corp, NYSC whose youths are mainly used by the INEC to carry out its statutory processes. The NYSC told INEC that the lack of security guarantee for its personnel makes the body reluctant to release corpers for the exercise.
The Edo state government only this week had suddenly released the sum of One Hundred and Twenty Million Naira for the rehabilitation of roads in Benin which is evident in the hurried rehabilitation of the many bad roads seen taking place. It is doubtful if this last minute attempt to hoodwink the electorate of Edo by the APC government will work but if not this then what is the new APC strategy that has not been employed all these past pre-election months that would warrant a shift in the election date? What is Adams Oshiomole and his APC so Afraid of?
