It’s official, Atiku wins in Ondo

The main opposition presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has
won the presidential election in Ondo State.

Ondo State, south-Western Nigeria, is governed by Governor
Rotimi Akeredolu of Nigeria’s ruling APC.

In the final results announced on Monday morning, Mr Abubakar of
the PDP scored 275,901 votes to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari
of the APC who scored 241,769 votes.

Total accredited voters were 598,586, total votes cast: 586,827,
while rejected votes were 30,833

The total number of polling units where voting was cancelled is
80. The reasons include over-voting, widespread violence,
intimidation of electorate and staff, failure of card readers and
outright disruption of the election.

TheNigerialawyer earlier reported how Mr Abubakar won in 11 of
Ondo’s 18 local governments.

The local governments won by the PDP are Akure North, Ifedore,
Idanre, Ile Oluji/Okeigbo, Irele, Ondo East, Ose, Ondo West, Akure
South, Ese Odo and Okitipupa local governments.

Akoko North East, Akoko North West and Akoko South East, Akoko
South West, Odigbo, Ilaje and Owo local governments fell to the
APC.

Below are the results:

Akoko North East

AAC 105

AA 407

APC 15,598

PDP 11,641

Akoko North West

AAC 113

AA 412

APC 14,158

PDP 13, 950

Akoko South East

AAC 26

AA 242

APC 7,306

PDP 6,616

Akure North

AAC 129

AA 06

APC 8661

PDP 12,786

Idanre

AAC 73

AA 265

APC 8453

PDP 14,704

Ifedore

AAC 95

AA 229

APC 9433

PDP 11745

Ileoluji Okeigbo

AAC 208

AA 340

APC 10404

PDP 12680

Irele

AAC 93

AA 235

APC 10082

PDP 12862

Ondo East

AAC 155

AA 11

APC 5299

PDP 8455

Ose

AAC 41

AA 84

APC 10321

PDP 12919

Owo

AA 426

AAC 184

APC 18,322

ADC 219

PDP 13,375

Okitipupa

AA 66

AAC 132

ADC 68

APC 17,017

PDP 22,370

YPP 64

Akure South

AAC 814

ADP 83

APC 25,177

LP 203

PDP 37,040

YPP 202

Akoko South West

AA 817

AAC 168

APC 21,592

PDP 16,469

PT 03

Odigbo

A 39

AA 401

AAC 107

APC 19,523

PDP 16,608

Ilaje

AA 185

AAC 68

APC 17,455

LP 02

PDP 14,421

Ese Odo

AA 135

AAC 828

APC 9,530

PDP 12,005

Ondo West

AA 50

AAC 1075

APC 13,448

PDP 25,255

This is not the Election Nigerians Expected By Moshood
Isah

“These were not the elections Nigerians wanted; they were not
the elections Nigerians expected; and, most importantly, they were
not the elections Nigerians deserved. Our election commission must
improve its capacity to deliver credible elections and our
political parties must play according to the rules. Failure to do
so could fundamentally threaten our democracy” . These are the
words of the YIAGA AFRICA’s Watching The Vote Board Chairman at a
press conference on the preliminary findings from the 2019
Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Nigerians continue to ask the questions on when an election can
be conducted with a 100 percent early deployment of materials and
zero percent violence as delays in logistics deployment along with
the perennial electoral disruptions reportedly featured in
Saturday’s Presidential and National assembly elections. Having
been postponed for one week due to logistic reasons, expectations
from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and
security agencies skyrocketed with the believe that everything must
have been fixed before the new date.

Delay in deployment of election materials and issues relating to
ballot box snatching, attack on polling officials, disruption of
election materials seem to remain in constant competition for
prominence in virtually every major election in Nigeria. The
hydra-headed issues bedeviling Nigeria’s elections always feature
even after all stakeholders declare their readiness to ensure the
elections are hitch-free. This leaves several questions regarding
the competency of agencies responsible in ensuring peaceful and
credible elections in the country.

For instance, credible elections data released by arguably the
largest movement committed to credible elections, YIAGA AFRICA says
as at 12pm on Election Day, at least 110 critical incidents across
the country primarily concerning late arrival of election materials
to polling units. While electoral officials are expected to be at
polling units by 7.30am so that set-up can commence ahead of the
8am commencement of simultaneous accreditation and voting,
statistical reports by YIAGA AFRICA’s #WatchingTheVote observers
reported that INEC Officials arrived at only 31% of polling units
as at 7.30am. Furthermore, statistical reports says as at 10:00 am,
only 41% of polling units had opened across the country while even
as at close to 12pm in the afternoon, INEC has not achieved 100
percent logistics deployment as statistics says 74% of polling
units had opened nationally. This is even trying to overlook the 7
percent polling units where YIAGA AFRICA reported that the card
reader was not used for accreditation either due to lack of
availability or deliberate violation of the electoral
guidelines.

In this vein, elections went into the nights in a handful of
polling units with apparently no proper preparation for logistics
for a conducive environment which leaves the credibility of the
process in jeopardy. In addition to logistics challenges is the
security issue which has marred Nigeria’s elections overtime.
Report has it that at least 90% of polling units recorded presence
of security personnel which in itself is not a complete standard
when it comes to conducting credible elections as it is expected
that security agents will be seen at all close to 120,000 polling
units across the country.

But despite the presence of security checkpoints across the
country, reports of political thugs moving in motorcycles in Lagos
disrupting the process at will leaves a lot to be desired. A lot of
questions are being asked on how political thugs accessed polling
units, collation centers and Registration Area Centers to either
cart away ballot box, destroy election materials and assaulting
voters and election materials. Verified reports from media and
election observers show that, citizens, observers or election
officials were harassed, beaten, intimidated or even killed in some
states across Nigeria. More so, at the risk of propagating
unverified reports, social media footages of injured citizens and
burning of electoral materials remain a real cause of security
concerns.

It is difficult to understand if security officials deployed at
polling units gave way for hoodlums to execute their heinous plans
or this was done with the support of security officials as alleged
at some quarters. While it remains surprising that the Police
Inspector General, Adamu Muhammed confidently reiterated the force
readiness to protect every live especially during this period,
Nigerians are yet to see major arrests of these electoral
offenders.

Recommendations are not always far-fetched but its
implementation to the later remains a major challenge the nation
has faced overtime. Election and security analysts have called for
comprehensive framework for the prosecution of electoral offenders
in the country. Unfortunately, just as Nigerians have hardly see
arrest of electoral offenders, it becomes impossible to prosecute
them. Thus if heads do not role and people in the position of
authority do not account for the happenings in their jurisdictions,
then the vicious circle of logistics and security issues will
continue to feature in every electoral process.

Moshood Isah is the Media Officer of YIAGA AFRICA

Misah@yiaga.org