Battle for States: PDP rebounces, gets 14 states, eyes Zamfara, Osun

By Clifford Ndujihe

WITH the declaration of Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, as the winner of the Adamawa State governorship
election, the opposition party has won more states than it did in
2015.

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the PDP had 11 governors.
The number will rise to at least 14 on May 29, 2019 when new
governors and those re-elected are sworn-in. If the Appeal Court
and Supreme Court concur with the decisions of the tribunal and
lower courts on Zamfara and Osun, and the suspended Rivers
governorship election goes in its favour, the PDP will have 17
governors at the end of the day. Currently, the PDP is the only
party that produced governors in the six geo-political zones of the
country.

Conversely, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, which had
23 governors before the 2019 polls now has 21, which may further go
down to 19 depending on what happens on the Osun and Zamfara
suits.

Fintiri unseated Governor Jubrilla Bindow, who is the APC
candidate in the Adamawa governorship election, which was concluded
late Thursday night.

With Fintiri’s victory, Bindow is the second sitting governor
that lost out in this election. The first is Governor Abdulfatah
Ahmed of Kwara.

Fintiri was speaker of Adamawa State House of Assembly and later
acting governor when Admiral Murtala Nyako was impeached. His
victory is coming as a Yola high court dismissed a suit seeking to
cancel the Adamawa state governorship election.

The suit was brought by Eric Theman, candidate of the Movement
for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy, MRDD.

Theman had dragged the Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, to the court for omitting his party’s logo on the
ballot papers.

He asked the court to order the cancellation of the election and
direct that a fresh poll be held.

But at its sitting on Friday, the judge, Abdulazeez Waziri,
dismissed Theman’s suit for “lack of evidence”.

He said the applicant failed to provide any evidence to back his
claim that his party’s logo was omitted.

How PDP bounced back

The PDP won more states by strengthening its hold in the
South-East and making in-roads in the North-East and
South-West.

In the South-East, the three PDP governors – Dave Umahi
(Ebonyi), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia)
retained their seats and its Candidate, Emeka Ihedioha, snatched
Imo State from the APC, which was crisis-ridden.

In the South-West, the PDP also won Oyo, the headquarters of the
region, compensating for its loss of Ekiti State recently to the
APC. Last week, the tribunal overturned the election of APC’s Niyi
Oyetola as governor of Osun State and declared PDP’s Ademola
Adeleke as winner. Oyetola and the APC have appealed the verdict.
What the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court will do is to be
seen.

In the North-East, the PDP also added Bauchi and Adamawa to
Taraba that it has been controlling since 1999.

And in the North-Central, PDP retained Benue but lost Kwara to
the APC.

The PDP, with the slimmest of margins, 342 votes, retained a
foothold in the North-West via Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s victory in
Sokoto State. PDP may increase its stakes in the zone depending on
what the Supreme Court says on APC candidates in Zamfara State,
including the Governor-elect, Muktar Idris, who the Appeal Court
refused to recognize the primaries that produced them. If the apex
court aligns with the appeal court, the governorship, federal and
state assembly seats won by the APC will be handed over to PDP
candidates, who came second in the various elections.

PDP states

As it is, the PDP states now are Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Bayelsa,
Akwa Ibom, Sokoto, Cross River, Delta, Benue, Taraba, Imo, Bauchi,
Adamawa, Oyo and Rivers

APC states

On the other hand, the APC states are Lagos, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo,
Osun, Edo, Kwara, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Borno, Yobe, Gombe,
Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Zamfara, Niger.

Anambra is the only state not controlled by the APC or PDP. It
belongs to the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.