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Decision day is here when the electorate in Ondo State will pick their governor for the next four years.

Seeking the mandate  of the 1,545,081 registered   voters are: Adeuti Taye of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN); Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN); Adeyemi Bolarinwa of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP); Better Nigeria Peoples Party’s (BNPP’s) Ayodele Olusegun; Omoyele Olorunwa of Change Advocacy Party (CAP): Olusoji Ehinlanwo of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC); Dr. Olusegun Mimiko of Labour Party (LP); National Conscience Party’s (NCP’s) Oladipo Lawrence; Abikanlu Olusola of National Solidarity Democratic Party (NSDP); Victor Adetusin of the People for Democratic Change (PDC); Mr.Olusola Oke of Peoples Democratic party (PDP); and Progressive People’s Alliance whose flag is being flown by  Omoregba Omotunji.

However, from the various public opinion polls (POPs)  conducted ahead of today’s election, the winner is certain to be one of   the trio of Akeredolu, Oke and Mimiko.

The key factors in electing the in-coming governor are the popularity of the individual contestants and the strength of their parties.

Mr.Akeredolu is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria  (SAN) and a human rights activist from Owo in the Ondo North Senatorial District  while Mr.Oke, also a lawyer, was until recently the National Legal Adviser of the PDP.He is from   the south senatorial district. Dr Mimiko,the incumbent is seeking re-election on the platform of Labour Party. He hails from Ondo,in the central senatorial district.

The campaigns are, arguably, the most colourful in the history of the state having drawn the leadership of each of the party to the state to sell their candidates to the electorate.

The last 48 hours have witnessed the arrival and accreditation  of observers from across the country for the  monitoring of  the election, the arrival and distribution of more electoral materials; the posting to the state of a new police commissioner in Mr. Mohammed Ndabawa for the period of the election; and the deployment of soldiers to compliment the police in keeping the peace. The soldiers have been ordered to shoot anyone found causing violence during the polls. Three more police commissioners arrived the state yesterday with each of them co-ordinating security in the three senatorial districts. A Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and two Assistant Inspectors  General (AIGs) are also part of the police team.

The Chairman of the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega is leading the INEC team. He has posted a Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to each of the 18 local government areas of the state to ensure  a smooth election.

He promised at a stakeholders meeting in Akure on Wednsday that the election would be the freest in Nigeria’s history.

IGP Abubakar  announced on Wednesday that all roads leading into or out of the state would be closed from Thursday evening ahead of the polls. Five units of policemen,according to him, “shall be deployed to check violence and enforce the restriction of movement during the election.”

There will be no movement on water in the riverine areas, neither will there be fishing, shouting and disruption of election.

He said 20 armoured patrol security personnel and marine police patrol men will be provided in the riverine areas.

Residents, especially women, were busy, stockpiling food at home that would last them for at least one week.

A total of  3009 polling units should have been used for the polls but two have been cancelled in Ese-Odo area for security reasons bringing the number down  to 3007.

The  1,545,081 registered voters are  spread across the states as follows: Okitipupa, 101,044; Irele 55,231; Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo, 64,219; Akure South, 248, 953; Akure north, 53, 953; Ifedore, 63, 242; Odigbo, 120, 014; Ondo West 150,838; and Ondo East 37, 469.

Other local governments are Idanre,  60,720; Akoko Northwest 68,061, Akoko Northeast, 62, 451; Akoko Southeast, 29, 773; Akoko Southwest, 86, 155, Ose 62,386; Ese-Oso, 57, 255; Oijo, 110,100;  and Ilaje, 114,235.

Five units of mobile policemen will be at each of three senatorial district and 20 armoured tanks and marine patrol policemen will be provided in the riverine areas.

Eighteen  Resident Electoral Commissioners from outside the South West  will co-ordinate activities in the local government areas.

Three additional police commissioners have been posted to Ondo State specially for today’s governorship election,the State Police boss,Mr Mohammed Ndabawa announced yesterday.

Mr.Ndabawa  himself  was deployed to the state only on Wednesday for  the  polls.

He had earlier been joined by a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and two Assistant Inspectors General.

In all 11000 policemen from the rank and file will be on  duty  during the election.

Mr.Ndabawa told reporters yesterday that the newly posted police commissioners will co-ordinate  security in each of the senatorial districts in the state.

The move,according to him,is to ensure a free and fair election.

He said there will be police presence in every part of the state and warned those planning violence to shelve any such plan.

He said police orderlies attached to political office holders have been withdrawn as a measure of police impartiality.

He said: “We are urging  politicians to display the  spirit of maturity. We don’t want to see anyone distributing money.There will be no selling of food, no fishing, no hunting.

“ I commend the General Officer Commanding [GOC] who has already ordered his men to shoot hoodlums who resist arrest.

“You are not expected to wear any cloth that has your party logo. I am repeating this again: any politician who goes to  polling centre  with security men, those officers will be arrested, and prosecuted. You are not expected to wait at the polling units after voting.After you might have cast your vote, kindly go back home and wait patiently for the announcement of the result”.

Security has been beefed up in all parts of  Akure, the state capital with soldiers deployed in strategic parts of the town.

Security personnel routinely stop and search vehicles coming into or leaving Akure.

 On the popular Oba Adesida Road,for instance,check points  have been mounted  at a distance of approximately 20 metres from each another.

Electoral officers (EOs) expected to oversee today’s  governorship  election in Ondo State spent long hours yesterday to  get accredited before leaving for their duty posts.

Journalists assigned by their organisations to cover the election did not fare better.

Each journalist was required to send in a prior application on a letter-headed paper, duly signed.

This, The Nation learnt, was  to stop  fake journalists.

Many applications from unknown news organisations were turned down, officials said.

The accreditation, which commenced at about 12pm, was rowdy and largely unorganised. Some journalists engaged officials in a shouting match over conflicting methods of application.

The small room provided for the accreditation exercise was too small to contain the pen-men. More than half of them were on the queue for long hours..

Some journalists argued that  their  organisation’s identity cards were enough for the purpose of identification, but officials said they must bring their company’s introduction letters and passport photographs.

Although the accreditation was scheduled to start at the Alagbaka,Akure secretariat of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  at 10am,many of the EOs were yet to be accredited by 2pm  and  even those who had been accredited by then spent even more time  to be allocated vehicles that would take them to their duty posts.

The commission is deploying  8,906 permanent and ad hoc staff to conduct the election.

These  include one Returning Officer; 18 Local Government Area  Collation Officers; 203 Registration Area (RA) Collation Officers; 19 LGA Supervisors; three LGA Supervisors from the NYSC; 203 Supervisory Presiding Officers; 3,009 Presiding Officers and 5,450 Assistant Presiding Officers.

The Ekiti Parapo Descendant Union (EPDU) Ondo State chapter, yesterday, said its members have resolved to vote massively for the candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) , Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu [SAN] in today’s governorship election in the state.

Chairman of the group, Mr. Dare Adebayo, the Secretary, Mumiya Ajibola and Awe Olaitan,in a statement, said: “Our group has made strong consultation with Ekiti, both at home and abroad, on our direction, which is to rally support for ACN.

“We have approached all Ekiti indigenes in the 18 local government areas of Ondo State to come out massively and vote for Akeredolu on Saturday.

“We are sincerely optimistic that an ACN government will not discriminate against Ekiti indigenes as being witnessed under the Mimiko’s administration.”

EPDU hailed the economic integration being agitated by South West governors, stressing that the proposal will transform the lives of every citizen of Ondo and Ekiti states.

The Union urged all Ekiti resident in Ondo State to troop out and vote for ACN and Akeredolu.

Second Republic Senator, Chief Ayo Fasanmi, has likened Action Congress of Nigeria’s plan to rule Ondo State to a rescue mission.

The former national vice chairman of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) said by telephone from his Osogbo base that victory for the party in today’s election would be a victory for the people of the state and the collective interest of the South West.

He recalled how “five out of the six states in the South West geo-political zone were stolen from us in the 2003 elections and its attendant set-back for the region.”

He said if the efforts of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and other past Yoruba leaders would not be in vain it has become imperative that the region should resume speaking with one voice.

He vouched for the integrity of the ACN guber candidate in Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) to re-integrate the people of Ondo State into the fold of the South West once he emerges victorious in the election.

He said the issue of regional integration which is being championed by ACN must be pursued with all seriousness.

Top politicians in Ondo State have returned to their home towns and villages for last minute mobilisation of voters for today’s election and to personally direct affairs for their parties.

Reports from different parts of the state said the politicians are leaving nothing to chance as the performance of their parties would ultimately determine their relevance and post-election rewards.

Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) picked to serve as ad hoc electoral officers by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) departed Akure, the state capital, for their duty posts in hired buses at about 1pm yesterday.

They were accompanied by policemen and INEC officials. The Resident Electoral Commissioner,Mr. Akin Orebiyi, said conducive accommodation had been provided for them to ensure their comfort.

However, some of the corps members deployed to Ilaje and Ese-Odo local government areas, rejected their postings. They declined to board the buses assigned to convey them to the riverine areas, citing their phobia of water and possible breach of security by militants.

Orebiyi said voting will commence with accreditation of voters at 8.am. Voters will queue up and present cards for accreditation and poll officials will cross check the register for each voter’s name.

Accreditation will end by 12 noon when the last voter that joined the queue before 12 noon would have been accredited.

He said the number of accredited voters will be announced publicly and recorded immediately after accreditation, adding that the poll official will educate voters present at the polling centre on the voting process.

Actual voting will start by 12.30 pm.

“Without voters card, you cannot vote and you cannot vote more than once,” Orebiyi said.

The REC advised the people to be law abiding, warning that electoral offenders would face the wrath of the law. He warned INEC officials against dereliction of duties and aiding and abetting rigging.

Electoral offences listed by the electoral commissioner include impersonation, voting when not qualified, breaching secrecy of voting, campaigns during voting, violence, snatching and destruction of election materials, possession of offensive weapons, bribery and inducement, false announcement of candidate’s withdrawal and unlawful announcement of results.

The widow of a former Ondo State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs ,Mrs Sola Alademehin has accused Governor Olusegun Mimiko of betraying her family after promising them heaven and earth following the death of her husband,Oye Alademehin.

Mrs.Alademehin ,in an interview, said not only did the governor fail to show up for her husband’s burial,none of the promises he made to the family has been fulfilled.

These include scholarship for the children of the deceased,said to be one of those who put their lives on the line for the governor in the struggle to reclaim his mandate after the 2007 election.

Mrs.Alademehin who spoke in an interview on the sidelines of the grand finale of the PDP rally in Akure said: “My husband died a mysterious death during this Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s administration shortly after he was sworn-in in 2009. He was a great grassroots politician particularly in his home town, Ode-Aye.He had a massive base there and played a major role in ensuring that Mimiko reclaim his mandate.

“My husband hardly fell ill. He loved his family and his people until he died mysteriously. We don’t know the cause of his death. Governor Mimiko took him to the hospital without informing his family, including me his wife.

“After he died, Mimiko refused to show up at his burial ceremony; God is my witness. He promised my children and I that he would ensure that we do not miss our breadwinner. He promised to give my children scholarship and also empower me so that I can take good care of the family.

“As we speak,he does not care about us.Even if we call his phone line, he will never pick the call. I am not saying Mimiko killed my husband, but he failed in all his promises to care for the family.

“The suffering was too much after my husband’s death, until former Governor Olusegun Agagu came to check on us. They were both in PDP before my husband joined Mimiko in LP. Agagu advised me to return to PDP and start from where the late Alademehin stopped at PDP. Dr. Agagu has been helping my family and I will continue to be grateful to him”.