The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ELECTION

  • Council election tribunals begin sitting today

    The Lagos State Local Government Election Petitions Tribunal will begin sitting today on petitions filed against conduct of the July 22 elections.

    A statement by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of High Court of Lagos State, Mrs Grace Alo, said the tribunals were set up to enable aggrieved parties or individuals seek redress through a seamless legal process and in accordance with relevant laws and legislations.

    The statement said the election petitions tribunal (Lagos Division Panel), under the chairmanship of Justice A. Olateru–Olagbegi (retd.), will sit at High Court No. 1 on Igbosere Road in Lagos.

    It said the registry of the tribunal is located directly at the tribunal venue.

    Also, the Election Petitions Tribunal (Ikeja Division), under the chairmanship of Mrs Folasade Adetiba, will sit at the Roseline Omotosho Courthouse in Ikeja, while its registry is situated at the same venue.   The statement  added that the registry of both tribunals will be open to the public from today at 8 am (Monday to Friday).

  • Rwanda’s Kagame sweeps presidential polls to win third term

    Rwanda’s Kagame sweeps presidential polls to win third term

    Rwanda’s incumbent leader Paul Kagame has sealed a crushing victory in presidential elections that granted him a third term in office, extending his 17 years in power.

    Kagame has won international plaudits for presiding over a peaceful and rapid economic recovery in the Central African nation since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

    But he has also faced mounting censure for what critics and rights groups say are widespread human rights abuses, a muzzling of independent media and suppression of political opposition.

    With 80 per cent of votes accounted for, the 59-year-old former guerrilla leader secured 98.66 percent, the National Electoral Commission’s Executive secretary Charles Munyaneza told a news conference.

    “We expect that even if we get 100 percent of votes, there will not be any change,” he said.

    The board expected turnout to top 90 per cent in the East African country of 12 million citizens once full details emerged, in elections that fielded only a single opposition candidate, Frank Habineza, and an independent.

    Kagame, who cast his vote in Kigali’s Rugunga polling station earlier on Friday, said he would work to sustain economic growth in the tiny nation.

    “This is another seven years to take care of issues that affect Rwandans and ensure that we become real Rwandans who are (economically) developing,” he said in a speech broadcast live on television.

    Under his rule, some dissidents were killed after they fled abroad, in cases that remain unsolved. The government denies any involvement.

    Kagame, a commander who led Tutsi rebel forces into Rwanda to end the 1994 genocide, banned the use of tribal terms after becoming president.

    He won the last election in 2010 with 93 per cent of the vote and during this campaign for a further seven-year term, said he expected an outright victory.

    Habineza, who has so far won 0.45 percent of the early count, had promised to set up a tribunal to retry dissidents whose convictions by Rwandan courts have been criticized as politically motivated.

    Another would-be opponent, Diane Rwigara, was disqualified by the election board despite her insistence that she met all the requirements to run.

    “To me I see this as a one-man race. I simply did not go to vote,” said one man in Kigali who asked not to be named. (Reuters/NAN)

  • Ex-minister: election will hold in Anambra

    •Picks N5m UPP nomination form in Abuja

    Former Minister of Aviation Osita Chidoka has expressed disappointment over threats by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), that the November 18 Anambra governorship election will not hold.

    According to him, IPOB is forcing a dialogue on referendum, saying the election will hold on November 18, despite the threat.

    Chidoka spoke in Abuja after picking the nomination form of the United Progressive Party (UPP), to enable him run as the governorship candidate.

    His words: “Building a nation is not a day’s job, not a decade or century’s job. It is work in progress. Today I pick the nomination form of United Progressive Party (UPP); I will want to mobilise governance in Anambra State. “Governance in Anambra today is a celebration of the ordinary; and we want to move away from celebrating the ordinary to a state whose potentials are made manifest. We want a state that is transparent; we will arrest poverty and ensure justice.

    “I believe IPOB is forcing a dialogue on referendum in Nigeria; it is pushing an agenda to say it wants a date for referendum, and I believe they know that for you to exercise the powers of a referendum, you need to be a registered voter. And one of the ways to show you have a majority for a referendum is to participate in the political process. I believe when they understand the implications of their threat, they will eventually change their point of view.”

    The party’s National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said IPOB’s leadership is not well informed about the referendum process, adding that it will be suicidal if the election does not hold.

     

  • Fresh crisis rocks Kaduna APC over delegates election

    Fresh crisis rocks Kaduna APC over delegates election

    Fresh crisis rocked the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna on Sunday, as the party’s Senators and House of Representatives members from the state, alongside other members of the party under the auspices of APC-Akida group kicked against recent election of the party congress delegates.

    Political thugs allegedly sponsored to disrupt the APC-Akida’s press conference injured a journalist and destroyed property at the Kaduna NUJ secretariat, venue of the press conference.

    APC party leadership had during its own press conference earlier on Sunday morning commended its members for conducting a successful congress ahead of the party’s non elective convention in Abuja.

    Acting Publicity Secretary, Salisu Tanko Wusono, while addressing journalists at the party secretariat commended the dedication of the team from the national headquarters of the party who organized the exercise, and officials of INEC that monitored the congress.

    He said APC in Kaduna state welcomes the outcome of the congress, stating that the exercise has demonstrated and consolidated the party as a united entity, vibrant and supportive of the values that brought the APC into being.

    “We call on the national headquarters of the party to expedite action towards enabling us to fill party offices that are currently occupied by officials in acting capacity, as provided for in the APC constitution,” Wusono said.

    Speaking on dissenting voices within the party, Wusono said, “It has come to the notice of the Kaduna state APC that some disgruntled elements want to tarnish the reputation of the party. These persons have been unrelenting in their effort to destroy the party and sap the spirit of its members. They have failed over three years, but they continue trying. They abuse the party process, and accuse the party of every ill, but their real goal is to hijack it.”

    “As leaders of the APC, charged with the duty of managing the party in Kaduna state, it is obvious that we are obliged to reject and dismiss any attempt to hijack what is entrusted in our care. The party is aware that these disloyal persons feel frustrated that they were not able to sabotage the congress we just conducted. As is their habit whenever party spirit defeats their politics of ego, these persons will soon be making wild claims. They cannot be considered serious.”

    But addressing newsmen later in the day  at the NUJ secretariat, Spokesman of APC Akida, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi, representing Kaduna North Senatorial zone, alleged that, they were at the party secretariat last Friday from 2:30pm waiting for the party leadership and observers from the national headquarters to conduct the delegate conference till 7:30pm nobody showed up.

    Hunkuyi was flanked by Senator Shehu Sani, APC gubernatorial aspirants, Hon Isah Ashiru and Alhaji Haruna Saeed Kajuru, servings reps, Alhaji Hassan Shekarau, Alhaji Mohammed Usman, Malam Musa Soba, Dr. Tijjani Ramallan, Alhaji Audi Yaro Makama and Ambassador Sule Buba among others.

    APC Akida said it has written petition to the national leadership of the party rejecting what it called ‘selection of delegates’ for the convention and requesting the party to come and organise an acceptable delegates congress following the guidelines that would yield acceptable delegates from the state.

    Also speaking, Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central Senatorial zone, said the symptoms being shown by APC in Kaduna state is what killed PDP in 2015. “In no way should anybody accept any list concocted in the Government House palace. We won’t bow down to any tyrant. A list was prepared and sent to Abuja, we would not accept it.”

    Before the arrival of the APC-Akida group, some hoodlums stormed the NUJ premises chanting that, they won’t allow the press conference hold.

    However, despite the presence of about 30 armed policemen, few of the thugs made their way in, almost towards the end of the press conference and unleashed mayhem on journalists and left a cameraman from Liberty TV injured, while some cameras were destroyed and phones, tape recorders and other valuables were carted away.

    But Governor Nasir El-Rufai in a swift reaction condemned the thugs attack on the journalists, saying nobody will be allowed to stifle freedom of expression.

  • Solomon praises LASIEC for peaceful conduct of election

    The senator who represented Lagos West in the seventh National Assembly on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Ganiyu Olarenwaju Solomon, has hailed the State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) for conducting Saturday’s local government election peacefully.

    He praised the commission for promptly distributing election materials to polling units across the state.

    The senator spoke after casting his vote at Ward A in Mushin Local Government Area.

    He also hailed the electorate for maintaining peace during the election and the government for successfully conducting the election.

    Solomon urged the contestants and their parties to support and work with the winners.

    The senator also appealed to the newly elected chairmen and councillors to administer the state in accordance with APC’s constitution to enable the electorate enjoy dividends of democracy.

    He urged council leaders to support Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to make the mega city a better place to live in.

  • Lagos council polls: Police arrest five party agents

    Lagos council polls: Police arrest five party agents

    The Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command on Saturday arrested five men with incriminating materials in Ikeja, as the local government elections got underway.

    The spokesman for the command, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    Famous-Cole said that the suspects,  who claimed to be agents to a political party, were arrested with incriminating materials at 8.30a.m.

    “They have been handed over to the Area F Command, which will send them to the special team for election crimes at the state Criminal Investigation Department for further investigations.”

    Meanwhile, security agencies, including the police, military, Security and Civil Defence Corps and Immigration, have deployed their personnel to strategic locations in different parts of Lagos to ensure peaceful local government elections.

    A senior police officer who sought anonymity on the Funso Williams Avenue in Surulere, where security men put barricades,  told NAN that the area command observed that some residents were flouting the restriction order.

    He, however, gave the assurance that those with genuine reasons would be allowed to continue their journey.

    NAN reports that the movement restriction began at 7.00am. It will end at 3.00pm.

    Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission is conducting Chairmanship and Councillorship elections in its 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas.

    Twelve political parties are participating the election.

    They are: Accord Party (AP), Action Alliance (AA), Alliance for Democracy ( AD ), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ), Labour Party (LP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

    The others are United Democratic Party (UDP), United Progressive Party (UPP), Kowa Party (KP), National Action Council (NAC) and Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM). (NAN)

  • IPOB and election boycott

    SIR: The Biafran group has been flexing muscles in recent months with increasing popularity. The most convex moment thus far was its sit-at-home ultimatum in remembrance of those who died during the Biafran war. Though the federal government did its best to frustrate the sit-at-home exercise, the eventual mass compliance ought to appeal to every patriotic Nigerian. For the first time in a long time, there is an alternative voice to the corrupt oligarchy of the East—a voice capable of provoking the elusive political equipoise essential for effective democratic leadership in the region. How that alternative voice is deployed, moving forward, is the real gist of this piece.

    That brings us to the restated call for boycott of future elections in the Biafraland by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). This call is obviously jejune and thus condemnable. Even the political leaders of the South-east and the South-south, most of whom have continued to exploit the Biafran crisis to avoid prosecution from corrupt practices, have responded with an extraordinary display of displeasure, attempting to smash any semblance of support for the Biafran movement that they now claim they can no longer stomach because of its tawdry approach. But anyone in his or her right frame of mind believing that the Biafran activists do not have the capacity to undermine future elections in the region is viewing the current events from a blurring rear-view mirror.

    At the same time, the leaders of the Biafran agitation must be careful not to allow the movement to be wallowed in blind ballyhoo. For sure, the South-east and South-south have experienced unimaginable history of marginalization. Too much to catalog! But what must not escape the thinking faculty of the Biafran agitators is that the real enemy is within. There is no evil perfected against the region without the active connivance of the local politicians, particularly since the advent of the Fourth Republic where the Igbo and their South-south neighbors have basked in plum political positions.

    Therefore, rather than any boycott of elections or other grandiloquent threats, the leaders of the Biafran movement can capitalize on its reigning popularity among the masses to begin to model the change envisioned under Biafra as a sovereign state. The forthcoming Anambra State election is a timely opportunity. For instance, a simple scan of the list of the major candidates currently gunning to govern Anambra State, of all places, are well-known overnight billionaires whose wealth are directly traced to looting of development projects in the area or others who see gross societal indiscipline and misconduct as a core cultural value.

    This is squarely where and when IPOB ought to step in and wield its influence towards the desired change. Instead of dwelling on past leaders or boycott of elections, this moment calls for the Biafran activists to employ all possible non-violent means to dislodge all corrupt and morally bankrupt candidates aspiring to lead Anambra State through the November 2017 elections.

    The leaders of IPOB must resist the temptation of romancing with the same corrupt politicians that are part and parcel of the problem in the first place. Plainly speaking, the Biafran agitators must not indulge in any dubious behavior that can lend credence to the swirling accusation that their struggle is no different from that of the current crop of politicians whose only aim in politics is to garner the qualifying attention to feather from any of the prime corrupt crumbs in the land.

    Like the IPOB, the ordinary Nigerian masses are against bad governance and injustice, however the shade. They are also anxiously yearning for true change in the country, and any sustained delay only goes to do more harm than good. IPOB, therefore, can gain wider support by embracing incremental change at every opportunity towards the greater good of the society while the debate for an independent state or other solutions can equally go on.

     

    • SKC Ogbonnia

    Houston, Texas, United States.

  • Osun by-election: My victory, new dawn for democracy – Adeleke

    Osun by-election: My victory, new dawn for democracy – Adeleke

    Chief Ademola Adeleke, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s candidate in the Saturday’s Osun West Senatorial District by-election, has described his victory as a new dawn for democracy.

    Adeleke said, at a news conference on Sunday in Ede, that his electoral victory was “a pointer that PDP will be victorious in the 2018 governorship election in the state’’.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Adeleke scored 97,480 votes and won in nine of the 10 local government areas where the election was held.

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mudashiru Husain, polled 66,116 votes and won in only one local government area.

    The late Sen. Isiaka Adeleke, the first Executive Governor of Osun, was occupying the senatorial seat until his death on April 23.

    His younger brother, Ademola, who initially was contesting on the ticket of APC, defected to PDP, a day before the party’s primary, when APC leadership denied him the ticket.

    He subsequently defected to PDP and was given the party ticket to be its candidate in the election.

    The senatorial district comprises 10 local government areas.

    He said: “We are working hard to ensure that the 2018 governorship election in Osun is won by PDP.

    “My victory is a new dawn in the history of our democracy.

    “Our democracy is growing where an incumbent will be there and opposition will defeat the incumbent.

    “This is a rare gem and this shows that our democracy is improving.

    “We want to make sure that there is nothing like rigging anymore, no matter how you try, we want our democracy to grow.”

    Adeleke, however, commended the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security operatives for ensuring that the election was free and fair.

    He commended the people in the senatorial district for coming out en masse to vote for him.

    Adeleke also commended journalists for their sense of professionalism in the coverage of the election.

    “I can assure you that I will continue from where my late brother left it and that is where I tag my campaign continuity,’’ he said.

    Adeleke said he would engage in social welfare programmes for people in the district.

    “I have budgeted N250 million for students’ scholarship, empowerment programme for women as well as free mobile medical care,” the senator-elect said. (NAN)

  • Hussain, Adeleke satisfied with ongoing Osun Senatorial bye-election

    Hussain, Adeleke satisfied with ongoing Osun Senatorial bye-election

    Candidate of the All Progressives Congress in today’s Osun West Senatorial bye-election, Senator Mudasiru Hussain, has described the exercise as peaceful and smooth.

     Shortly after casting his vote at Ward 3 unit 1 of Ejigbo Local Government, he commended the peaceful conduct and impressive turn out of the electorate.
     According to him, the system of simultaneous accreditation and voting adopted by the Independent National Electoral Commission showed that the umpire is improving on the electoral processes.
     Hussain was optimistic that his party would triumph.

    The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the bye-election, Ademola Adeleke, younger brother of late Senator Isiaka Adeleke, also expressed optimism of victory in the poll.

    He arrived his polling unit, Ward 2, Unit 9 Abogunde Compound in Ede North Local Government around 8.30 am and voted 8.34am after he had been screened and accredited.

    He said he was satisfied with the process so far, adding that his participation in the poll was a shower of blessings.

    Meanwhile, the early morning drizzle did not prevent voters from going to their polling units to vote.

    Electoral materials arrived most polling units our correspondent visited in Ede North, Ede South and Egbedore council areas on time.

    The turnout was not impressive  in most polling units except Ward 7, Unit 5 Olorin/Olode in Ede South as many people to came out enmass to exercise their civic duties.

    However, the voters complained that ballot papers for the unit was incomplete.

    The presiding officer for the unit, Vera Umejeih, confirmed that the ballot papers were not complete, saying they received 544 instead of 547 ballot papers.

    A PDP chieftain, Alhaji Kamoru Olagoke, from Unit 7,  Sabo Agbongbe 1 Ward 6, said the process was going on smoothly, adding that the impression that the turn out was poor was because voters do their accreditation, screening and voting  at once and many of them leave after the exercise.

    Also at Oloba Atapara Ward 1 Unit 10, the exercise was described as satisfactory by voters. They acknowleged excellent performance of the card reader machines and enough electoral materials.

  • Osun West by-election: Will Hussain succeed Adeleke?

    Osun West by-election: Will Hussain succeed Adeleke?

    In this piece, Tunde Oladunjoye writes on the Osun West Senatorial by-election and the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Senator Mudashiru Hussain at the poll.

    Given available statistics, that are quite verifiable, we can now firmly declare, barring unforeseen circumstances though, that Senator Mudashiru Oyetunde Husain is evidently tipped to return to the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly after the conclusion of the July 8, 2017 Osun West Senatorial by-election.

    As he coasts to victory on the election date, it will be history beckoning to Husain again to return to the exalted seat, which he vacated in 2015 in deference to leadership of his party, All Progressives Congress (APC) which directed him to step down for late Senator Isiaka Adetunji Adeleke, who had earlier defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), to join the emergent mega-party, (APC) which had just landed on the political scene with a big bang in the year 2015 and eventually, and historically, sent the incumbent government at the center packing.

    Senator Husain had earlier in April 2011 defeated Senator Adeleke in the Senatorial election of that year.  Husain had scored a total 121,971 votes to trounce Adeleke, the incumbent Senator who scored 77,090 votes. The winning margin was a whopping 44,881 votes in favour of Husain.

    Historically, the progressive political parties starting with the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), through Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and now, the All Progressives Congress (APC), have since 1999 till date out-performed the conservatives as represented by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in the State of Osun.

    The only period the conservatives took charge of the State of Osun was when the PDP was touted as the winner of the governorship election of 2003, which enabled the PDP to be in power for almost seven years, no thanks to the manipulative politics introduced by the PDP, and which was shamelessly encouraged by the power centre in Abuja at the time in question.

    A court verdict was to terminate the illegitimate hold of the PDP on the State of Osun and which happily returned power to the progressives with the inauguration of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in October 2010 as the authentic winner of the controversial governorship election of April 2007.

    With regard to the latest Senatorial election in Osun West, it cannot be contested that the progressives, as represented by the APC, are still far ahead of the conservatives in the PDP, as typified by the outcome of political contests between the two in the not-too-distant past.

    In the first instance, in the April 2011 Senatorial election in which Husain of ACN trounced the then sitting Senator, Isiaka Adeleke, of the PDP, the ACN netted 121,971 votes as against PDP’s woeful 77,090 votes. The margin was quite awesome with 44,881 votes in favour of ACN.

    Again in the Senatorial election of March 2015, the progressives who had by then come together, out of sheer political expediency, to form a mega-party as in the All Progressives Congress (APC), thoroughly floored the PDP. While the APC coasted to victory in that election with a whopping 133,009 votes, the PDP only managed to take home a pitiable score of 79,296 votes, leaving a wide margin of 53,713 votes again in favour of APC.

    The impressive performance of the APC in that particular election it must be acknowledged however, was buoyed further by the defection of the duo of Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Isiaka Adeleke, popular grassroot politicians from PDP to APC earlier that year.

    Much earlier, in the 2014 gubernatorial election, Ogbeni Aregbesola of the APC won a landslide victory with an impressive score totalling 132,822 votes while Iyiola Omisore of the PDP scored 97,285 votes with a wide margin of 35,537 votes also in favour of APC.

    Moreover, the State Assembly election in 2015 also presented the APC as a clean winner with a total of 109,783 votes leaving its arch-rival, the PDP with only 51,540 votes. A wide margin of 58,243 votes was thus secured deservedly for the ever-dominant APC.

    Considering the voting strength of both the APC and PDP, the two dominant parties in the coming by-election especially in the critical local government areas of the two leading candidates, Husain and Adeleke, it would be seen quite clearly that the APC remains ahead of the PDP.

    In the 2015 Senatorial election, for example, in Ejigbo LGA, the home base of Husain, the APC scored 17,420 votes while the PDP scored 10,029 votes.  In Ede North LGA, the home of Adeleke, the APC scored 16,234 votes while the PDP got 10,427 votes. In Ede South, also home to Adeleke, the APC again scored 12,344 votes with the PDP going home with only 6,746 votes, a little over half of APC’s grand score.

    In the State Assembly polls also in 2015, APC scored 11,481 votes against PDP 9,423 in Ede North LGA, while APC scored 9,679 votes as against 5,409 votes obtained by the PDP in Ede South LGA. In contrast in Ejigbo LGA, the same APC received an impressive figure of 17,956 votes as opposed to the PDP’s miserable collection of a mere 5,455 votes, a third of APC’s wholesome worth.

    In the governorship election of 2014, the APC grossed 15, 403 votes while PDP went with only 10,427 votes in Ede North LGA. In Ede South LGA, the APC scored 11,738 votes while PDP obtained only 7,462 votes. And in Ejigbo LGA, APC again, made an impressive showing having scored 17,700 votes vis-à-vis 12,490 votes left for the PDP.

    Ede, the home-based of the late Isiaka Adeleke and his younger brother contesting on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will not be a work-over for the PDP.

    One, the late Adeleke himself, had successfully the PDP to sleep in the town so much so that the party’s Secretariat is in a state of total disrepair and politicians that mattered have since followed late Adeleke to APC and remained in APC.

    In terms of political appointments, the Rauf Aregbesola-led Administration has been most particularly generous to Ede zone in the Osun West Secretariat District.  The zone boasts of four commissioners among whom is Chief (Mrs) Idiat Babalola.

    In infrastructure, Ede is not left out. The government of Aregbesola has built modern educational facilities at Adventist High School, Ede whose structures are even comparable to that of private university.

    Not long ago, the commercial activities of the ancient town got a boost when Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola reactivated the cocoa industry at Ede which has been abandoned since 2001. The factory now produces 200,000 tonnes of cocoa daily with multiplier effects on the state economy, transportation, agriculture and employment with Ede as the immediate beneficiary.

    In all the other seven LGAs in the Osun West Senatorial District, the APC was clearly in the lead in all the elections as highlighted above.

    In the three elections, the margin marks between the APC and the PDP were recorded as follow: Governorship (2014)  35,537 votes; Senatorial (2015)  41,054 votes; and State Assembly  58,243 votes, all in favour of APC.

    Interestingly still, the accumulative margin range of all the three political contests, as revealed above, stands at an impressive level of 64,359 votes and still in favour of the APC. And this is even more than the total score of the PDP in both the 2014 and 2015 gubernatorial and State Assembly elections respectively.

    All these empirical statistics, no doubt, underscore the dominant position of the APC in Osun State politics and not the least that of Osun West Senatorial District where a by-election has been fixed for Saturday July 8, 2017.

    The PDP in the State of Osun, like elsewhere in the country, is already in tatters, what with its numerous irreconcilable factions, who continue to work at cross-purposes. Frustrated and determined to bail themselves out of the foggy situation, the remaining few members of the beleaguered party are seen streaming out daily to the APC.

    For now and even for a long time to come, the PDP, as it were, cannot claim to be strong and competitive enough to stand in the way of the APC.

    It is significant at this juncture to affirm that all the opposition camps – PDP, SDP, LP -, cannot rattle the APC in the by-election. In all these analysed elections, all the votes of the PDP and all other parties that contested in the elections still lagged behind the scores of the APC. Infact, no major upset is anticipated in the coming political battle as the APC is tipped to carry the day.