Anxiety as Ondo conducts LG polls

THE submission of the opposition Political parties in Ondo in respect of this Saturday’s Local government elections across the 18 council areas of the state is that it would be a selection rather than an election. They hinged their submission on the basis that  major parties including the All Progressive Congress APC , the Social Democratic Party SDP, a faction 

of the Labour Party LP and the Congress of Nigerian Political Parties CNPP have dismissed the poll as a distraction and waste of state resources while civil servants are owed four months salaries.

Waste of state resources

While the leadership of the Labour Party said it would not participate in the election, Vanguard however noticed that posters of some candidates of the party dotted the state capital ahead of the elections. That is indicative of claims that the ruling party  may have polarized the party. Although credit should be given to the governor, Dr Olusegun. Mimiko for yielding to pressure to conduct the election   seven years into his tenure, the opposition believes the governor’s action at this time when the governorship election is in seven months time was more political than genuine.

More importantly, the two major parties  that have opted out of the election also said that a legal hurdle which halted the poll in the past years was yet to be cleared and wondered why the governor was trying to undermine the judiciary by conducting the polls.



The opposition parties advised   the state government to  use the money earmarked for Local Government election to pay state workers and retirees’ remunerations and allowances since no State can exist without her people.

But the chairman of the state Independent Electoral Commissioner ODEIC, Prof Olugbenga Ige insisted that the poll would go on as scheduled by the Commission despite non participation of some notable political parties.

Prof Ige said as at the last count  17 Political Parties have signified their intentions to participate in the election.

But the opposition parties argued that instead of dissipating their energies on the Council poll slated for April 23 this year, they would rather concentrate on winning the November 20 governorship election in the state.

While the APC State Chairman Hon Isaac Kekemeke argued that the legal hurdle against the election was yet to be surmounted, both the electoral body and the ruling  party PDP insisted the coast has been cleared. Political observers in the state have however accused the opposition APC which is leading the parties to rubbish the election of double standard and insincerity. They noted that the same APC was “always attacking and accessing the governor of not conducting the council election in a bid to stiffen the third tier of government.

Meanwhile of interest is the disagreement between  the inter-Party Advisory Council( IPAC)  and the Labour Party, the governor’s former party.

While IPAC listed LP  as one of the 17 parties that will participate in the April 23 council election, the party later denied its participation in the election.

But findings had it that the party had been infiltrated by the PDP.

Aside categorically rubbishing the coming polls and dissociating itself from the election, the party hit at the governor accusing him of “creating crisis in the party with divisive politics of pseudo control. In dissociating itself from the election, the secretary of the LP in the state, Ronke Akerele said  “We shall rather engage the government in constructive criticism for the benefit of all, which we consider more important than petty issues of divisive politics that is fast becoming his trademark.


The party hit the governor further by asking him to pay the workers outstanding salaries

“We passionately appeal to the Governor to pay the salary arrears of the workers of Ondo State as soon as possible to reduce the untold hardship of the people.


VANGUARD