From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Residents of Akure and other major cities in Ondo State would be treading the streets cautiously today, as the people of the state go to the polls to elect a new governor. Yesterday, a day to the election, there was palpable tension in major parts of the state as fear of electoral violence spread around the state.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had fixed today for governorship election in the state.
The election will hold in all the 18 local government areas, with 18 different political parties participating.
Prominent among the political parties are the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which is fielding the incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has a former deputy governor, Agboola Ajayi as candidate and the Labour Party with Hon Sola Ebiseni, a former commissioner in the state as it’s candidate.
Others are Otunba Bamidele Adegboye of the Social Democratic Party (SDP); Dr Abass Mimiko, younger brother of former Governor Olusegun Mimiko of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
The National Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu had announced that the electoral body was fully prepared to conduct a transparent and credible election, even as he assured of prompt release and announcement of election results.
Also, the Deputy Inspector General of Police seconded to the state for the election, Mr Sylvester Alabi said the police are fully on ground to avert violence during and after the election.
He said over 34,000 police officers were deployed to the state to ensure a peaceful conduct of the election, adding that the security agents were deployed to all polling centres and major areas across the state.
However, pockets of violence were reported in some parts of the state as loyalists of the APC and PDP clashed.
In Idanre, it was gathered that scores of people were injured during a violent clash among supporters of the APC and PDP candidates in the town.
Many shop owners vacated their shops yesterday in Akure, the state capital for fear of violence among the political parties. It was reliably gathered that billboards of the PDP candidate, Hon Ajayi were vandalized in the early hours of Friday, just as posters of the candidate were destroyed in many parts of the state. This is even as the posters of the APC candidate, Hon Aiyedatiwa were also destroyed in some parts of Akure, the state capital. The situation has further raised the fear of the people and contributed to the general unease across the state.
An election monitoring group, Yiaga Africa had at a press conference in Akure on Thursday identified some flash points in the state and warned against violence in the state.
The group, which puts the total number of voters in the state at 1.7million advised security agents not to compromise in the discharge of their duties during the exercise.