Avoiding violence in Ondo election

Akeredolu, Oke and Gov. Mimiko

 

Politicians are beating the drums of war. Their followers are dancing to the peculiar tunes and fanning the embers of intolerance and discord.  Political campaigns create panic and tension, sending the wrong signal of do-or-die election. Steadily, a sense of fear of violence and electoral crisis is gradually being registered in the subconscious of the people. 

In Akure, the state capital, political meetings are disrupted. Other towns and villages are enveloped in anxiety.

The critical contest is between Olusegun Mimiko, medical doctor and incumbent governor on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) and Rotimi Akeredolu SAN, legal luminary and former President of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), who is the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). In the forthcoming election, it appears that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which is fielding Olusola Oke, a lawyer, and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which is fielding Soji Ehinlawo, and candidates of other mushroom parties do not enjoy high rating.

Expectedly, their supporters and followers are locked in hot media campaigns. However, what is worrisome is the orgy of violence associated with campaigns in the Sunshine State. There have been accusations, counter-accusations and denials. But these propaganda have not halted the trend of violence and tension.

Recently, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, who had been inundated with complaints about the unruly behaviour of party thugs, spat fire and brimstone. He promised to relocate to Ondo State during the election to coordinate security activities. It is common knowledge that unemployed youths, idle artisans and peasants, and motor park boys usually form the bulk of the thuggery clubs. 

Thus, at a meeting he held with the executive members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers ((NURTW) in Abuja, the police boss read the riot act to arsonists. 

“Let me warn you that political thuggery will be ruthlessly dealt with. I want you all to take this message to your members all over the country that anyone who gets involved in violence would not be spared”, said the Inspector General who added: “I am issuing this warning in view of the fact that the date for for the Ondo State governorship election is around the corner. I am using this occasion to warn the Ondo State chairman of NURTW that the police will not tolerate thuggery from your members. I will be in Ondo State to monitor the election”.

About six years ago, it was a different ball game. Mimiko and Akeredolu were in the same political camp, as it were, waging war against the PDP administration of Dr. Olusegun Agagu. After Mimiko’s stolen mandate was retrieved, the collaboration between LP and AC(N) suddenly broke down. Now, members of the divided house are adorning a new outlook in preparation for a showdown in October.

The catalogue of violence stares observers in the face. It started with the face-off between LP and ACN members in Akure during the Adebayo Adefarati Memorial Lecture. In the twilight of life, the former governor was neither a chieftain of LP nor ACN. Sources said that both sides struggled to make a political gain out of the event. The organisers, nevertheless, had some guests in mind; elder statesmen, foremost politicians, top government officials from ACN-controlled Southwest, and relations. 

The programme was about to kick off when some thugs invaded the venue, demanding why some LP chieftains were denied entry into the hall. Instantly, hell was let lose. Akure ACN leader Chief Wumi Adegbonmire was rough-handled. Scores of dignitaries were injured. Other eminent persons ran for dear life. ACN spokesman Gboyega Adedipe in the state alleged that the disruption was caused by suspected LP thugs, an allegation vehemently denied by his LP counterpart, Kole Odogiyan.

However, since then, violence has characterised preparations for the election. It reared its ugly head again in Owo when Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, a staunch advocate of power shift in Ondo State, stormed the Achievers University to receive an award. 

“Thugs barricaded the road. It was laughable because they wanted to attack the convoy, unmindful of security details of the governor”, recalled Idowu Ajanaku, Akeredolu’s Media Adviser.

Few weeks later, Adegbonmire and some elders were chased out of a political meeting in Ijoka/Sijuwade area of Akure. With him were Chief Olu Adegboro, Prof. Adegbola Aderounmu and other ACN leaders. The old Action Group (AG) chieftain was filled with anger. “Can’t I hold a political meeting again. This is my town. I am the Asiwaju of Akure. This is the height of intolerance’, he protested.

Last month, there was commotion along Oba Adesida Road, Akure, when Akeredolu and his supporters were blocked by some youths brandishing dangerous weapons. The convoy was heading to Owo, his birthplace, following the governorship congress that endorsed him as the flag bearer. The police immediately rose to the occasion to and so averted what could have been a tragedy. 

Recently, in Irele, Ondo South Senatorial District, suspected thugs disrupted the empowerment programme organised by an LP  lawmaker. As LP and PDP supporters clashed, Oke, who later became the PDP governorship candidate, was attacked by thugs.

In Akure, the ACN state secretariat was vandalised. The security man was beaten to a state of coma. Adedipe blamed LP members for the mayhem, which he described as acts of hooliganism and barbarism. But Odogiyan disagreed, advising him to look for culprits elsewhere.

At the weekend, Ajanaku alleged that the indiscriminate arrest of ACN chieftains by police at Owo is now rampant, describing it as an affront on human rights. “It is part of the grand design to frighten our people and disperse our supporters. But the strategy will fail”, he said.

“In Ifon and Ute, the campaign offices of Chief Akeredolu have been vandalised. When Mimiko was campaigning for governorship in 2007, Agagu did not stop him. But this governor has refused to let ACN use OSRC and Akure Town Hall. Mimiko declared in that hall for governorship in 2007”, Ajanaku added.

Ondo State Information Commissioner Kayode Akinmade objected to the claim. “Ondo is peaceful and our people are ready for October 20. The hue about violence is just a face-saving tactic by the opposition. The plot to hire machineries has been uncovered and LP members are not involved. There is no panic in Ondo State”, he said. The commissioner did not elaborate on his allegation about machineries. 

Mimiko Campaign Organisation’s spokesman Kola Olabisi had a harsh words for the PDP and other parties, which he accused of peddling falsehood, saying that they are alarmists. He said LP secretariat was recently vandalised, although he did not give clues about suspects. He alleged that Oke was actually creating tension by promising to scrap developmental projects embarked upon by Mimiko. He said this is an unguided utterance, urging him to moderate his reactions. 

“PDP was allowed to use the ‘Democracy Park for its rally. If they (ACN) wants to use the town hall, they should apply to the appropriate authorities and if it is the ‘Democracy Park’, they should do so too. As to the issue of OSRC, all the parties in Ondo state are free to go there, afterall, it is the property of Ondo State”, Olabisi added.

Close watchers of the scenario in Ondo State contend that the forces struggling for political control were once upon a time united against the conservative bloc in the state. But the house split, following an inexplicable disagreement.  Now, LP government is the lone administration in the Southwest, which had been regained by ACN after a fierce battle against the PDP. 

To the ACN leaders; Chief Bisi Akande and Senator Bola Tinubu; and the five governors, there is a difference between LP and ACN, based on two criteria of fraternity with the national PDP and posturing on regional integration. 

Yet, other observers believe that, historically, in the Southwest, the sheer parting of ways among the supposedly members of the progressive family, could herald a bitter contest.  Following the split in the defunct AG, the federal and regional elections in the wild wild West ended in chaos. In the Second Republic, when there was defection of some leaders to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Ondo and Oyo states were in flames after the election. 

However, the root of violence is deep seated political intolerance borne out of the desire to either gain or retain power. In the long run, it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good. A political scientist and lawyer, Dr Derin Ologbenla, observed that, any effort to totally eliminate violenvce from social life would definitely be a vain effort. But he clarified that when violence is endemic and persistent, or unimanageable, it may become an anathema to to political stability and economic development. 

Ologbenla, who teaches at the University of Lagos, Akoka, described electoral violence as an aspect of political violence. In his view, this may include all sorts of riots, demonstrations, party clashes, political assassinations, looting, arson, thuggery, maiming, kidnapping, and ballot snatching which occurs before, during and after elections. 

“All these could be regarded as election-motivated crises employed to alter, change or influence by force or coercion the electoral behaviour of voters or voting pattern or possibly reverse the electoral decision in favour of a particular individual, group or political party”, he stressed.

The university don described violence as part of winning tactics for dubious politicians. He distinguished between pre and post-electoral violence.  “The pre-electoral violence may occur where electoral laws or provisions are seen as favouring a particular candidate at the expense of the others. It could also occur when a particular candidate is over-ambitious and perhaps, sees the signals that he may likely lose the election to the opponents. Experience has shown in Nigeria that such a candidate may engineer violence to disrupt the electoral process”, he added. 

However, post-election violence may lead to more debilitating effects. Ologbenla warned that it may be spontaneous, adding that it may also be engineered by individuals, group or a political party who feels cheated, rigged out, alienated or deprived by the unfairness of the electoral process and the deprivation may be real or perceived. 

“In Nigeria, the purpose of such violence, apart from seeking redress through illegal means, including killing, maiming, destruction of property, is also “to destroy it, if we cannot have it”.

This latter perspective should not be lost on the handlers of the electoral process. How is the electoral agency responding to these inter-party conflicts? The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Akin Orebiyi, said reports on political violence may have been blown out of proportion by the media. “I don’t support violence, but what has happened in the state has not been properly reported. I was aware of what happened at Oba Adesida Road on the day ACN held its congress and the Irele incident. Police intervened immediately. We need to verify the claims’.  he said. To buttress his point, he said the reports about breaches in Ondo State ahead of the poll would pale into insignificance in the face of the disturbing violence that heralded the recent Edo State governorship election.  

Ajanaku disagreed, saying that reports about violence should not be ignored or treated with levity. “A culture of intolerance is growing in Ondo  State and we believe that LP members are responsible because they are desperate”, he maintained.

Orebiyi acknowledged that campaigns are hot in Ondo State. But he quickly added that “anybody who foments trouble will be consumed by trouble”.

Early in the month, a stakeholders’ meeting attended by representatives of 12 parties met in Akure. At the meeting, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials, State Security Services (SSS) men, an Assistant Inspector General of Police, a Deputy Inspector General, Mr. Abdulraman Akano, and commander of the Army Artillery, Akure, issued serious warnings to politicians in the state to desist from acts capable of breaching the law during electioneering.

Orebiyi assured that, with that warning, there would be no violence and break down of law and order. Besides, he said clashes among rival political supporters would be averted by the implementation of the campaign schedules jointly subscribed to by the various parties.

“At the stakeholders’ meeting, a committee was set up as a clearing house for campaigns schedules. Before any political party embarks on campaigns, it must inform the committee, which will make sure that campaigns do not clash. Through that, there will be no case of inter-party misunderstanding, fighting and breakdown of law and order. This will be implemented faithfully”, he stressed.