Benue Rerun: All you need to know about coming Saturday’s supplementary polls

At the end of the inconclusive gubernatorial election in Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom of the PDP got 410, 576. His closest rival, Emmanuel Jime of the APC got 329, 022 at the close of the first ballot. Going by the result released by INEC, PDP’s Ortom currently leads the governorship contest with 81,554 votes. The two frontline candidates will be slugging out for 121, 011 votes in the affected polling units across the state.

But analysts say it is going to be very difficult for APC, which also lost the last Presidential and National Assembly Elections in the state to the PDP, to overturn the deficit and win the supplementary election. “PDP will most likely go ahead to consolidate its lead at the extra polls on its way to finally retaining the troubled state in its political kitty till 2023,” an analyst said.

Before Governor Ortom moved over to the PDP last year, Benue State was controlled by the APC. But following incessant face-offs between Ortom and the leadership of his then party as well as the presidency over the herdsmen/farmers clashes in the state, Ortom defected to the PDP and picked its governorship ticket. Many prominent chieftains of the APC, including Senator Barnabas Gemade, also dumped the party.

The presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had emerged winner of the Presidential Election in the state last month. The result, as announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Collation Officer Prof. Sabastine Maimako, in Makurdi showed that President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC scored 347,668 vote, while Atiku scored 355,255 votes.

Also noteworthy is the fact that during the presidential election, APC won in 10 Local Government Areas of the state, while PDP won in 13 Local Government Areas. The party also cleared all the three senatorial seats up for grab. Former Governor Gabriel Suswam emerged as the Senator for Benue North East, Emmanuel Yisa Orker-Jev for Benue North West and ex-Minister Patrick Abba Moro in Benue South.

Majority of the State Assembly seats declared in the state are also now in the kitty of the PDP. The unexpected loss of the Benue North West seat by the APC leader in the state, Senator George Akume, disorganised the party ahead of the Governorship and State Assembly Elections. Though local issues like non-payment of workers’ salaries and lack of infrastructural amenities worked against the PDP and Governor Ortom, it appears the many killings and attacks suffered by the state decided how they voted.

(Credit: The Nation newspapers)

Verdict: PDP