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Gyang Bere, Jos
Before the 2015 governorship poll, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in control of the Plateau State. But after the 2015 poll, the All Progressives Congress (APC) took charge of the state.
In the build up to the 2019 governorship poll, many had thought the APC will lose the state to the PDP. But it never happened. The APC won, as Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, retained his seat.
However, the victory of Lalong did not come without anxiety and hard work. The contest appears to be the fiercest political battle Lalong has ever fought since his foray into politics.
Many believed that 2015 was a no contest for him, but that 2019 was his first time of truly contesting in an election, owing largely to the coalition that brought him in, in 2015 on the platform “Plateau project.”
The March 9 poll cost Lalong and some members of his APC campaign team sleepless nights, particularly when the political narrative took a religious dimension, three days to the poll.
The governor was said to have noticed that he was going to be consumed by campaign of calumny orchestrated by his main challenger and opposition candidate, Senator Jeremiah Useni of the PDP, whom he took for granted on account of old age.
It was alleged that after the presidential election, the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) and Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) had directed its members in the state not to vote for Governor Simon Lalong of the APC during the governorship poll.
The rumour, it was gathered, changed the political calculation in the state three days to the Governorship Election in favour of the PDP candidate, Senator Useni, who anchored his campaign on tackling the security challenges the state was passing through.
But, Lalong and the APC folks considered the trend of events as embarrassing and damaging. The governor moved into action and started massive consultations with the Church denominational leaders, pastors and ethnic associations in the state.
Knowing what to do to puncture the rumour, he moved swiftly to propose a Karlkum University, Vom and laid a foundation for a library structure which was promised by his predecessor but which the predecessor couldn’t fulfil before his party was defeated in 2015.
He succeeded in getting on board the COCIN President, Reverend Dachollom Datiri and top COCIN pastors. The two Christian groups have the highest population in the state.
The COCIN president made a remark after the foundation laying ceremony where he sounded it very clearly that COCIN, as group had not taken any stand on who to vote for during the governorship election and that the church was not partisan and it will not take such a decision.
He directed the members across the 17 Local Government Areas of the state to vote for any candidate of their choice and distance the church from endorsing any candidate.
The APC media team took advantage of the statement which they recorded and circulated in most social media platforms that were earlier peddling the rumour of endorsement of PDP candidate.
That statement, Daily Sun gathered changed the narrative in favour of Governor Lalong, the APC candidate on the eve of the election, with most people in the state resolving that since all the previous governors spent two terms, Lalong should be forgiven and given an opportunity to complete his second tenure no matter what are his shortcomings are.
Meanwhile, the PDP candidate, Senator Useni thought Plateau people were going to maintain the voting pattern that was witnessed during the presidential election where PDP polled 548,665 against APC’s 468,555 votes despite the cancellation of result from Tudun-Wada Kabong ward.
As such, when results of the governorship election started trickling in, there was a cloud of political uncertainty in the two camps of the dominant political parties in the state.
There was no proper direction as to where the pendulum was swinging. No candidate maintained a straight lead from the beginning to the end during the collation of results at INEC Collation Centre, Jos.
The results kept flowing in with APC leading at some points and PDP overtaking later. It continued on that note until some results came that placed the APC on a permanent lead before the election was declared inconclusive by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
At that point, Lalong and APC had polled 583,255 votes while Useni and PDP scored 538,326 votes while about 49, 000 votes were cancelled. This, INEC insisted could not produce a clear winner, and the development compelled INEC to declare the exercise inconclusive.
Before then, the APC had won two Senatorial seats, Plateau Central and Plateau South while PDP won overwhelmingly in Plateau North. APC had also won four seats in the House of Representatives while PDP also won four. For the state House of Assembly, APC won 14 seats, leaving PDP with nine members while a by-election will be conducted in Pengana Constituency where member-elect, Exeziel Afon, died. He died shortly after winning the election on the platform of the APC.
INEC fixed March 23, 2019 for a supplementary election in 40 polling units across nine Local Government Areas of the state. In the end, Lalong and APC scored 12,327 while Useni and PDP scored 8,487.
This brought the total votes scored by Lalong and APC to 595,582 to defeat Useni and PDP who scored 546,813 votes. Lalong was subsequently declared winner of the election at about 4am.
Immediately the declaration was made, there was wild jubilation in the entire state. The campaign office of Governor Lalong was filled to capacity, playing victory songs of APC to entertain the crowd.
Lalong, who addressed supporters at the campaign office shortly after the victory, described the outcome of the exercise as an amazing show of confidence and trust the people of the state has reposed on his administration.
He said his victory was also seen as a referendum on the most cherished principles of unity and peace as well as affirmation of the desire to move to the ‘next level.’
He further said “with gratitude to God Almighty, on behalf of myself and the Deputy Governor, I sincerely thank you all. We whole-heartedly accept this mandate to serve for a second and final term with all the humility it deserves.
“Above all, we accept this mandate by equally soliciting your usual cooperation and partnership as we strive to sustain the execution of our mandate,” the governor said.
But Senator Useni has rejected the outcome of the election and described it as a broad day robbery. He vowed to contest the result at the tribunal to recover his mandate.
“Based on the result announced by INEC and the documents submitted by our own field staff, we have every reason to believe that justice has so far not been done to our people in this election, because of massive rigging and electoral shortcomings.
“After due consultation, I hereby state that the results announced by INEC are not acceptable to us; consequently, we have requested our legal team to activate all the due processes to reclaim our cherished mandate,” Useni said.
Daily Sun gathered that he and the party have filed a petition at the Governorship Election Tribunal in the state challenging the victory of Lalong and APC. The tribunal has also ordered INEC to allow PDP access to inspect the electoral materials used during the March 9 and March 23, 2019 election for the purpose of defending their petition at the tribunal.
But respected persons and associations within and outside the state have continued to congratulate Governor Lalong on his re-election.
Recently, the traditional institutions led by the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da. Jacob Gyang Buba visited Lalong and pledged total commitment towards supporting his second tenure.
Chairman of ALGON in the state, Ezekiel Volgap, Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Publicity, Mark Longyen, Comrade Pius Hoomen and APC youth activist, Alh. Nagelu Garba among others, have all congratulated Lalong on his re-election.
They believed that Lalong will use the second tenure to cement and build mutual relationship among the diverse ethnic groups in the state and consolidate on the existing peace the state is currently enjoying.
