This morning residents of Edo State will file out hopefully in their numbers to participate in the process of Electing new public officials into the councillorship and chairmanship post, the elected officers are expected to run the Local Government Councils for the next three years in the state.
The ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) expressed confidence in the outcome of the election. It said its candidates are certain to win all the 192 councillorship positions and 18 chairmanship positions. The ACN party claims that the development the state has witnessed within the last 3 years has been unprecedented and that this is certain to ensure that the party retain absolute power in the state.
The same confidence was expressed by the “Accord Party” (AP) as its National Secretary Mr lsibor today said that the party was hopeful it would win in some councils.
In a swift reaction to the confidence expressed by the ACN, the People’s Democratic Party has said the states electoral election tribunal has perfected its strategy to “Write Results” in favour of the ACN ruling party, he said that “Our expectation is high; we will get a good outing. But the challenge we have is that most of the adhoc staffers of EDSIEC are members of ACN, and they are going to be used to manipulate the process. I am not talking because I am in PDP; I am talking what is on ground. We have information that EDSIEC wants to release half sensitive materials. But we are watching closely and we will fight against it.
But it seems the Nigeria Police is set scuttle any plans by would-be trouble makers, in a statement released yesterday, the Nigerian Police Force said through the Commissioner of Police (Edo State) , Folusho Adebanjo, that movement has been restricted between the hours of 6am to 5pm today. Those that will move will have to be accredited. There will be a special tag for them to allow authorized officers move unhindered. We have ensured that enough personnel be deployed to provide security at all centres”, the statement reads.
At the end of the day, we would either an Edo State where politic diversity is practiced which might help strengthen the democratic process or a state that would be governed by APC (ACN) and continue with the acclaimed “good Job” it has been noted for.