Come September 21, 2024, residents of Edo State will go to the poll to elect a governor who will pilot the affairs of the state in the next four years. According to the records made available by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), seventeen parties have fielded candidates for the contest. However, only three out of the 17 candidates are in the eyes of the storm as far as the September election is concerned. They are Dr. Asue Ighodalo and his deputy for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Monday Okpebholo and his deputy for the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Mr. Olumide Osaigbovo Akpata and his deputy for the Labour Party (LP).

These three supposedly leading candidates appear to share a common problem in the build-up to their respective primaries.

While the PDP and the APC were riddled with the bullets of alleged imposition, the Labour Party was battered by leadership tussle. The way the candidates handled the problems that trailed their primaries was one of the major indices used by political watchers to assess their seriousness. While the APC and the PDP candidates made concerted efforts to bring aggrieved members into one fold preparatory for the main election, the reverse appeared to be the case for the Labour Party candidate, Mr. Olumide Akpata.

For instance, in an attempt to calm down ruffled feathers, the leadership of the APC in alignment with its flag-bearer quickly reached out to Honourable Dennis Idahosa and his supporters and appeased them with the deputy governorship slot. Hon. Idahosa came second in the APC primaries. Senator Okpebholo did not stop at that. He took a step further by reaching out to all the aspirants that contested the party primaries with him. His move was highly appreciated and applauded by all stakeholders who, in turn, rallied around him for the task ahead. The story was the same for the PDP and its candidate up until a few implacable members accused of anti-party activities were suspended from the party.

The actions of the PDP and APC candidates clearly showed the seriousness and commitments expected of true contenders for the Osadebe Avenue. But this cannot be said of Mr. Akpata of the Labour Party.

Despite orchestrating the division in the Edo LP in order to skew the primaries in his favour, his “dollarization” of the February primaries cast a dent in the image and slogan of the party hitherto regarded as “we no dey give shi shi” party. Not a few members of the Labour Party and Edo politicians in general have alleged that the Labour Party primaries was the most monetized primaries in the political annals of Edo State since the return to democracy in 1999. Each delegate was alleged to have received two thousand dollars from Mr. Akpata.

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As if that was not enough, since snatching and running with the party’s ticket, Mr. Akpata has not deemed it expedient to reach out to other aspirants who contested the primaries with him. Politics has often been defined as a game of numbers but this belief does not resonate with Mr. Akpata. For him, a tree can make a forest.

Another pointer to the fact that Mr. Akpata may just be a pretender who is not serious with the governorship race is the way and manner he goes about with his campaign. What on earth could stop a serious candidate desirous of wrestling power from formidable parties like PDP and APC from including elected legislators of his party in his campaign council? In the 2023 general election, Edo was one of the major states that the Labour Party/Obidient Movement left an indelible mark on, by producing one senator (Edo South Senatorial District) and two House of Representatives members (Oredo and Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituencies ). Can any serious candidate running for an election downplay the importance of the inclusion of these critical stakeholders in his campaign council? If any candidate does, that person certainly would be doing so at his/her own peril irrespective of the depth of his/her pocket. This is one of the albatrosses of the Olumide Akpata candidacy which clearly signposts him as an unserious candidate as far as the September 21 Edo State governorship election is concerned. Even the most naive politician would be surprised to note that since after the Labour Party primaries, Mr. Akpata is said not to have put a call across to any of his party elected representatives in Edo State nor held a strategic meeting with major party stakeholders on how to actualize his governorship project. These symptoms have made a lot of Labour Party members and supporters wonder if Mr. Akpata is actually pursuing an ambition or acting a script.

This approach tends to lend credence to the rumours making the rounds that the Labour Party candidate is allegedly being used by the APC and its candidate to frustrate the PDP in Edo South Senatorial district. Edo South is the PDP stronghold. With the Edo North Senatorial zone in the kitty of APC courtesy of Senator Adams Oshiomhole and the votes from Edo Central going to be shared by virtue of the fact that the two major contenders are from the zone, Edo South will automatically determine where the pendulum of victory will swing, hence the alleged contracting of Mr. Akpata by APC and its candidate to deny the PDP of outright win in the zone. Allegations of clandestine and surreptitious meetings between Mr. Akpata and Senator Okpebholo abound.

It is this campaign strategy of Mr. Akpata and his alleged unholy romance with the APC that gives this group the understanding that the Labour Party candidate for the Edo 2024 governorship election, Mr. Olumide Osaigbovo Akpata, is not a serious contender but a mere pretender in the whole exercise.

*Edoma is a member of Edo Patriots for Good Governance. He signed this piece on behalf of Edo Patriots for Good Governance.