Nigeria Content Online

In Benue, the
presidential election votes will be split between Nuhu Ribadu,
candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria and President Goodluck
Jonathan, the incumbent, considering last Saturday’s voting pattern.

At the National
Assembly elections which held last week in some zones in the state, the
PDP won the two contested senatorial seats and six of the nine
contested Federal House of Reps seats.

However, an
analysis of the voting pattern shows that PDP won marginally on
aggregate. The PDP polled 373,775 votes, out of the 769,281 total votes
cast, representing 48.6 per cent of the total votes cast. Their closest
rival, ACN, polled an aggregate of 351,209 votes out of the total votes
cast, representing 45.6 per cent of the total votes cast.

The All Nigeria
People’s Party (ANPP) came a distant third with an aggregate of 29,710,
representing 3.8 per cent of the total votes cast in the election. The
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) scored 10,740, a meagre I.4 per
cent share of the total votes cast.

Battle for Benue

The contest is thus
visibly between the PDP and ACN in Benue. The PDP has held the
frontline position in Benue politics since 1999 but its grip on power
is being fiercely challenged.

Some of the
masterminds of the PDP’s previous victories now lead the ACN in the
state. That notwithstanding, loyalists of the PDP in the state believe
the party will keep winning without these masterminds.

The PDP held a
closed-door caucus meeting in Markurdi on Thursday, where the leaders
agreed to go back to their localities to work harder and improve the
size of the party’s victory in the presidential elections.

A political analyst, Benjamin Friday, described the presidential poll as a make or mar one for the ACN.

“If the party loses
this time again, then the people will start thinking they are not as
strong as they claim and that will affect them in the gubernatorial
elections,” Mr. Friday said in Gboko.

“The Tiv speaking
north has always decided the political future of the state with their
lager electorate, and they are the one leading this opposition. So, it
is going to be a strong battle between PDP and ACN on Saturday,” he
added.

Benue INEC ready

Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission in the state says it is ready for the presidential polls on Saturday.

Jacob Iyanda,
public relations officer of the commission in Benue, said on Thursday
evening that the state has recieved all the required materials from the
national INEC office and has started the disbursment of same, including
sensitive materials.

“Everything has
arrived, and we have started distributing sensitive materials to the
various local governments,” Mr. Iyanda said.

He added that the
materials arrived quite early from Abuja and they are doing same for
the local government areas so that they too will be properly prepared
for the Saturday polls.

This week’s
distribution comes a day earlier than last week’s. However, last week,
some far flung villages complained of late arrival of materials at
polling centres.

Mr. Ayanda said the commision has concluded the retraining of its officers who will participate in the elections.

The Benue INEC
office has also been put under heavy security survilance by a joint
security team of the Army and Police, ahead of the polls.