LAST Saturday’s election in Lagos was
unarguably the toughest governorship poll
ever held in the state since the return to
democratic rule and proved the sagacity and
strength of the political leader of the state,
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Indications that the 2015 governorship
election would be tough emerged early. It
became very obvious after the March 28
Presidential and National Assembly elections
where the PDP gained a lot of electoral
mileage in the state.

Though General Muhammadu Buhari (retd),
the presidential candidate of the APC won in
Lagos, his margin of victory was not very
significant.
Indeed, the PDP picked a record five federal
constituencies in the House of Representatives
in that election provoking recrimination from
top APC leaders against some party leaders in
the region where the PDP won.

The development also provoked intense
campaigns especially from leaders of the APC
who were not comfortable with the PDP’s
buckling up.
Their efforts were, however, almost derailed
after the Oba of Lagos, HRM Oba Rilwanu
Akiolu, at a meeting with some Igbo
traditional rulers in his palace, admonished
Igbo in Lagos over their seeming inclination
towards the PDP?

The Oba’s comments provoked outrage in the
polity especially from Igbo and some non-
indigenes, who vowed to vote for Mr Jimi
Agbaje, the PDP governorship standard bearer.
Thus, amid fear of violence, the stage was set
a very tough duel.
At the end of the day, the elections lived up to
the billing and the people voted for the
candidates of their choice. The exercise was
largely peaceful and credible.

Low voters turnout


The only drawbacks were low voters’ turnout
and minor hitches in a couple of places.
Aside panning out as the keenest
governorship and state legislative polls since
1999, the PDP also won seven seats in the
40-member Lagos State House of Assembly.
The opposition party also narrowed the gap
with which the APC beat it in the presidential
election with many voters in Amuwo-Odofin,
Ojo, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Oshodi-Isolo and
Surulere voting for what they chorused
‘’Lagoon straight,’’ which means Agbaje in
reference to Oba Akiolu’s threat.

Prof Isaac Adewole, INEC, returning officer for
Lagos State governorship election, announced
Ambode as winner having polled 811,994
votes Agbaje’s 659,788 votes.
APC won in 15 local councils while PDP won
in five. Ambode beat Agbaje with a margin of
152,206 votes which is lower than Buhari’s
160,133 votes triumph over Jonathan.
Past polls: The 2015 exercise is the PDP best
performance ever. The 2003 election is only
second. And both polls, the winning party
relied on the voting strength of Alimosho
Local Council to sail through....

Among the 20 local councils of Lagos State,
seven have a pedigree for churning out huge
number of votes during elections because they
have populations of over million people each.
These councils, according to the Lagos Bureau
of Statistics, are Somolu (1,025,123 people),
Agege (1,0033,064), Oshodi-Isolo (1,134,548),
Surulere (1,274,362), Mushin (1,321,517),
Ajeromi-Ifelodun (1,435,295) and Alimosho
(2,495,896)

In terms of elections and bloc votes, Mushin,
Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Alimosho constitute the
three electoral pillars of Lagos of which
Alimosho, unarguably, is the election Player
or decider any day. It is difficult to win any
election in Lagos without the three councils
especially Alimosho.

In fact, considered as a microcosm of Lagos,
any governorship candidate that wins in
Alimosho is as good as having won the entire
state.
The impact of Alimosho as an electoral
warehouse was not very visible in the 1999
governorship election because Tinubu recorded
a landslide victory. He polled 841,732 votes
while Chief Dapo Sarumi (PDP), his nearest
challenger, scored 184,900 votes and Alhaji
Nosirudeen Kekere-Ekun of the All Peoples
Party (APP) had 122,743 votes.

Its impact in local elections did not become
very obvious until in 2003 when Asiwaju Bola
Ahmed Tinubu, who contested on the banner
of the AD rode on the back of the area to get
his second term as governor of Lagos.
Coming at a time that the PDP electoral
tsunami swept away five of the six AD
governors, Tinubu’s 2003 victory was not only
unique but also consolatory.

Flash back to the open arena of the Birrel
Avenue, Yaba Lagos office of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Dateline: April 22, 2003.
Journalists, foreign and local observers and
agents of the governorship candidates among
others waited patiently as results from the 20
local councils trickled in. From the results,
Tinubu and late Engr Funsho Williams of the
PDP were running a very tight race. It was
becoming increasingly difficult to predict
where the pendulum of victory would swing.
By the time results from 19 councils had come
in, Tinubu had won in 14 while Williams won
in five(Mainland, Badagry, Ajeromi-Ifelodun,
Amuwo-Odofin and Ojo).

Electoral umpire
In terms of number of votes, Tinubu (801,311
votes) was leading Williams (671,745 votes)
but there was anxiety and the fear on the
faces of the party agents and stakeholders
was palpable.

Tinubu’s 129,566 votes marginal lead could be
levelled out as about 200,000 votes were
being awaited from Alimosho.
And then it happened! Alimosho electoral
officers arrived with the bloc votes. Observers
listened with rapt attention as the electoral
umpire reeled out the figures. AD supporters
erupted in wild jubilation when it was
announced that Tinubu polled 110,302 votes
in Alimosho, the highest in the state, to PDP’s
68,751 votes.

Tinubu won with 911,613 votes to Williams’
740,506 votes, a margin of 171,107 votes, in
what passed as Tinubu’s most hard-won
victory since he bestrode the political
landscape of the state in the early 1990s.
Since the 2003 election, Alimosho has
remained an electoral world bank, giving bloc
votes to its preferred parties and candidates.

In 2007, Alimosho gave Mr Babatunde
Fashola of the Action Congress (AC) 207,112
votes (25 per cent) on his way to winning his
first term with 828,400 votes. PDP’s Musiliu
Obanikoro got 86,096 votes in Alimosho and
389,088 overall. The closest local council to
Alimosho in 2007 was Mushin where Fashola
had 61,683 votes and Obanikoro scored
21,719 votes.

In 2011, Fashola got 156,384 votes in
Alimosho while Ade Dosunmu of the PDP
polled 33,750 votes in the area. Once again,
Mushin was the next ranking council.
Voters in Mushin gave Fashola 129,655 votes
and handed Dosunmu 13,881 votes.


www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/lagos-how-ambode-won/

Cc lalasticlala

Good just in case it makes front page

Then the area must be the beautiful bride everybody want to court.

Tinubu was wise to have invested heavily(politically) in alimosho and mushin.

Alimosho my HOME...
Ambo, we're waiting for our fair share of development

akins56:
Tinubu was wise to have invested heavily(politically) in alimosho and mushin.

Tinubu na Master Planner.