A member of the Labour Party, the ruling party in Ondo State, Mr Benson Enikuommehin, says the party deserves to lose the by-election in Ilaje area of the state, insisting that the administration failed to fulfil its promises to the people.
Mr Enikuommehin, who is from Ilaje, told Channels Television on Monday that though the election was declared inconclusive, poor infrastructural development in the area had angered the people, making them prefer to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He said that truth overrides partisanship and that it must be told.
“You get to a level in life where the truth must be spoken and I must do it. The election result so far is very competitive.
“The election went well in my area. We voted but unfortunately, my ward lost to PDP. That is the truth.
“We have tried. We put in our best. But looking at the result, there is a close margin and it appears to me that the PDP is well determined this time around to address the issue as it were.
“Election is about winning the interest if the people and I make bold to own up here that if we had done the needful, if the interest of the people had been fully satisfied in terms of infrastructural development, even up to 30 per cent, we may not be having this challenge,” he said.
The Ilaje area is an oil producing area but, according to Mr Enikuommehin, no new project had been put in place to alleviate the suffering of the people in the area.
“About 2 billion Naira comes to Ondo State every month as 13 per cent derivation and 40 per cent of the derivation is to go to the oil producing area development commission and if you work it out that will give you about 800 million Naira.
“For the past five years, we have complained. We have asked the government to do something that will assuage Ilaje people if the government will win the area.
“The governor flagged-off a road project three days to the election and he expects the people to be happy about that. They are not fools and that was why we were beaten in my ward. The person that lays the golden egg must benefit from it. What transpired on Saturday in Ilaje and Ese Odo is a reaction of inactivity of government,” he said.
On the chances of getting the people’s vote through persuasion since the election was declared inconclusive by the electoral commission, Mr Enikuommehin said the chances of winning the hearts of people that had not benefited from the government in the last five years was slim.
“I pray my party will be able to scale through at the end of the day but if we don’t, it is a lesson for us.
“If we lose in some wards, it will be okay because the people will vote for you based on what you have done.
“I am a member of the Labour Party but I must be sincere. What I know about doing politics in Nigeria has to do with two issues; the development of the people and the benefit for the people.
“Apart from the Sola light I brought into my community, in Ose Elu, when I was a commissioner of the Niger Delta Development Commission, there is no single foot bridge.”
He stressed that he had written to the administration advising it to deliver on its promises to the people but nothing came out of it, describing the Labour Party as: “a government of one person, by one person and for one person”, referring to the governor of the state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko.
Mr Enikuommehin, who is also a lawyer, said that the national leadership of the party was privy to the matter and that they had not done anything.