By Olusegun Olanrewaju, Linus Aleke and Jacob Ogodo

The a record 24 women seeking to be state governors in Saturday’s elections, the electoral race seems to be tight.

Twenty-four women will be lining up in the trench tomorrow, in an electoral contest arrayed against the 28 sitting and aspiring returnee states’ helmsmen cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to run for the governorship.

In contrast, however, the adjunct house of election vote will be much more embracing, involving all the 36 states of the country.

Already, the 18 political parties presenting candidates for the elections have been working on each other, with endorsements wrapped up last-minute, to ease the battle for them.

*24 women in race to govern states

However, of the 24 contesting among the womenfolk, only two of them would be on the launch pad for any of the ‘big three’ parties – the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the emergent force, the Labour Party (LP).

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A report attributed the low number of female candidates with tickets, as well as few female candidacies in the fringe parties to the general tendency of low representation of women in political offices in Nigeria.

The states showcasing women governorship aspirants include Aishatu Dahiru (APC, Adamawa State); who defeated a former boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu and Abia, is one of the few states that has two female governorship candidates.

The women seeking to be governor of this South-East state are Gladys Johnson-Ogbuneke of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Lancaster Okoro of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP).

Beatrice Itubo is flying the flag for the LP in Rivers State, while in Zamfara, Hadiza Usman flies the flag of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

*11 govs seeking re-election

Out of the 28 states where elections will hold on Saturday, 11 serving governors are seeking re-election while 17 outgoing governors will complete their constitutional two-term limits of eight years by May 29.

Those seeking re-election are Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State; Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); Babagana Zulum (Borno); Muhammad Inuwa (Gombe); Mai Mala Buni (Yobe); Bello Matawalle (Zamfara) and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara).

Others include, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State; Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos); Dapo Abiodun (Oyo) and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.

*Endorsements galore

In the final build-up to tomorrow’s election, parties have been busy securing last-minute endorsements, especially from the hitherto ‘deregistered’ parties by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Top on the list of endorsement-wielding state chief executives in the political furnace tomorrow are Delta State’s Sherriff Oborevwori, the PDP candidate flying the party’s umbrella flag.

By last night, it was gathered that no fewer than eight governorship candidates in Delta State yesterday had adopted Oborevwori, the state’s former assembly speaker, for the Saturday election.

His APC counterpart, Ovie Omo-Agege has enjoyed several endorsements with many coming from the camps of the ruling PDP in the state.

In Ebonyi State, an APC-ruled enclave, Outgoing state governor, David Umahi, has been busy campaigning for his self-propelled candidate, Francis Nwifuru, to the chagrin of the opposition PDP.

Preparations snowballed into a hard tackle yesterday as a chieftain of the PDP, Julius Oji, took on the governor to cease making inciting statements about the people of the Edda clan in the Afikpo South local government area of the state.

Oji, one of the conveners of Edda Identity, a socio-cultural group in the area, Umahi’s berated Umahi’s recent utterances which he said were capable of provoking intra-communal war among the people.

Umahi had earlier rode into a storm on Wednesday when he was quoted as advising the people of the Edda clan to bridge up their failure to properly deliver the state to the party governing the state.

In Rivers State, the outgoing Governor Nyesom Wike is working hard to ensure that Sim Fubara succeeds him as governor.

Wike is also tapping on the back of the APC, which he muscled in the presidential primaries to victory in the race, to an encore in tomorrow’s challenge.

Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, was also a beneficiary of the gale of the last-minute endorsements that have characterised the rush for the gubernatorial and National Assembly