Election Petitions Divide Southeast Governors

Fear of unexpected outcome from election petitions have been blamed for the inability of governors of the Southeast geopolitical zone to come together under the aegis of Southeast Governors Forum.

Investigation by The Guardian revealed that nearly eight months after the last occupant of the office of chairman, Senator Theodore Orji, served out his tenure, no attempt has been made by the zone’s governors to select a replacement or meet regularly.

Sources close to the Southeast zonal office of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), confided in The Guardian that the Governors’ Forum could not be revived because the party, which used to be in power at the centre, lost the presidential election.

He added that being in the majority, none of the three governors produced on the party’s platform was free of election-related challenges to talk of convening a meeting or electing a chairman for Southeast governors forum.

Giving instances of the various encumbrances against PDP governors in the zone, the source said: “Here in Enugu, all is not well despite the false confidence being exuded by Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, because Senator Ayogu Eze has continued to rebuff entreaties by elders and influential stakeholders from Nsukka cultural zone on him to drop his pre-election matter over Ugwuanyi’s nomination in the court.

“Then in nearby Ebonyi, Governor David Umahi knew from day one that he had a very awful case and started romancing leaders of All Progressives Congress (APC), to save his job. We gathered that his recent invitation of the Secretary to Government of Federation (SGF), Mr. Babachir Lawal, to commission some projects in the state was ostensibly to ask the SGF to intervene further in the multiple cases against his election at both the Appeal Court and Supreme Court.”

The source disclosed that the Ebonyi governor is facing a pre-election matter relating to his nomination, pointing out that while the former Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, is challenging the primary election that produced Umahi, at the Appeal Court, the governorship candidate of Labour Party, Dr. Edward Nkwegu, has taken his petition to the Supreme Court.

“Prof. Chukwu’s suit is currently on appeal after the Abakaliki High Court ruled that although Umahi’s nomination did not comply with the guidelines of PDP, the petitioner lacked locus having not participated in the primary,” he explained, adding that Umahi has continued to show indifference to PDP activities since his inauguration.

The source added: “So, immediately the Supreme Court delivered the judgment in Benue Governorship matter, where it held that only a member can question the primary election of a political party, Umahi became apprehensive and sought SGF’s intervention.”

While expressing fears that the situation in Abia State may further worsen the precarious position of the party in the zone, the PDP chieftain, who hails from Anambra State, pointed out that the culture of impunity and imposition of candidates has become a source of embarrassment to PDP in Southeast.

“All these make it improbable for any governor to start championing the idea of reconstructing the Southeast Governors Forum,” he added, stressing that although Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State seems to be free from election hangover, his hands are filled with domestic problems.