Election rerun: Southeast PDP on trial

RECENT developments from the various Governorship Election Tribunals and Court of Appeal are indicating that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South East geopolitical zone is on trial.
The leadership of the party in the zone has also affirmed that: ‘it is indeed a trying period for the party.”

At the conclusion of the 2015 general elections, the party, which had dominated the politics of the zone since its formation in 1998 continued its winning streak. It won in all the three states of Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu. It did not win governorship election of Imo State but won the three senatorial seats as well as sizable seats in the House of Representatives.

It made similar effort in Anambra State, where it clinched the three senatorial seats and shared the House of Representatives seats with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

However, recent developments from the courts are beginning to question the victory of the party in some elections in the zone, thereby threatening the political dominance it has exercised in the zone since Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999.

This followed the cancellation or outright nullification of victories of some of her candidates who ran in the last elections.
After loosing governorship positions of Anambra and Imo states to the APGA and APC, respectively, the party is on the verge of loosing Abia State among other seats it had occupied in the zone in the current dispensation.

Recently, the Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri nullified the election of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, declaring his major opponent in the election Dr Alex Otti of the APGA winner of the election and went ahead to order that he (Otti) be sworn in as governor.

The implication of the Court of Appeal ruling is that unless the Supreme Court reverses it, PDP may yet lose another state in the zone. If that becomes the case, then the party will be left with two states from five it had controlled in 1999.

While Governor Ikpeazu has held forth on the strength of the appeal, which he lodged at the Supreme Court and praying that he gets a favourable response, his other party men who contested in other elections will need to return to the polls to validate their elections.

One of such is the Anambra Central Senatorial seat won by the PDP’s Uche Ekwunife, which the Court of Appeal in Enugu nullified. The party’s candidate, who was earlier declared winner will now have to emerge from ‘a proper primary’ of the party and beat other contenders in the rerun election taking place soon, to return to the senate.

Ekwunife’s election was nullified following the appeal of the APGA candidate in the election, Chief Victor Umeh, who had queried her validity in participating in an election where she did not emerge from proper primary conducted by her party.

Her improper emergence followed the contentions that factionalised the party in the state in which two persons, Chief Ejike Oguebego and Mr. Ken Emeakayi who laid claims on the authentic leadership of the party, produced separate candidates for elective positions.

Already, there is confusion as to whether she would be the one to stand for the rerun or the candidate produced by the Oguebego-led faction for the election, Chief Anne Okonkwo. In fact, Okonkwo, who is also in court over the crisis trailing the emergence of candidates of the party in the election, has hailed the Court for voiding the election.

In Imo, another senator from the party, representing Imo North
(Okigwe Senatorial zone) Chief Athan Achonu had his election nullified when the Appeal Court agreed with the Accord Party’s (AP) candidate that its logo that was missing in the electoral sheets seriously affected the performance of her party in the election.

Those who have observed the Imo episode said it is like the Biblical “voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau”, where someone cunningly deprived another his due benefits in that the AP candidate, who went to court over the anomaly, may have been influenced and allegedly sponsored to do so by the ruling APC. Sources said she allegedly refused entreaties by the PDP to settle out of court.

In the same vein, PDP’s Senator, Mao Ohuabunwa, representing Abia North senatorial zone, will return to the polls to prove that he actually won the election that took him to the senate few months ago. The Court of Appeal, acting on the appeal filed by former Governor Orji Kalu, said the two terms former member of the House of Representatives, for Arochukwu-Ohafia constituency did not win the election which he claimed he won.

At a reception organized for Ohuabunwa in Enugu by Aro-Okeigbo Social Club of Nigeria, in which he was present, some interested party members who spoke attributed the cancellation of his election to the disunity and discontent in the party in the state and the need for oneness to enable the party move forward.

The question is, can the PDP win back these seats in the three states, where the central government is controlled by other political parties that are also interested in the exercise, and where members continue to bicker by the day?

Those who posed the question said the party has a serious issue at hand. Looking at Ohuabunwa in Abia North, they said that the annulment of Ikpeazu’s election has compounded his problems and on the long run, the party.
“Is it not when Ikpeazu pulls through his matter that he can talk about senatorial election,” a stalwart of the party told The Guardian

Another source said that the factional crisis in the Anambra PDP has not abated, adding that with Governor Rochas Okorocha taking firm control of the APC in Imo, it would not be an easy game for Achonu, despite of his popularity.
Vice Chairman of the party in the zone, Col. Austin Akobundu (rtd) acknowledged this much during the zonal meeting of the party in Enugu, where he said that the party, despite leading in the 2015 elections in the zone was faced with difficult times.

Stressing that the meeting was primarily on how to move the party forward, Akobundu told the stalwarts who gathered from the five states of the zone that it was not a tea-party any longer and that
members must stand and work for the success of the party’s candidates as well as put the house in order after the disputations arising from nominations from the various states.

Although Akobundu reaffirmed his hope and confidence in the nation’s judiciary, he said the party was facing “one of her challenges since its formation in 1998,” stressing that the members must engineer ways to restructure and as much as possible strengthens the party.
“We must look at the Ike Ekweremadu committee’s report to find the way forward, which we must adopt. We must sustain the growth of the party on members who have won elections. We must close ranks and go into rerun elections with every bit of energy we must muster. The challenge to return our members who have been dislodged is no longer an individual but a collective thing. How far we are able to deliver in these election determines the future of our party and its readiness to control power in the future,” he stated.

Akobundu said the first quarter of 2016 was very important to the party, “ as it will mark a defining moment in our collective quest to rebuild a party that will endure,” adding that the period was important because the party would hold congresses in the various states as well as the national level to elect new set of leaders to drive the way forward.

Apparently perturbed about the discontent such exercise had created in the past, he appealed that members jettisoned personal interests and pursue the overall interests of the party, as he promised that everything possible would be done to carry all along.

Also, he lamented the non-funding of the party’s budgets, insisting that governors, lawmakers as well as individuals in the party should be able to fund the activities of the party, especially in
states, which it has lost to opposition.

Akobundu reiterated the importance of Anambra State to the party, noting that how best the party manages to wriggle out of her present challenges would determine how it would win back the state, which it lost to APGA, in the 2017 general elections.

Ekweremadu, who has become the rallying point for the party in the zone, had expressed similar sentiment, when he told the gathering that the party faced similar challenge in Kogi, Rivers and Akwa-Ibom states where elections had been annulled.

He stated that such situation could easily dampen the morale of members, who had put a lot of effort to ensure victory for the party at the last election, stressing however, that he was not perturbed as he was certain that victory would come the way of the party in the end.