Updates from Anambra 2013

The Guardian reports: THE buildup to the November 16, 2013 Anambra State governorship poll produced many spectacles recently. Those who believe that the election would not witness incidents were proved wrong. As things stand, any talk about issues dominating the election simulates a search for a pin in a haystack. Voters are sucked in by sentiments and ego clashes between godfathers and veteran candidates.

Ever since the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) launched their electioneering campaigns, the atmosphere in the state has remained hot. Compounding the charged atmosphere were claims of attempts to rig the election, destruction of billboards, question of double registration as well as the drama over which faction of PDP was to collect the soft copy of the voters’ register. But prior to the drama at the State Secretariat of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Awka, another intriguing spectacle was played out at Court of Appeal, Enugu division. The pre-election matter between Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo and three others namely, INEC, Anambra Resident Electoral Commission (REC) and Mr. Peter Obi, could not be heard. Suspecting foul play or a semblance of judicial corruption, the applicant, Okonkwo wrote to the Presiding Justice, Justice A. J. Abdulkadir, complaining against the manipulation of the cause list. In the letter titled: ‘Application for a date in court to hear urgently my pre-election suit no. CA/E/279/2012’ the applicant explained that the letter was a last resort for the presiding Justice to use his high office to direct that a definite hearing date be given to the matter. Okonkwo explained to Justice Abdulkadir that, “this case was adjourned in the Court’s record by the agreement of all the representatives of the parties on record on June 4, 2013 as borne out in the proceeding of the Court dated June 4, 2013 marked annex ‘A’”. The letter, which was copied to counsels of the three respondents, Ike Ugwuoke (1st and 2nd) and Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, (Peter Obi), recalled how on the return date of September 23, 2013, the court did not hold and by agreement of the parties, the matter was fixed for October 14, 2013 by the Court registrar, Mr. B. Ogbuehi. “Sir, on the 14/10/2013, I came to Court and the matter was not on the course list for the day due to ‘manipulation’ of cases by the officers of Court. Respectfully my Lord, the facts of this matter are in the public interest and notoriously in the national media and I do not want to be pushed to act out of desperation due to what I perceive as under hand deals by court officials, which you may not be aware of,” the letter stated adding that fair hearing is a right which the court ought to respect and give the matter an expeditious hearing without further delay. Okonkwo further noted that since the first and second respondents, “have acted recklessly in the subject matter before the Court of Appeal, by releasing the election guideline for the Anambra State scheduled governorship election, I am still hopeful that a date be given for the hearing of the pending matter.” Citing a similar case between Agbakoba and INEC, Okonkwo added in his letter: “The Supreme Court decreed that once a person who is aggrieved or injured by the action of another goes to court to seek redress, the Court must jealously guard its jurisdiction to hear and determine the case to its finality.”

The appellant prayed Justice Abdulkadir to fix the matter as soon as possible “before the November 16, 2013, the date unconstitutionally fixed by the 1st and 2nd respondents in order to over reach appellant in the pending motion for injunction in Appeal No. CA/E/279/2013 adjourned with the consent of all parties on June 4, 2013 before INEC’s self-help to undermine justice and due process of law.”

Voters’ Register: The parties’ touchstone?

THE stress may not be in the number, but the way some political parties scramble for the soft copy of the voters’ register, it looked as if the registrar has a special purpose. INEC disclosed that a total of 1,784,536 persons were registered in Anambra State for the election. Presenting the statistics at INEC State Headquarters in Awka, Mr. E. Akem, assisted by the REC, Professor Onukaogu and the supervising National Commissioner, chief Lawrence Nwuruku, disclosed that at the completion of the 2011 voter registration exercise, the Commission released tentative total registered voters of 2, 011, 746 adding that since then, the data capture process had undergone a series of processes. With a total polling units of 4608 in the state, Akem said a breakdown of the figure reveals that voters aged 18-35 years were 52 percent, 36-50 years were 25 percent, while those within the 51-69 years bracket were 18 percent and those above 70 years occupying five percent of the total number. “Additionally, the number of females that registered in Anambra was 900, 701 and this accounts for 50.5percent, while the males reduced in number and accounted for 49.5 percent,” he added saying that on local council basis, Ogbaru local council recorded the highest number of voters with over 139,000 eligible voters. Earlier in his address, the REC, Prof. Onukaogu, while congratulating the 23 political parties on the way they had conducted their campaigns so far, assured that the commission was poised to conduct a credible poll.

However, as the INEC officials made to release the soft copies of the voters’ register to the leaders of the 23 parties that fielded governorship candidates for the November 16 poll, two persons showed up as state chairmen of People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The hesitation by the REC to give out the list to any of the claimants would have led to an incident if not that INEC national commissioner, Nwuruku reasoned with the REC to release the documents to both Prince Ken Emeakayi and Ejike Oguebego, on the premise that it was but a public document. But irked by the attempt to undermine his leadership of PDP in Anambra State, Prince Emeakayi called for the removal of the REC. In an interview with journalists Emeakayi called on the INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, to remove Professor Chukwuemeka Onukaogu as Anambra REC for what he called the REC’s alleged bias in the discharge of the functions of the commission in the state. Emeakayi regretted that despite various proofs and court judgments concerning PDP in the state, especially on the issue of its rightful leadership in the state, Onukaogu still wants to create confusion by recognising Oguebego. He stated that by his action the state REC was causing more harm than good in the way he takes stand on issues concerning the governorship election in the state. Insisting on his calls for Onukaogu’s removal, Emeakayi said: “We are calling on INEC to, as a matter of urgency, take the REC away from this state before he messes up the governorship election. I want all political parties to rise up on this issue; Onukaogu cannot be in Anambra perpetually. He has been causing confusion and committing all sorts of atrocities. If he has done well in Anambra State, he should be taken to another state to continue such good works.”

Dog fights

AS APGA and APC continued their dogfight over the governorship, the Labour Party (LP) took a swipe at Governor Peter Obi, tasking him to emulate Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos by apologising to Anambra people for wasting away their golden opportunity to raise the profile of the state in the past eight years. The state chairman of the party, Sam Oraegbunam, said a closer analysis of the voters’ register shows that LP would clinch the governorship, pointing out that youths and women which are the mainstay of Ifeanyi Ubah’s supporters numbered in the majority. Oraegbunam counseled Governor Obi to use the remainder of his tenure to make peace with Anambra people instead of prancing about in a vain effort to showcase his former accounting officer in Fidelity Bank. Oraegbunam added that the central issue in the governorship election should be the ability of the candidate to connect with the people, saying that godfathers are no longer welcome by Anambra voters. “What Governor Peter Obi is doing amounts to desperation; he should stop wasting the dying days of his tenure trying to impose a successor,” he declared.

And as APC haymaker, Senator Chris Ngige upped his campaigns, accusing the APGA government of defacing his campaign billboards and making plans to rig the election. But no sooner had the Obiano campaign organisation described Ngige’s allegations as unfounded, the allegation of double registration against the APGA governorship candidate, Obiano, went viral on the Internet. Yet, the Anambra REC dismissed the claims, stressing that if there was such a thing, the INEC will issue a statement. The report by one Dr. Nnamdi Umeasiegbu in an online site had disclosed that the APGA candidate “faces disqualification as a result of the double voter’s registration.” But in a telephone conversation with The Guardian, Prof. Onukaogu said that as is the pattern with the commission, if such a thing happened the commission would not waste time to issue a statement, adding that he has learnt to be very careful with the Anambra governorship to avoid cheap blackmail. Also, a senior staff of INEC in Abuja, who pleaded anonymity said for such a claim to hold water it must be proved that the candidate’s thumb prints were clear on both registration exercises in Lagos and Aguleri, pointing out that because of hiccups at the commencement of the voter registration exercise using the DDC machines, some voters were asked to go and reregister. The source noted that instances of double registration are usually noticed by INEC, stressing that there were critical elements such as thumb printing, face legibility and names that show that a particular registration was complete or incomplete. He added that Obiano’s case might fall into the category of incomplete registration, if there was any such thing.

Meanwhile governorship candidate of the Maxi Okwu faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Dr. Chike Obidigbo, has explained that he did not attend the campaign flag off of rival Willie Obiano after attending the reconciliation meeting convoked by Obi at the Government House, Awka preparatory to the flag off. Obidigbo said he told the gathering at the Government Lodge, including Obi, Victor Umeh and other governorship aspirants that he was in court to validate his candidacy, adding that it would not be proper for him to sidle with Obiano’s event when he was optimistic of activating his mandate.  While repudiating the belated rapprochement and superficial fence-mending sought by the meeting at the Governor’s lodge, Obidigbo recalled how he declared before the assemblage his decision to pursue his litigation to the last gate of justice. He added: “I made it clear before everybody at the meeting that I am in court and that there was no way I should grace the campaign flag off. If that meeting was contrived to achieve reconciliation I explained there and then that a lot of injustice and willful harm had been done. In my remark I said the system that threw up Obiano was not transparent.” He said that until the various cases pertaining to the APGA primaries are disposed of in the Courts, any calculation about who might win the election would remain a blind guess.

PDP: Still Waiting for a compromise candidate

AT the time of filing this report, the National Working Committee (NWC) of PDP fixed a dinner, ostensibly to articulate issues about the rightful candidate for the party in the coming election. However, sources told The Guardian that instead of announcing the name of a compromise candidate at the dinner, the party may explain to stakeholders why it would maintain the status quo until the courts decided cases pending over the matter. “What it means is that Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu’s name may have been retained and the party would urge others to work for the party’s victory at the poll. But the fact remains that if the Appeal Court should read its judgment, Ukachukwu goes. And in any case, the Supreme Court may ask for the consolidation of the cases for a conclusive judgment. The whole scenario may point to a possible shift in the election timetable,” the source stated. The source disclosed that a former governorship aspirant, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu would be unveiled as the Director General of Ukachukwu campaign organisation adding that other strategic players in the campaign team would also be revealed at the dinner fixed for 9.00pm last Friday.