The dilemma of PDP in Enugu font size   Print Email  | DISQUS_COMMENTS |  Jude Ossai - Enugu Rate this item 1 (0 votes) POLITICAL tempo in Enugu State is getting higher each passing day just like other states, where party primaries have held in the country. Indeed, the Enugu politics has taken a different dimension as the battle for who occupies the Lion Building (Government House) in 2015 has been narrowed to a section of the state, following the withdrawal of Anayo Onwuegbu who hails from Oji- River axis. As it is, there are three figures contending to succeed the incumbent governor. One of them is Governor Sullivan Chime, who is on the verge of completing his second tenure. Others include: Senator Ayogu Eze and Honourable Ifeanyi Ugwunayi, who are yet to settle their differences on who should be the standard-bearer of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Meanwhile, Chief Okey Ezea has been given the nod to fly the flag of the All Progressives Congress (APC), having returned as an unopposed candidate of the opposition party during their governorship primaries Investigation revealed that the rationale for rotating the governorship seat among the three senatorial zones by the founding fathers of the Coal City State, was to reduce tension and acrimony within the political class during elections. Further investigations revealed that the current squabbles in the Enugu PDP, again, reared its head last Monday during a meeting of its governorship aspirants with the Election Committee chaired by Mr Asara Asara. In attendance were Senator Eze, Honourable Ugwuanyi; Honourable Eugene Odo; Dr Sam Onyishi; Mr Chinedu Onu; Professor Onyeke Onyeke and Chief Anayo Onwuegbu. It was gathered that Senator Eze had expressed discomfort over the general situation in the party. He said, “Mr Chairman, I have a complaint to make bordering on what is going on with the accreditation process, where elected delegates, who should be part of today’s process, are not given accreditation, especially people from Enugu North and Enugu East senatorial zone not Enugu West. The people from Enugu North and East were turned back. But, I the people from Enugu West were allowed to do accreditation. I did not keep the list of the people from West but, I found out that the delegates from Enugu West elected on November 1, were able to do their accreditation and were allowed. The people from the two other zones (Enugu East and North) were told that their names were not on the list sent from Abuja. That is why I want to see to cross check the list that you have to see whether it is the same list of delegates certified by the court from the November 1 ward congress. I won’t take your time, just to show you the areas of difference since we have come to agree on some issues. The chairman (Asara) interjected: “No we won’t be able to give you the list, but give us the list you have so that we can use it to cross check the one we have here. (Ayogu Eze went and gave him the list). The list giving to us by the national secretariat is what we are going to use to conduct the election. I just want to see the list he is complaining of. This one is the certified true copy from the court. What we have here is not what you have. What you have is a true certified copy of delegates list from the federal high court, Abuja, but it is not what we have here.” Ayogu continued: “In that case, it will be difficult as a law abiding person; it is not possible for me as someone who knows the process of the law to go and submit myself to a process, where my own delegates, who were duly elected were disenfranchised before the beginning of the process. I want to put it on record in your presence that I will go to the duly elected delegates recognised by the courts and which the national executive of the party recognised as duly elected as the ones who can actually elect any candidate. Anything outside that, in my own opinion, is abuse of process of court and abuse of our law.” Equally worried, another aspirant, Samuel Maduka Onyishi said: “Some of my supporters, who were part of the election held, in Enugu West Senatorial zone from Ezeagu Local Government, voted for the person that won the senatorial election, were asked to go back today that they are not supposed to be part of today’s election. Similarly, people from my own local government, who also are part of the delegates were asked to go back that they were not part of the election.” It was observed that at the Allen Hotel meeting, Eze and Onyishi were said to have shown some discomfort. Professor Onyeke Onyeke, who later withdrew from the race, also spoke in anger: “My remark will be brief and advisory because we are in a democracy, where people take it as an abstract. I want the aspirants themselves, including myself to know that anybody who takes a form to run for the governorship of Enugu State has something or many things good for the people of Enugu State. “I want this message to be taking to the headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party, because as we are talking now, I am sitting down here with two court cases and none has being observed. The first one is that the chairman that was addressed as the state chairman is not recognised by the party and court. “The man that was recognised as the chairman of the party in Enugu is Elder David Aja. I can’t see Elder Aja here, which means any exercise that is being carried out here without Aja, is illegal, null and void. Secondly, the observation made by the distinguished Senator is well taken; that decision is already being taken if the people that Enugu people elected to participate in the gubernatorial primaries are not on the list that came from the national secretariat. “We are yet to be advised that the decision of the court has been changed with respect to who our state chairman is. We are yet to be advised with respect to why a delegate will be qualified to elect candidates to our state House of Assembly, qualified to House of Representatives and Senate but that delegate is not qualified to elect candidate for the governorship election. Professor Onyeke, who said he had been part of resuscitating the party to a point it was now noted “I served Dr Ezekwesile Nwodo, I served Dr Bamanga Tukur and for this to happen to my own state, I will say that the people of Enugu; the media is here with us and they are going to publish what is going on and the PDP will not be better for it if they hear that three out of the five contestants in Enugu, moved in troops with their supporters to another political party. Apparently disturbed by the avalanche of complaints, King Asara began to plead with the aggrieved aspirants. “Our business here is to conduct the governorship primary of our party. Our mandate is to come to Enugu and conduct primaries. We want to be democratic and that is why we said we want to interface with you so as to be able to know ourselves one-on-one before we move to the venue of the primaries. “If there is a list that has been certified by the court, that list is not before us. If any list was given to us, we would have used it to conduct the primaries. The list is not before us. The list you have is a certified true copy of the list of the Federal High Court, Abuja. “What is being given to us is the list we have here. We are not aware that people, who voted in the House of Assembly, House of Representatives and Senate, are not the people who will vote here today. So, what is before us is to go and conduct this election. The royal father tried to persuade the aggrieved aspirants as he said: “As we finish this primary, there is another committee called Appeal Committee and you still have to go a step further to present the matter to the committee. So, I want to appeal to you not to say that we will be moving out. I want say that God is the giver of power and authority. “After the governorship, there is this sense of belonging that my party has won. After one governor, another governor will come. Sullivan has been there and there is going to be another governor. I want us to exercise patience with the party as you go to the next level and I believe that your matter will be sorted out. The list they gave to us is the one we are going to use to conduct the primaries. We have been able to play our part by interacting with you. I can assure you that if you bring your grievances before the Appeal Committee, they will be looked into and the party will take their final decision.” Despite the appeal from Asara, Eze went ahead to meet his delegates at Filbon Hotel, where he won in the primaries conducted, while the favoured candidate of Governor Chime and Senator Ike Ekweremadu held a parallel primary at the Nnamadi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu. Will the same invisible force alleged to have tampered with the delegates list not going to stall justice and fair-play? Already, the trio of Eze, Onyeke and Onyishi are threatening fire and brim until what they called justice is done on the matter.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 02:02:31 +0000
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