Falling Like Nine Pins – And the Pregnant State of Anambra December 28, 2006 | posted by Nigerian Muse (Archives)

 

 

SUNDAY MUSINGS: Falling Like Nine Pins – And the Pregnant State of Anambra

 

By

 

Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD

Alukome@comcast.net

 

March 13, 2005

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Back on or around June 12, 2003, in a moment of exasperation, I put out two essays/compilations entitled:  “Anambra’s Multiple Legislators - 6 Senators Instead of 3”.  And “Inside Story of the Local Civilian Coup in Anambra”

 

http://www.dawodu.com/aluko54.htm

 

http://www.dawodu.com/aluko62.htm

 

 

At that time, in an unfolding political drama, courtesy INEC, one set of candidates (allegedly sponsored by political merchant Chris Uba, governor Chris Ngige’s so-called “godfather”) was substituted overnight for another set of authentic candidates – all of the same ruling party PDP – and by “gofment majic”, the late-night set  became trumpeted as the winners.

 

In fact, the first Daily Times reports of the elections had the CORRECT set of names, amidst protests from APGA:

 

April_2003.htm" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; text-underline: single"> http://www.nigerianmuse.com/important_documents/?u=Anambra_poll_results_April_2003.htm

 

 

The following table will help to clarify the sometimes confusing names, how the “substituted candidates”  (largely Chief Chris-Uba-sponsored ) have been falling like nine pins before the tribunals being:

 

 

S/N	Election Date	Race	Anambra Constituency	Real Candidate	Substituted Candidate	Tribunal Action	Appeal Action
1	April 12, 2003	Senate	Anambra North	Mrs. Joy Emordi	Emmanuel Obiajulu Anosike	Awka; For Emordi – January 21, 2004	Enugu: For Emordi – February 21, 2005
2	April 12, 2003	Senate	Anambra Central	Chief Ben Ndi Obi	Sir Ikechukwu G. Abana	Awka: For Obi – August 8, 2003	Obi upheld
3	April 12, 2003	Senate	Anambra South	Chief. C.Nicholas Ukachukwu	Dr. Ugochukwu Ubah	Awka: For Ukachukwu - July 18, 2003	Enugu: For Ubah – February 26, 2004
4	April 12, 2003	House	Nnewi North/South/Ekwusigo	Cyril Maduabum	Dr. Harry Ohanezi		Maduabum upheld
5	April 12, 2003	House	Aguata	Nze Chidi Duru	Dr. Okey Onemuo	Awka: For Duru – August 15, 2003	Nze Chidi Duru ?
6	April 12, 2003	House	Onitsha North/South	Gozie Agbakoba	Mrs. Jesse Belonwu		Agbakoba upheld
7	April 12, 2003	House	Orumba North/South	Ben Nwankwo	Nedu Ugochukwu		Nedu Ugochukwu?
8	April 12, 2003	House	Idemili North/South	Dr. C.C. Okeke	Jerry Ugokwe		Jerry Ugokwe?
9.	April 12, 2003	House	Awka North/South	Chief Osita C. Egwuatu	Chudi Offodile		For Egwuatu – February 23, 2005
10	April 12, 2003	House	Ihiala	Chukwumaeze Nzeribe	?		Chukwumaeze Nzeribe?
11	April 12, 2003	House	Oyi Ayamelum	Emmamuel Anosike	Celestine Ughanze		Celestine Ughanze?
12	April 12, 2003	House	Anambra East/West	Chief Alphonsus Ubanesse Igbeke	Emmanuel Anosike/ Raphael Okeke		Enugu: For Igbeke – February 24, 2005
13	April 12, 2003	House	Ogbaru	Chief K.C. Enemuo	Uzoka Okwudili		Uzoka Okwudili?
14	April 12, 2003	House	Anioacha/Njikoka/Dukofia	Mike A.O. Nwocha	?		Mike A.O. Nwocha?

 

 

I could not even swear that the above table is 100% accurate, because the moves are dizzying – but that is my best list !

 

First, one cannot but notice a concession:  of the three senators, Chris Uba’s brother Dr. Ugochukwu Uba, was left in place.

 

Secondly – and more importantly – the time between the actual election (April 2003) and the final settlement of these issues (February/March 2005) is atrocious, and violates all sense of justice.  In fact, all such cases should be disposed off within three months of the elections, and much preferably before any one of the contesting parties is allowed to seat in parliament.

 

 

THE FINAL SCRIPT

 

The final script is simple: now that Ngige has been officially expelled from the ruling PDP, and following Uba’s declaration both privately (to the President) and publicly (by letter to the world) that he rigged Ngige in as governor, it is virtually certain that  Ngige’s governorship shall be declared invalid on March 21 in the Election Tribunal at Enugu – or whenever it actually sits .  He will then be asked to vacate his seat for Peter Obi of APGA.

 

And then all hell may break loose in Anambra State. 

 

What with Faction 1 of APGA (Chairman Chekwas Okorie) offering Ngige membership and expelling Peter Obi/insinuating he no longer wants the governorship, to Faction 2 of APGA (Victor Umeh/Dim Ojukwu) expelling Okorie and insisting that Peter Obi is still their man, we are in for a season of high drama from that neck of the woods – again.

 

Let us pray.

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

http://www.kwenu.com/publications/oraetoka/anambra_senatorial.htm

Anambra senatorial election tribunal: Who will enforce the judgement?

Emeka Oraetoka [january 2005]

 

 

elections.htm" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; text-underline: single"> http://www.nigerianmuse.com/important_documents/?u=Anambra_tribunal_and_elections.htm

Anambra Tribunals and Election Results

 

 

 

Sunday Punch, March 13, 2005

 

Ngige/Uba: Tension in Anambra

John Ameh

TENSION gripped Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Saturday following security report of a plan by some individuals to breach public peace.

Hordes of armed policemen were quickly despatched to the streets very early in the morning by the state police command to guarantee peace.

Some of the policemen were seen on patrol vans, especially at some trouble spots within the city.

Last Wednesday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expelled the state governor, Dr. Chris Ngige and businessman, Chief Chris Uba for alleged anti-party activities.

The State Police Command Commissioner, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu, confirmed to Sunday punch that he ordered the patrol to forestall a break down of law and order.

He said, “On Friday, there was a report that some wanted to celebrate the expulsion of the governor. There were conflicting reports because another group also said they were going to stop it.

“So, we sent our men to the streets to protect law and order. Generally, I can assure you that everywhere is calm. There is nothing to worry about.”

However, there were conflicting signals from the main opposition party, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) on if Ngige could join the party.

While a faction loyal to the embattled National Chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said the party was ready to have Ngige in its fold, another camp of the party warned him to steer clear of APGA.

Okorie, in a move that apparently surprised many keen watchers of the Anambra saga, walked into the Anambra Governor’s Lodge in the Awka Capital Territory on Saturday and handed his party’s constitution, manifesto and an identity card over to Ngige.

Okorie was accompanied by some national and state officials of the party, among whom were the National Treasurer, Chief O. N. Akanegbu, the National Vice- Chairman, South-East, Chief Benjamin Duru, the National Vice- Treasurer, Chief G.U. Ubah and the Anambra chapter Chairman, Dr. Okey Umeano.

Okorie also announced the withdrawal of the petition by its candidate in the 2003 poll, Mr. Peter Obi, before the state election petitions tribunal, challenging the victory of Ngige.

“We have seen the good work Ngige has been doing, and on the basis of that, APGA is no more interested in the petition filed by Mr. Peter Obi at the tribunal.

“Ngige must be given the chance to serve the people. I want the tribunal to strike out the petition”, he declared.

The chairman observed that besides Ngige’s performance, his party had discovered that the PDP was becoming too hostile to accommodate a man with the governor’s type of “progressive” mind.

“PDP is a hostile environment for progressives. The governor was not in a good environment. It is now time for him to go to his natural environment. We went to court to stop Oyinlola’s panel, but they disobeyed the court’s order.

“We will now go ahead and institute contempt charges against the PDP. No matter the outcome of Ngige’s petition against his expulsion, he can no longer remain in the PDP. I hereby extend our invitation to you to your natural environment, APGA”.

Okorie immediately presented the constitution of APGA, its manifesto and an identity card to the governor.

It was not exactly clear whether a new political script on the Anambra saga was being played out, nor could an immediate connection be established between the offer of membership to Ngige and last week’s expulsion of Obi and 30 other members of APGA by its Anambra chapter.

The offer came barely 72 hours after Ngige’s expulsion from the PDP, a move might be the governor’s warning signal to the PDP about his latest survival strategy.

However, 24 hours earlier, he had challenged his expulsion, saying that he remained a member of the PDP until his expulsion was ratified by a national convention of the party, in keeping with its Article 16.

Ngige, who was all smiles while he received the vital documents from Okorie, appealed to the officials of APGA to give time to study them so that in his words, “we do not move from one shark-infested water to another crocodile-infested one.”

“We all have made mistakes before but it is only God who is in charge of the future. I wish to assure you that whatever decision we take on this matter will not disappoint you”, he pledged.

On the with withdrawal of the petition challenging his victory, Ngige remarked that the best thing the party ought to have done was to go the tribunal and effect the withdrawal in writing.

Meanwhile, the acting Chairman of APGA, Chief Mike Umeh, has described as fraud the invitation extended to Ngige to join the party.

He said the offer was not only insignificant but was also illegal, null and void because it did not have the backing of the party.

Umeh said, Okorie was expelled from the party to save it (APGA) from further drift and embarrassment.

“He went to Ngige on Friday to invite him to join our party. I call that offer “a 419” offer which has no backing of the party. It will not achieve anything and I am sure Ngige would not accept such “Greek gift,” Umeh said.

The acting chairman equally debunk the claim of Okorie that APGA had no interest in the governoship election petition in Anambra State. He described such move as crazy for anyone to take.

Dr. Peter Obi of APGA was said to have won the 2003 governorship election in Anambra State. He and his party have gone to court to contest the PDP acclaimed victory at the pool.

Umeh noted that the party did not take any decision to withdraw the case from the court.

Said he: “The party machinery is fully behind Obi in his pursuit of his own mandate in the court of law. He should not rely on Okorie’s utterances. No man, I repeat, no man, can withdraw the case from the court except Obi himself.

“Nigerians should discountenance Okorie’s utterances. He has been expelled from the party and so he could not speak for or on behalf of the party.

“The party is solidly behind Obi in the pursuit of his “hijack mandate”. All those who sabotaged the effort of the party have found themselves in the abyss. Okorie is the latest victim.

Umeh described Okorie as insincere, urging him to say the truth behind his expulsion instead of indulging in fabricating lies. He revealed that Okorie has been going about dragging the names of eminent personalities in the party into the murky water.

The APGA chieftain debunked the claim by Okorie that he (Umeh) conspired with the party presidential candidate in the 2003 general election, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, to get rid of him from the party.

He revealed that rather than play a conspiracy role in the while scenario, Ojukwu only pitched his tent with the truth.

Umeh stated that the party would not be distracted in any way by Okorie’s campaign of calumny and character assassination.
 

 

 

Ngige: Finally, the jigsaw falls in place
By CHRISTIAN ITA (christian-ita@sunnewsonline.com)
Sunday, March 13, 2005

 

The Anambra State governor, Dr. Chris Ngige and his erstwhile political godfather, Chris Uba, returned to the front burner of political discourse last week.

Their party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), announced their expulsion from its fold over their roles in the political saga that has held the state bound since 2003.

The latest twist in the Anambra tale is an indication that those bent on removing the governor from office would never give up. After failing to forcefully remove Ngige from office on July 10, 2003, his adversaries have since adopted a more ingenious, pains-taking, well-orchestrated and methodological approach in their quest to see him out of the government house.

However, the game plan took this long to unfold due to the fact that the party’s immediate past chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh was opposed to it. Indeed, President Olusegun Obasanjo alluded to this in his reply to Ogbeh’s criticism of his handling of the Anambra crisis in an open letter that sparked a way of words between.

Although many a Nigerian regarded the face-off between the president and his party’s chairman to be the continuing contest for the control of the party between Obasanjo and his vice president, Atiku Abubakar, it was a face-off that had its roots in the Anambra political imbroglio.

Ogbeh in the open letter to the president on December 11, 2004 had observed that due to the poor handling of the Anambra crisis "we (PDP government) are perceived in the worst light by an angry, scornful Nigerian public for reasons which are absolutely unnecessary."

The president’s response was an angry reply. Recounting every attempt he has made at resolving the impasse in Anambra, he said rather him, Ogbeh it was that should be blamed for the continuing crisis in the South-eastern state due to his deliberate inaction.

Dripping with righteous indignation and pontificating from a moral high-horse, he accused Ogbeh of being an accessory to crime for refusing to act even when Uba had confessed to the rigging of elections in Anambra State.

After his response, the president immediately commenced moves to remove the Benue State born politician from office as party. After the initial stoicism, Ogbeh was swept away by the tempest. This was after Ngige and Uba had been suspended from the party and a committee headed by Osun State governor to probe the Anambra crisis empanelled.

And the one man, who saw the danger this moved posed to him, was Ngige. Speaking in Lagos, the battle hardened Anambra governor likened the PDP to a pregnant woman who does not know what she would be delivered of.

"You can rightly describe the situation in the party as that of a pregnant woman. You don’t know what will come out so we are still waiting. There is no computerization in this one," he had stated.

The pregnant woman has now delivered and the baby is his expulsion from the party. To prepare the ground for his expulsion and perhaps place a moral burden on the governor, two out of the three senators, who like Ngige were beneficiaries of the system that got elected on April 11, 2003 have had their elections have all lost their seats. The same thing is happening in the House of Representatives where the likes of Chudi Ofodile have had their elections upturned.

One of the affected senators, Emmanuel Anosike, has in very unambiguous terms, insisted that he lost his seat because of his support for Ngige.

With Ogbeh finally bowing out of office and a successor in the person of Col. Ahmadu Alli named; it was time to release the sucker punch.

And as been speculated, his first assignment was the announcement of the duo.
But speaking on the expulsion of Ngige by the PDP, Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo said the action has no implication on the position of Ngige as governor.

Keyamo, who is also Ngige’s lawyer, explained that his client could not be removed from office on the ground of his expulsion from his party.

He stated further that while the Constitution declares that a person must seek public office on the platform of a political party, it does mandate such a person, having been elected into office, to remain in the party.

 

Insisting that only the House of Assembly could remove the governor from office under section 188 of the Constitution, what the PDP had succeeded in doing by its action, is to fritter away its electoral victory.

 

However, renowned lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi is of the opinion that the expulsion presents grave danger to Ngige.

Gani, who like Keyamo said the party lacks the Constitutional powers to remove Ngige from office, said he foresaw the party either instigating impeachment moves against the governor or doing him in at the election petition tribunal.

" His expulsion does not at the moment affect his office. Once a person contests an election and is duly elected as governor, his own party cannot remove him. It is only the state assembly that can remove him for gross acts of misconduct. He could also be removed by the result of an election petition.

" The danger posed by his expulsion is that his party may gang-up against and do him in at the tribunal. He is in a very dangerous situation. The party could instigate his impeachment by the state assembly and they could even collude with his opponent at the tribunal. It is a dangerous sign for him and his future. He is in a precarious situation," he stated.

Since there is no limit to which the dramatis persona could go, some analysts are of the opinion that the expulsion of Uba, along with Ngige, is just a smoke screen. That Ngige is the only intended target.

 

They point to the fact that Uba had already been expelled by the party and that since he was never re-admitted into the fold or at least, nobody was told he ever was, the pronouncement of his expulsion with Ngige becomes suspect.

While this theory could be dismissed as mere speculation, what is certain is that, with his expulsion, Ngige has been set on a lonely path, shun of party support and thus becoming more vulnerable than he ever was since the beginning of the crisis.

Certainly, nobody should expect Ngige to go down without a fight. Already he had given indication of the testy days that lie ahead.

The governor, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Fred Chukwuelube, described his expulsion as unconstitutional just as he gave indications of his likelihood to seek redress in court.

The resort to court, may however, not be the only options the governor is at the moment considering.

While the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) are said to have offered him their membership, Ngige may actually be predisposed to joining the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

The recent purported suspension of Mr. Peter Obi, its gubernatorial candidate in the 2003 election by a faction of the party, is said to be part of the grand design aimed at paving the way for Ngige to join the party.

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