With a few hours to go until the gubernatorial primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in State of Abiaan internal crisis and controversy over the selection of its ad-hoc delegates of three members for each district is yet to be buried.
Delegates will vote in primaries to nominate the party’s candidates for the 2023 general election.
PDP district conventions were scheduled to be held in the state on April 30 until they were canceled due to a court order. Although they were rescheduled for May 4 after the order was rescinded, they were not held due to that day being a public holiday.
However, while some party members waited for a new date for the congresses, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and others reportedly wrote up an ad-hoc list of delegates in the state’s 184 districts and sent it to the party’s National Work Committee (NWC). . .
The governor is reportedly pressuring the NWC to use the list for the party’s primary on Wednesday, May 25.
Mr. Ikpeazu and others said that district congresses were held on May 6, where delegates were elected. But seven of the party’s gubernatorial hopefuls have denied that the congresses were held in every district of the state.
On May 22, the challengers, led by Senate Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe, at a press conference at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, called on the NWC to take immediate action to prevent an “imminent implosion” of the party. in Abia state. .
The state’s incumbent deputy governor, Ude Chukwu, who is also a gubernatorial contender, was among the seven contenders who rebelled against the delegate list.
Describing the controversial delegate list as invalid, the hopefuls said the action of those who compiled it and sent it to the party’s national secretariat was against the law.
“Only the National President and the National Secretary of a Political Party can communicate with the INEC at its National Headquarters regarding Congresses, Primaries and Conventions. Neither the state president of a party nor the REC of INEC have (sic) any role in the matter, so said congresses of May 6, 2022 are dead on arrival,” Mr. Abaribe said at the conference, in name of six others.
“It is absurd that what is presented as a list emanated from an imaginary congress carried out through a letter of notification to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Abia State signed by the President of the PDP of Abia State, Mr. Allwell Asiforo Okere. The implication is that the NEC and NWC functions were performed by a state party chairman and NOT by the national chairman and PDP secretary,” he added.
The challengers urged the party’s NWC to avoid “adverse consequences” by using only statutory delegates for the primaries, as it was now obvious that it can no longer give the statutory seven days’ notice to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold a state congress to elect ad-hoc delegates from three members.
Ikpeazu’s claim that the delegates had been elected was also refuted by the party’s secretary of state, David Iro, who insisted that “there has never been a conference of delegates in the PDP anywhere in Abia”.
The party’s State Labor Committee, hours later, suspended Mr. Iroh for a month, saying his comment was “off guard” and “brought shame to the party.”
position of the INEC
INEC has also maintained that the Abia state PDP has yet to hold its ad-hoc delegate election.
“Please refer to your letter of May 11, 2022 requesting confirmation if the commission received a letter from the national chairman and national secretary of the PDP rescheduling the party’s Abia state district congresses that were not held on May 4. of 2022.
“This is to confirm that the last notice received from the PDP national headquarters was the one that scheduled the Abia state district congress for May 4, 2022,” INEC said in a letter, adding that it was still waiting for a decision. new date after the congress failed. to celebrate on the scheduled date.
The letter, signed by the commission’s secretary, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, and dated May 13, was written in response to a query from an Abuja lawyer.
However, the faction of the party in the state loyal to Ikpeazu has continued to insist that it held the three-member delegate elections.
Implication
On Sunday, the party held primary elections to nominate candidates for the House of Representatives and the state assembly despite much controversy over the delegates.
the sun daily reportedMonday, that most of the candidates withdrew at the last minute due to the party’s insistence on holding the primaries with what the candidates called a “strange list of three delegates.”
If the party continues the exercise and elects other candidates, including the gubernatorial candidates scheduled for Wednesday, May 25, in violation of relevant electoral laws, the party may jeopardize its chances of participating in the next general election, a event that took place in the state of Zamfara. , some years ago.
The Zamfara stage
Two factions of the Congress of All Progressives in Zamfara Stateled by Kabiru Marafa and then Governor Abdul’aziz Yari, had been locked in a battle for supremacy over who controlled the soul of the party in the state ahead of the 2019 general election.
The disagreement denied the party the opportunity to hold (valid) primary elections for the sponsorship of candidates within the stipulated time, as required by law.
Although the INEC went ahead to allow its participation in the poll, where the party won all the positions, including the governorship, the Supreme Court later annulled all the votes cast by the party and, consequently, dismissed its candidates who were declared winners. in the elections of February 23 and March 16. general elections in the state by INEC.
The court ruled that the party had no candidates in the election as it did not conduct the primaries according to its own rules and as required by law. Accordingly, he ordered the candidates of the second-place political party, which happened to be the PDP, to take over as duly elected contenders.
The key contenders, the possibilities and the zoning debate
As of Tuesday, about 10 candidates were vying for the party’s ballot for the state’s gubernatorial election. However, there are only three key candidates for the ticket.
They include: Abia State University Immediate Past Vice-Chancellor Eleazar Ikonne; the Minority Leader of the Senate of Nigeria, Mr. Abaribe; and the incumbent Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Chukwu.
Ikonne, said to be running for governor of the state, is more likely to win the ballot, especially given the reported withdrawal of other candidates from the race and the governor’s firm control over alleged “false delegates.” This adds to the fact that the power of incumbency would play a very important role even without the withdrawal of other applicants.
But because of the power of incumbency and the accusation of imposed delegates, Abaribe has a good chance of getting the ticket.
His reported support for pro-Biafra groups and their agitations in southeastern Nigeria seemed to have endeared the senator to many people in the south-east, including residents of Abia state.
For Mr. Chukwu, observers say the lieutenant governor is likely to cause an upset as he may have been privy to his director’s strategies and political secrets to win the primaries and elections.
zoning debate
As in many states in Nigeria, a persistent theme in the country’s political landscape has been the debate over which area or region should produce candidates for different political offices.
In the state of Abia, the problem of zoning has been very fashionable. The party in the state had announced, a few months ago, that it had zoned the governorship into the Abia Central and Abia North senatorial districts in the state.
Mr. Abaribe was sidelined in the new party arrangement. The senator was quick to condemn the decision, describing it as an attempt to “impose” a candidate on the state.
The legislator is from Abia Sur, the senatorial district ignored by the party.
An unwritten zoning agreement, called the ‘Abia Equity Charter’, was said to have been reached long ago to balance the rotation of power between the state’s three senatorial districts: Abia Central, Abia South and Abia North.
The arrangement, PREMIUM TIMES has learned, began with Orji Kalu in 1999, who is from Abia North and ruled the state for eight years. He handed over to his former chief of staff, Theodore Orji of Abia Central District, who also ruled for eight years, before handing over to the current governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, of Abia South District, where Abaribe hails from.
While one group insists that power must return to North Abia, where it began, others argue that the shared power is between two political blocs, the Old Aba Division and the Old Bende Division, not the senatorial districts.
ALSO READ: Delta Governorship Primaries: Ibori and Okowa battle for supremacy in the PDP
Two former governors, Merssrs Kalu and Orji, who each governed the state for eight years, belong to the Old Bende Division, which has nine local government areas.
Supporters of power rotation between political blocs argue that the Old Aba Division, where the Okezie Ikpeazu senatorial district belongs, should be given the opportunity to retain power for another eight years in 2023 to make up for the 16 years that power resided. at Old Division Bende.
But Ikpeazu appeared to have heeded the calls by choosing Ikonne, a 66-year-old professor of optometry, as his successor, from the Old Aba Division, though not in the same Senate district as the governor.
Mr. Ikonne, former Chancellor of Abia State Polytechnic, hails from Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area in Abia Central District.
Mr. Ikpeazu is from the same Obingwa Local Government Area and Abia South District as Mr. Abaribe.
Although Mr. Abaribe belongs to the same Old Aba Division as Mr. Ikonne, his home local government (Obingwa) is located outside the two senatorial districts into which the PDP had previously split the gubernatorial bid.
Mr. Abaribe’s plan B
On Sunday, hours after the resignation of Mr. Abaribe and others was made public, officials from the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) visited the senator in what appears to be a negotiation over a possible change from PDP to APGA in the state.
A source within the senator’s camp told PREMIUM TIMES Monday night that although APGA officials agreed to give the former lieutenant governor of Abia state an “automatic ticket” to run for Senate, Abaribe had not yet Took a decision.
“He is monitoring the events in the PDP. If nothing positive happens, he could defect to APGA,” the source said about Abaribe.
SEE: Governor Yahaya Bello’s roadmap to Hope 2023