South East Governorship Polls: Accusations,Never Ending Blame Game

FOR obvious reasons, the Governorship/Houses of Assembly elections in the South East was expected to be horse race involving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressive Alliance (APC) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).

For the PDP, it was simply a battle of supremacy; at least, for the zone that it considers its birthright. The APC hoped to latch on the momentum generated elsewhere, during the presidential and National Assembly elections, to persuade attention from the South East.

Perennial hopefuls, APGA, with the usual sentiments, hoped that a stroke of good fortune will throw up another state, like in 2011, when it served the purpose of Owelle Rochas Okorocha and the citizens of Imo State.

Alex Otti had voiced and borne the banner of that sentiment when he joined APGA in Abia. He said: “Coming to APGA is like a home coming. APGA is not a political party, but a religion for Nigerians, nay Ndigbo.

I’m very happy to be back home; we have a mission to take back our state. When I look at Abia, I regret that I did not take this decision to serve my people early.

But it is not too late, we are here to win and win we must.” And in Otti, a moneybag, APGA might have found some good fortune. Otti, who decamped from the PDP essentially because of the party’s principle of rotation and zoning of the governorship to Abia South, looked capable of matching the state government and PDP.

He also was going to be the beneficiary of protest votes, expected from those were opposed to the “idea of rotation, the PDP and Theodore Orji capacity to pick his successor.”

Going into the governorship elections without the single mindedness with which it threw itself at the PDP in the presidential elections, APGA looked opportunistic without a discernible blueprint on how it will extend its frontiers beyond the shores of Anambra State.

For example, in Enugu State, APGA endorsed Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, PDP governorship candidate.  According to the state chairman, Chief Okechukwu Nkolagu, it would be a wasted effort for APGA to field a candidate to run against Ugwuanyi, “considering his track record,” while he noted that the adoption of Ugwuanyi, “was in line with the national party’s adoption of President Goodluck Jonathan.”

In Imo, where it was the ruling party, until Okorocha dumped the party, APGA’s challenge looked uncertain. It couldn’t build on the momentum of its 2011 victory.

Okorocha

It’s governorship candidate, Captain Emma Iheanacho, the quintessential Owerri candidate for the governorship, knew that it will be difficult beating the field of candidates in Owerri zone, alone.

His ambition died at home. Also, in January, a factional national chairman of the APGA, Chief Ejike Uche, with some members of the Board of Trustees (BoT), and National Working Committee (NWC), backed President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP governorship candidate and Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha. Behind the victories, suspended and impending celebrations are a litany of curiosities.

The eternal question is who didn’t rig in the election amidst the cries of having been cheated out? The election went on “smoothly” in spite of reports and accusations of irregularities, manipulations, snatching of ballot boxes, hoarding and selling of result sheets, presence of fake result sheets, intimidation of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ad hoc staff, money for votes, violence and killings, connivance of some security agents and INEC staff. Etc.

In Ebonyi, for example, where at least there were five recorded election related deaths, a bus loaded with election materials and INEC ad hoc staff, was sighted driving straight into the secluded residence of a highly placed Federal Government official during the April 11 elections.

A PDP chieftain, amused at how some thugs were still carrying ballot boxes, said, “why bother to carry the box, which can lead to a cancellation of the votes. Just use the result sheet.”

The APC state chairman, Hon. Ben Nwobasi, described the situation in Ebonyi as “gun point democracy.” In Imo, where PDP sympathizes cried about the intimidation of the military and electoral officers, there are tales of dubious and foreign result sheets in circulation. The PDP accused APC of engaging thugs to cajole, kidnap, intimidate and threaten INEC officials.

Okorocha has accused INEC staff and the police of collaborating with the PDP to commit monumental electoral fraud to the disadvantage of the APC. In Enugu, the APC lamented how thugs were unleashed on them by the PDP as part of “an orchestrated and ritualised manipulations.

“The PDP countered the argument, wondering if the PDP has to rig to win Enugu, described as the most secured and peaceful PDP state in South East.

A top party member described the APC complaints as arising from inexperience, noting the exercise “as mind and war games.” In Anambra, for the first time in 10 years, the state will have a House of Assembly dominated by the ruling party, APGA. Yet, APGA couldn’t win a senatorial seat or rather is bemoaning how PDP rigged it out of the National Assembly seats.

The APGA National Chairman lost his senatorial bid in Anambra Central, to Hon. Uche Ekwunife, who left APGA a few months to the elections.  In Abia, the APC complained of how votes were not cast in many areas yet results were manufactured. Believing that if the votes were properly counted, it would win the Abia election, APC described the complaints of PDP and APGA as “the story of two thieves.”

Events in Abia and Imo merely illustrate the mood in the zone. Abia The governorship election was set to answer some questions. How ready were Abia people to back Governor Theodore Ahamefuna Orji and return his protégé in Government House? How acceptable was the Abia Equity of Charter on which Orji and the PDP had sold the choice of Dr. Okezie Victor Ikpeazu.

Were the people of Abia going to vote on the performance of the PDP or on the basis of power shift? Was Abia going to vote out the 16-year-old dynasty of Orji Kalu and Theodore Orji? If there was going to be an inclination for change, where was the crown headed? Former Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Otti, who faulted the principle of rotation and preferred that the contest be thrown open, was set to upset the apple cart.

Going into the April 11 governorship elections, the PDP touted its performance and the acceptability of Governor Orji, (Ochendo Global), the famous Abia Charter of Equity.

The opposition to the rotation of power to Abia South had come from people like Otti and the Chief Executive Officer of Masters Energy, Sampson Ogah. Ogah, from the Isikwuato axis, had argued that power shift is only a tool by opportunist politicians to grab power. He once said that, “people have always contested for the governorship and circumstances have always had a way of putting in the right candidate; it was not a function of rotation. Every zone contested in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011.

It was not left for a particular zone, so everybody in 2015 will go to the polls. If I decide to run, I will go to the polls and contest because that is why it is an election, it is not nomination.” He lost the primary and walked away. Otti didn’t. Incidentally, he tried to benefit from the principles of the charter even though he opposed it.

For instance, he claims indigeneship of both Arochukwu in Abia North and Isiala Ngwa South in Abia Central. While his parents hail from Arochukwu, he was born in Ngwa land where his parents settled. With the zoning of the governorship to Ngwaland and Abia South specifically by the PDP, his supporters arranged a homecoming party that was supposed to make him a son of Ngwaland.

It was a recognized appeal to Ukwa/Ngwa people resident outside Abia South and in Abia Central to vote for him. And it is believed that for political expediency, he is running this race as a son of Ngwa land.

The insistence of Orji that “the next governor will come from Abia South,” had led to the exclusion of some Ngwa people in Abia Central. Most wanted the zoning to be based on clannish basis and not on senatorial basis.

“What it means is that those of us Ngwa people in Abia Central will never be governor because it will not be equitable to imagine that after an Ngwa man has ruled from the South, you can have another Ngwa man aspiring to rule from the Central.

But if it was zoned to the Ukwa/Ngwa, which spread in both Abia South and Abia Central, then there would have been a better contest,” said Emeka Ogbunammiri, from Isiala Ngwa. For one instance, Otti’s gambit looked like it would work. As the results started coming, APGA opened up a scaring and searing lead, raising the possibility of an upset.

Suddenly, PDP was playing catch-up. And before the results were declared inconclusive INEC had credited APGA with 165, 406 votes, while the PDP polled 248, 459.

The difference of 83,053 votes certainly looked like a huge mountain for APGA to surmount. What was curious in the results according to APGA National Chairman, Chief Umeh, who was anticipating victory, was the “bizarre developments” where in Obingwa, Osisioma and Isiala Ngwa North Councils, the PDP suddenly started dusting APGA and earning the big numbers that put it at par with APGA. “It all looked too neat,” said an observer at the collation centre.

The source noted the obvious when he said, “the disturbing votes came from Obingwa, Osisioma and Isislangwa North.” In Obingwa, APGA scored 1952 to PDPs 82,240 with APC polling 2704.

In Osisioma, PDP polled 42,122, APGA 1017 and the APC 480. In Isialangwa North, PDP polled 19,798 to APGA’s 6853 while APC got 477. The curious question was how a party that was “doing so well” could suddenly drop so badly.

The curiosity continued, because it is the results from these three councils that INEC’s Returning Officer, Professor Benjamin Ozumba, initially cancelled, leading finally to the declaration of an inconclusive result and an outpouring of outrage, claims and counter claims. Shortly after he cancelled the results, “on his conviction that they were manipulated,” Ozumba, reversed his decision.

Sensing that his party was about to be consoled by a crushing defeat, Umeh was furious that the election, where he was already sensing victory, was declared inconclusive. He alleged that the restoration of the hitherto cancelled results was caused by the visit of some PDP stalwarts led by the governor to the Returning Officer.

Why did Ozumba change his mind after being persuaded that something was wrong with the numbers? What are the implications of his action? If he acted in the first instance based on his conviction, what evidence compelled him otherwise? The Abia PDP state chairman, Senator Emma Nwaka, posited that Ozumba was wrong for “canceling the results from Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa North” and to say that he acted based on the views of international observers.

Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State

Accusing Ozumba of “overstepping his bounds,” he insisted that “this is not part of our law.” Meanwhile Section 68 (1) of the Electoral Act has being quoted by both sides of the argument with different intentions. Section 68 states that:

“The decision of Returning Officer on any question from or relating to: (a) unmarked ballot paper; (b) rejected ballot paper; and (c) declaration of scores of candidates and the return of a candidate, shall be final subject to review by a tribunal or Court in an election petition proceedings under this Act.”

That being so, why did Ozumba reverse himself? But Nwaka noted: “At the time the Returning Officer reversed himself, he had not declared any person winner, hence it can therefore not be rightly said that he had become functus officio” as his job was still in progress.

According to the PDP chieftain, Section 65 of the Electoral Act, underscores the point that the Returning Officer has no powers to cancel results as he should only declare the winner once the computation of the figures is right.

He insisted that: “The Returning Officer discovered he was in error in cancelling those results and called himself to order.

The notion that he was intimidated and cajoled to reverse himself holds no water. The truth is that you cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand. Since the purported cancellation has no legal legs to stand on, it simply collapsed.”

But Umeh pointed out that Ozumba reversed the decision after the Abia governor led chieftains of the PDP to “intimidate, persuade coerce the Resident Electoral Officer, REC, Prof. Selina Oko and Prof. Ozumba.”    Ozumba who had earlier cancelled the results on the grounds of “incontrovertible evidence of violence” based his reversal on the “fresh information concerning the conduct of the election in the three council areas,” which emerged after his consultations with the PDP delegation.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the APC in Abia Chief Donatus Nwampka, at a meeting of South East state chairmen of APC in Enugu, described the situation in Abia as “the question of two thieves arguing over their greed. Both of them rigged and now they are crying. The position of the APC is that the votes that should count are those recorded at the polling units.

Let them bring those results. With those results, the APC would emerge victorious. If INEC cannot insist on the evidence of the votes cast at the polling units but prefers to play with figures, then our position is that INEC should release the genuine results, which would show that APC won the Abia governorship election.

Alternatively, cancel the entire exercise and order for a re-run.” In the rescheduled elections, 177,000 will be up for grabs in some polling units in Osisioma, Ugwunagbo, Aba North, Aba South, Isialangwa South, Isialangwa North, Umuahia North, Umuahia south, Ohafia Arochukwu and Umunneochi.

Will Otti get enough votes to offset the 83,053 votes with which Ikpeazu is leading him? Is there any doubt, that with their nose in front, the PDP will leave nothing to chance?   Said Enyinnaya Appolos, a media aide to Ikpeazu: “Ikpeazu and the PDP are ready for the election in the cancelled units anytime INEC fixes it.

And we are confident of winning again.” Imo A FEW days to the April 11 elections, PDP chieftain Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu instigated a meeting of the various governorship candidates from Imo East (Owerri) senatorial district.

His message to them was to close ranks and pick a consensus candidate “so that we don’t end up splitting Owerri votes. It is the only way to oust the APC.”  The ambition of the zone to produce the next governor had become an albatross, as the zone presented not only the largest number of candidates, but they couldn’t agree on how to boost their chances of winning the seat. Aware that the apologists of the Imo Charter of Equity had zoned the slot to Owerri zone, almost every Council produced a candidate.

They include, Emeka Ihedioha (PDP), Emma Iheanacho (APGA), Ken Ojiri (Accord), Dr Osmond Ukanacho of the Untied Progressive Party (UPP), Mbamara David of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Mrs. Ngozi Ileghe (Labour Party).

The immediate effect of the disagreement to pick a consensus candidate and close ranks, was the defection of top PDP members to APC. Some, who didn’t defect openly, worked behind the scenes for Okorocha and APC.

Others like Okorocha’s predecessor Ikedi Ohakim didn’t openly show support for Okorocha, but supported APC and the president-elect Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. In Orlu, did former governor, Achike Udenwa a former APC member and Senator Hope Uzodinma, work to return of their kinsman, Okorocha?    Soon, there was in circulation a cherished list of those who reportedly jumped ship.

The growing list include two governorship aspirants in the PDP, Chief Jerry Chukwueke (who hails from the same area with Iheanacho), Prof Nnamdi Obiraeri, a law teacher at the State University, and Bethel Nzimako, the leader of Owerri Zone Political Leaders Forum (OZOPOLF) Chief Charles Amadi, Kingsley Ononuju, Rex Anunobi, Chief Samfo Nwankwo, a PDP stalwart and former ANPP chairman, Vitalis Ajumbe, and Pat Ekeji, among others. Imo West (Orlu), with its 12 councils, had Okorocha as the only candidate.

Imo East (Owerri) with nine councils has over five candidates while Imo North (Okigwe) with six councils has one candidate. Days to the April 11 election, the buzzword was whether Imo shouldn’t reelect Okorocha and join the league of APC states. The argument raged that Imo needed to join the government at the centre, even after the state has shown that it was not afraid to play opposition politics.

Were there pointers that APC could coast to victory? How strong was APC in Imo? What chance did Okorocha have to go into the history books as the only governor who has won two consecutive governorship elections with two different parties in the South East? How did APC manage to establish an insurmountable lead before the election was declared inconclusive? Was the PDP weakened by the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan? Or did the Owerri people weaken PDP by splitting their votes? Or was there a stronger yearning by the vibrant electorate in the Imo to respond to their dictates of the times? What happened? Said Nnamdi Metuh, a Youth Leader: “Okorocha didn’t deliver APC in the presidential election first because there was suspicion about voting for a Northern president.

Secondly, there was an unusual presence of military forces and an intimidating squad of DSS during that election that meant the state was supposed to vote PDP.

It hampered Okorocha and wasn’t favourable to APC. The scenario was altered when Jonathan lost. Imo indigenes then became more willing to vote APC knowing that it offered the state not only a better chance of gaining favors from the Federal Government but to return Okorocha to power to thank him for his vision.

Even some members of the political elite privately acknowledged Okorocha gamble that paid off in the APC.”    Metuh claimed that Okorocha’s strength in the governorship came from the PDP fielding the wrong candidate.

According to him, Okorocha had jubilated when Ihedioha emerged as the PDP candidate. According to other sources, Okorocha had said in private that the only person he wouldn’t want to face in an election was Ifeanyi Araraume, who “fortunately” lost in the PDP primary.

To Metuh, “people from Owerri zone believed that Ihedioha wasn’t their choice. There are complaints about his empowerment program as many people easily point out that he has more hungry people people around him. His position as deputy Speaker House of Representatives made people see him largely as an Abuja politician.

This actually had hurt his popularity in Imo.” The gale of defection might have worked the magic. Senator Araraume, aggrieved that he lost the PDP ticket in controversial circumstances to Ihedioha, worked behind the scenes for Okorocha, not necessarily for APC. Sources close to him hinted that he has his eyes already set on 2019 and knows that it is better for him to support a man that will be completing his second tenure than a man that will be starting a possible eight-year reign.

So, it was quite easy for him to work against Ihedioha. He therefore considered that the easiest way for him to be governor was to support Okorocha, in the hope that Okigwe zone will get it then after Owerri failed to clinch the ticket. Okorocha’s popularity was propelled by his free education, which endeared him to the women and the indigent, the grassroots, who were ready to swear by his name. His affinity with the common people, and his populist tendencies made everyone want to campaign for him.

Criticisms against his approach to governance came from the political elite and the common refrain is that “the elite hate him because he refused to steal money and give them.” Said Mrs. Adaugo Eze, in Owerri, “we see what Okorocha is doing. He might not be the best in the world, but he has shown that he is better than those around us today.

Let them just leave us to enjoy him for the next four years. He has relieved many widows of the burden of paying school fees. Do you know what that means for hundreds of thousands of patents and students? Even the Catholic Church want to plug into his free education scheme and his refusal has not gone down well with the church.” Ikenna Opara, an architect from Mbaitoli Ikeduru, said, “what happened in Imo is what probably happened elsewhere. Results sheets were hijacked, raw and cooked food was shared, and people were paid to vote. It is possible the parties rigged but it is obvious APC outsmarted PDP and PDP is now looking for the flaws.

Imo is not an APC state and Okorocha is not quite as popular as it is made out. He has lost the support base that voted him into power in 2011. I believe that the PDP will upturn the results with incontrovertible evidence of rigging.”

Explaining further, Opara noted: “The entire South East and South South delivered PDP. There is absolutely no way PDP should lose the governorship elections in the zones considering the facts that the same people voted in both election. There is no doubt that the figures will change, but definitely, it will not be enough to give the APC victory.

That is the truth.   “Now, it was smart thinking for the APC to look beyond ballot paper and ballot box snatching, which the PDP was expecting from them and prepared properly to fight against and made the move of snatching and or buying result sheets from INEC ad hoc staff and in some cases forcing them to sign and or doctor results.”

He alleged that the amazing thing in the election is the “discovery of result sheets of Katsina, Kaduna and Jigawa states, used in Imo. Imo people should be told how these foreign result sheets found their way into Imo and whose votes were recorded there.

They deserve to know the truth.” For Okorocha’s supporters, it is déjà vu; a replay of the inconclusive elections in 2011 when Okorocha ousted Ohakim in the rescheduled elections. If there are tricks to deploy, Okorocha should be the wizened old man here. If there are lessons to learn from, he can claim he learnt from 2011.

The PDP, despite its victory for Jonathan, has lost its invisibility and confidence and will fear that history will repeat itself again. Will it have the spirit to fight to the finish, with APC almost breasting the finishing tape?  The anxiety grows ahead of the rescheduled elections with both PDP and APC hopeful of victory.

At stake are over 144,000 votes in poling units in some councils in Owerri and Orlu. The Returning Officer, Prof Ibidapo Obe had declared the election ‘inconclusive’ because the number of cancelled votes (144,715) is higher than the margin of win (79,529) by Okorocha. Okorocha polled 385,671 while Ihedioha got 306,142 votes.

Imo, like most South East states is not really APC. If Okorocha wins, Imo will be the first state in the zone to vote APC. The party couldn’t raise the votes in March 28 presidential and National Assembly elections; and didn’t pick a senatorial seat. Now it is looking set to deliver a governor.

And Imo’s checkered political history since 1999 is set to continue. It remains the only state that has had four different parties in the Government House.

In 1999, the PDP installed Chief Udenwa; in 2007 the party lost the seat to Ikedi Ohakim and the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA). Midway into his tenure, Ohakim returned to the PDP, but lost his seat to APGA and Okorocha in 2011. Midway into Okorocha’s first term, he defected to the APC. If he retains his seat, he will be the first governor to win back-to-back elections with two different parties.