Ayogu Eze and quest to reach amity in Enugu State

The governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the recent election in Enugu State, Senator Ayogu Eze is not new in politics, neither is he ignorant about litigations arising from electoral contests and what they could portend.

He had traversed the courts to revalidate the mandate to represent the APC in the governorship election.  That was after a federal high court in Abuja had annulled the party primary that made him candidate and awarded the ticket to another.

Knowing that it was a higher court that should upturn that decision, he did not waste time in approaching it and eventually retrieved his mandate few days to the election. At the conclusion of the governorship election on March 9, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared that the APC represented by Ayogu Eze came second.  The party was said to have secured a little over 10,000 votes in the election won by the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and incumbent governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi with over 400,000 votes.

Ayogu Eze immediately denied the results, describing it as “phantom”, noting that the figures churned out by the INEC were “oven baked.”

In a statement he issued through his spokesperson, Okey Ezeirigwe, he alleged that the figures were fabricated by INEC.

It could be recalled that a few days to the election, INEC published the final list of governorship candidates for the election on its website, without the names of the APC governorship and deputy governorship candidates for Enugu State. It explained that it took the decision based on court order.

Eze’s name, which was originally on the list was removed following a high court order. The order asked INEC to substitute Eze’s name with that of George Ogara, another claimant to the ticket of the party. The commission had in obedience to the order removed Ayogu’s name from the list of candidates.
However, two days to the election (March 7), the Court of Appeal cleared whatever legal obstruction INEC invoked and declared Eze the validly nominated candidate of the APC.  It went further to compel INEC to restore Eze on the candidates’ list.

Ezeirigwe said the order was served same day on the commission, expressing dismay, however, that though it was acknowledged, the name was not effected up to the moment polls closed on march 9.

He said: “This was in clear violation and contempt of the court order, leading to unlawful exclusion of their validly nominated candidates. This development occasioned massive voter apathy, leading to the lowest voter turnout ever recorded in Enugu State. We make bold to state that it will be a miracle if as many as 100,000 persons participated in the Saturday’s election, if the card reader is queried. The absence of voters gave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and those collaborating with it the ample opportunity to manufacture figures, which they have now put as election results.

“Our supporters observed that while the card reader was supposed to have been programmed to stop functioning at 2p.m many polling centres remained open up to as late as 5.00pm with massive thumb-printing going on, using multiple fingers and objects to mark the ballot papers.”

Ayogu Eze did not vote in the election. He said doing so was giving credibility to a process that was from the start, skewed against him and his party.
When he spoke to reporters at his country home on the day of the election, he stated that the removal of his name from the published list of candidates morally affected his supporters.

He noted that many of them refused to cast their vote, especially when it was discovered that the INEC allegedly paid deaf ears to the court order asking it to restore the name of the candidate, as well as other representations from the party, which included the protest that saw party members blocking the entrances to the commission’s headquarters in Enugu few hours to the election.

Indeed, he has approached the Enugu State governorship tribunal, asking for the nullification of the election that produced Ugwuanyi as winner, claiming that the process was fraught with several irregularities and did not provide equal opportunities to all the contestants among other grounds.

In an interview with the Guardian, one of his counsels, Ugochukwu Ukwueze, said Eze’s protest was justified because, “Enugu State case is a peculiar one because of exclusion of a candidate’s name on the published list.”

Ukwueze said: “INEC has no right to leave the column of the APC vacant. They didn’t need any directive from the court after the order had been issued to restore the name they removed because if you look at the suit, you will see that INEC was joined in it,” he argued.

Another stalwart of the party, Benjamin Nnamani told the Guardian that; “we want to prove that APC has come to stay in Enugu and can win elections in a free and fair contest. We went into that election to win and not to be used to perfect the return of people in offices. I am certain that our candidate has a chance to get a rerun for the state. This will broaden the chances of the party in the state.”
 He agreed that considering the level of support and following the PDP commands in the state however, it will seem an uphill task for the APC to get victory against the incumbent administration even in the event of rerun.

“This is because apart from the popularity of the PDP, APC members on their own have not helped the advancement of the party in the state.  It is infested with several crises that have brought various factions.  Many of the members still do not believe in Sen Eze and would do all in their ability to scuttle any process that could give him and the faction that produced him victory, visibility and prominence in the politics of the state. 
These put together among others would dim his chances at any tribunal and even in a rerun election.  
But Eze is not a political neophyte.  He has been long in politics to know the implication of challenging an election result in court in a political party that is in disarray. He tried it in 2015 up to the Supreme Court while attempting to prove that he was the validly nominated candidate of the PDP and should know better,” he said.

Perhaps, it was in realization of these, that Eze has decided to consult on his next line of action after he granted audience to stakeholders of the PDP from Enugu north who visited his Enugu residence, last week to persuade him to drop his petition against the Governor and work with him to develop the state.

That delegation, led by Senator representing Enugu north senatorial zone, Chukwuka Utazi reminded Eze that he has been an important part of the greater Enugu project and therefore should not be left behind in Ugwuanyi’s quest for better and prosperous Enugu state.
 Although Eze had promised not to be a cog in the wheel of Enugu’s development and process,  he said that he would however  not do so without consulting with his party on his next line of action.

The development is eliciting debate in Enugu State and is raising the political ante.  This is because, those who know Ayogu Eze would readily tell you that he would not give in easily. That was the situation in 2015 when he brushed aside several promptings to pursue the outcome of the PDP primary in the state to the Supreme Court.  He caved in only when the apex court decided on the matter.

Sources said that accepting to withdraw the petition would have diminished whatever claim the APC is laying in the state, especially with what is left in the party after the elections.  They said that the inroads so far made by the party would have been grossly affected by the decision, adding that though the party did not win any seat in the elections in the state, there could be signs that with concerted efforts it would become a formidable party in the state.

There were other opinions that Eze’s chances of advancing in the party nationally would have been cut short, while opening space, however, for him in his former party, the PDP especially in the state.  Eze, certainly would desire appointment at the Federal level to compensate for his efforts at building APC, this may be denied him in the event of withdrawing his appeal. He would probably have abandoned the social contract that endeared him to his supporters.

Political watchers said that those who visited him  “are his kinsmen “ and that not heeding their request “is like launching an attack on his own people”. They feel the state would be better with less political frictions and tensions.  This is the dilemma of Senator Eze at the moment and how he wriggles out of it would matter to the people, and the state.

Director of Communications, Ugwuanyi campaign organisation, Nana Ogbodo, said: “Who needs trouble in Enugu State?  Our Governor is a peace loving man. He has healed old wounds and his leadership has signified that it is better to jaw-jaw than war. Anything that can amount to the peace and development of Enugu is commendable.”