Umahi’s Ebonyi APC headaches

Charles Nwankwo writes on the loss of the APC senatorial ticket by Governor Dave Umahi and the battle for gubernatorial tickets by parties in Ebonyi.

 

Last Thursday, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, indicated that the commission was also involved in 334 pre-election court cases that arose from the conduct of congresses and primaries by political parties for the 2023 general election.

Prof. Yakubu spoke at the swearing-in of Dr. Hale Longpet as Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC for Kogi State ahead of the publication of particulars of candidates nominated by their political parties for governorship and State Assembly elections in all the constituencies nationwide last Friday.

READ ALSO: http://NiMet warns Nigerians of impending flood

Yakubu had predicted that with the publication of the personal particulars of candidates for governorship, deputy governorship and state assembly elections, the commission expects the number of cases to increase.

Unarguably, some of the new suits will be from Ebonyi State where the two major parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the rave of the moment Labour Party (LP) are enmeshed in crises over who will represent them in the governorship and legislative elections in 2023.

Knocked Out

Top among those likely to be busy in court in the next few days is the state Governor, Dave Umahi. The governor had returned to Ebonyi to claim the senatorial ticket for the Southern senatorial district after his failed bid to be on the ticket for the 2023 presidential election as the candidate of APC.

But that effort suffered a setback, which can be temporary or permanent depending on the outcome of legal battles and other dynamics in the days ahead.

The Court had dismissed a suit filed by Umahi seeking INEC to accept him as the Ebonyi South Senatorial candidate for 2023 polls. Umahi, after his failed presidential bid returned home to claim the ticket for Ebonyi South won by his younger brother, Austin at the primary conducted on 28 May, during the time he was busy chasing the APC presidential ticket.

Austin had no problem surrendering the ticket to his brother. And to give legal backing to the takeover of the ticket, another primary was conducted on 9 June, which Austin did not participate in and was won by the governor unopposed. But INEC had refused to list Umahi as the candidate for the senatorial zone. Consequently, the Governor had dragged the electoral commission to court demanding that he should be recognised as the authentic senatorial candidate for the zone.

READ ALSO: http://Police recruitment merit-based, transparent, non-partisan, says IGP Alkali Baba

But delivering a ruling on the suit last Friday Justice Fatun Riman, noted that since Umahi was not an aspirant in the Ebonyi South primary held on May 28, he should not have participated in the new one conducted on 9 June.

Justice Riman who based her decision on Section 115 of the Electoral Act 2022, noted that the governor neither procured forms for nor participated in the election and could not claim any right based on the primary election.

Consequently, the court recognized Mrs Ann Agom-Eze who came second in the May 28 primary of the APC and was a party to the suit as the only person who can make a valid claim to the ticket.

Consequently, it ordered INEC to conduct a fresh primary within 14 days for the zone to accommodate Agom-Eze. “Yes, the court has ordered APC to conduct fresh primary to ratify the candidacy of our client, Ann Agom-Eze, who took the second position as governor’s younger brother has withdrawn,” the Counsel to Agom-Eze, Mr Nnaemeka Nwonwu, said after the judgment was delivered.

However, the first reaction of the governor’s camp was the publication of a letter indicating that Agom-Eze had voluntarily withdrawn from the second primary.

But still, the court declared that having not bought form for the senatorial contest, Umahi cannot in any way participate in the process of electing the candidate.

APC/PDP Gubernatorial Tickets Battle 

The governor and his loyalists will be battling on how he can be brought back to the ballot in the next few days.

However, they will also be thinking about how to ensure that Umahi’s preferred successor, Francis Nwifuru, who is the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, is on the governorship ticket. Elias Mbam, a former chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) and Nwifuru had emerged winners at parallel primary elections organized by the party.

But Nwifuru who won the primary conducted by a faction of the party loyal to Umahi had insisted that he is the only authentic gubernatorial candidate of APC in the state for the 2023 elections because he has been recognised by INEC.

He also has the support of the National Working Committee of the party.

But Mbam had also insisted that he is the authentic APC governorship candidate in the state. He had been fighting an attempt by the Stanley Okoro Emegha-led APC executive in the state from suspending or expelling him from the party in the state.

However, the Umahi camp of the party will seem to have prevailed with the publication of the name of Nwifuru as the governorship candidate of APC for Ebonyi in a list released by INEC last Friday.

But the question is will Mbam give up or continue his battle to take the gubernatorial ticket? There are also fears that the split in the party may affect the chances of APC retaining the state.

However, the opposition PDP is also not in better shape. Lagos-based businessman, Ifeanyi Odii and Senator Obinna Ogba have been enmeshed in a legal battle over who was the party’s authentic governorship candidate for the 2023 polls.

Both men had emerged at primaries organized by different factions of the party.

However, a Federal High Court in Abakaliki had on July 19 declared Odii the authentic gubernatorial candidate of PDP in the state for the second time.

This was after the court declared as invalid and unconstitutional the primary that produced Ogba. The rescheduled primary was conducted after the National Working Committee of PDP nullified the primary conducted on May 28 and May 29, which produced Odii and other candidates. INEC also listed Odii as the candidate of PDP last Friday evening though the matter is still in court.

While APC and PDP candidates are sure to continue battles in court over who are the authentic nominees to be on the ballot, the Labour Party was combining efforts to have a structure in the state.