The issuance of Certificate of Return to Abia Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Uche Ogah by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the face of an appeal by Okezie Ikpeazu over a court judgment ousting him as governor sets the stage for a long-drawn battle in the state. Editor, Politics/Features, EMEKA ALEX DURU, writes.
There was, literally, no governance in Abia State on Thursday, June 30. The state was rather in a state of confusion and near anarchy. The governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, who had no inkling of the uncertainties ahead, had set out for Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, for a function in which he was billed to deliver the keynote address.
He was yet to get to the venue of the function when news filtered in that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had issued Certificate of Return to Uche Ogah, who was trailing him in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary, as the duly-elected governor of Abia.
That was the climax of the confusion that had crept into the state since Monday, June 27, when a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja delivered a judgment ousting Ikpeazu as Abia governor and directed INEC to issue Ogah with Certificate of Return. It also ordered that Ogah, the President of Masters Energy Group, be sworn in as the authentic candidate of the party.
Ogah had, shortly after the 2015 governorship primary of PDP, approached the court with allegation that Ikpeazu was unfit to stand for election because of inappropriate filings in his tax returns. The case, which initially went in favour of the governor at the lower court, was ordered for retrial by the Supreme Court.
It was in the process of retrial that the court rendered judgment in favour of his opponent. The governor, however, faulted the judgment and filed an appeal where he asked the Appeal Court to set aside the judgment of Justice Okon Abang.
In a notice of appeal filed by his lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo, Ikpeazu faulted the judgment on five grounds, saying that the Federal High Court lacked the power to order him to vacate the seat of Abia State Governor.
The Appeal Court hearing on the matter is expected to commence tomorrow.
Ogah gets certificate
The case, however, took more uncertain turns when INEC issued Certificate of Return to Ogah. INEC National Commissioner in charge of the South East, Lawrence Nwuruku, who made the presentation, said the commission acted in obedience to the lawful order of a court, adding that if the court subsequently orders a reversal of the action, the Commission would not hesitate to do its bidding.
“The situation is that we are simply obeying the court order. The court said, with immediate effect without wasting of time, we should issue him Certificate of Return and that is what we have done – to obey the court order. If the court tomorrow issues another order, we would obey the same,” he said.
This was what immediately raised the bar of uncertainty in Abia. With what seemed a looming anarchy, Abia became the topic of conventional and social media discourse. While reports had it that Uche, armed with INEC certificate, was heading down to the state from Abuja, the governor made a detour on his scheduled assignment in ABSU and raced down to Government House, Umuahia, to take charge of affairs.
Momentary relief, however, came to the troubled residents and citizens of the state when a high court made an order preventing the state’s Chief Judge from swearing in Ogah.
In what also seemed a deft political move to defray the rising tension and apparently to prevent Ogah from having his way, the state hastily declared a two-day public holiday on Friday, July 1, and Monday, July 4. The government said the public holidays were declared as sign of respect for immediate past Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Canada, Ojo Maduekwe, an indigene of the state, who died in Abuja on Wednesday. But even as the government made this explanation, many saw in it a quick move to halt Ogah in his mission of taking over the Government House. The action, it was also reasoned, would save the Chief Justice the suspicion or allegation of taking sides with any of the parties in the unfolding situation.
But whether that would ultimately afford the obviously embattled Ikpeazu the needed breather remained another issue.
Back to the trenches
What is, however, certain is that with last Thursday’s development, a new phase has opened in the recurrent battles that Ikpeazu appears to have been fighting in a bid to remain on his seat.
His travails, which commenced shortly after his emergence as PDP candidate, took a more definite shape following the stiff challenge he encountered in the hands of Alex Otti, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), before, during and after the April 11, 2015 gubernatorial election.
In the build-up to the election, though other political parties campaigned and actually participated in the election, it was obvious that the exercise was a straight encounter between Ikpeazu and Otti.
Ikpeazu, who rode on the platform of the then Governor Theodore Orji’s political structure, had brandished continuation of the policies of the administration as his trump card. But that became a basis for Otti to dismiss him as a lackey of a government he said represented the years of the locust in Abia history.
While the two regularly took tirades at one another, their supporters also engaged themselves, at times, in manners that almost compromised the peace in the state.
It was with such testy climate that the state limped into the April governorship election. When INEC, therefore, declared Ikpeazu the winner, Otti and his camp cried blue murder, alleging that the election was rigged.
The APGA candidate promptly headed for the state’s elections petitions tribunal, where he alleged massive electoral fraud by PDP.
His prayer was for the Tribunal to nullify Ikpeazu’s declaration and declare him the rightful winner of the poll.
Ikpeazu countered the allegations, insisting that he won the election squarely. He called out witnesses and tendered documents in support of his position. In its ruling, the Tribunal dismissed the petition by Otti and upheld Ikpeazu as the winner of the poll.
The judgment prompted Otti to proceed to the Court of Appeal. His argument remained that he was rigged out in the election and should be declared the winner. He particularly made case on alleged over-voting in some councils, insisting that the disputed results from them should be cancelled.
The Justices of the Appeal Court upheld his argument, did the computations and declared him the rightful winner of the election. Ikpeazu appealed the judgment and was eventually declared the winner of the poll by the Supreme Court.
Abians speak
While the court processes lasted, governance suffered gravely in Abia.
There are fears of the same energy-sapping legal processes and cost on governance taking place in the current exercise. Those close to Ogah, for instance, say that he is endowed with enormous financial war chest and granite commitment in any given engagement. In the current encounter, he is said to have vowed to go the whole hog in ensuring that he takes the governorship position that he insists was denied him by the then Theodore Orji-led administration, using state machinery.
“If I truly know Uche, as indeed I do, I can bet you that we have not seen anything yet in this battle. Ikpeazu can come up with any antic at survival, but Ogah that I know will not be deterred. He will pursue the case to a logical conclusion and may come out triumphant,” volunteered a former council transition committee chairman in the state, who asked not to be mentioned.
A group, Abia Renaissance Movement, interpreted the issuance of Certificate of Return to Ogah and the order to swear him in as governor a serious violation of legal procedures and invitation of anarchy to Abia.
A release by the organisation’s President, Godwin Adindu, said that the directive was unimaginable, given that Ikpeazu had formally filed a notice of appeal and a stay of execution.
“Nigeria is not a jungle. We are not in an animal kingdom. Let all the extraneous forces bent on causing mayhem and turning Abia into another Syria think twice.
“Governor Ikpeazu is a peace-loving man and an ardent believer and respecter of the rule of law.
“We ask for nothing less and nothing more, but that the rule of law must prevail. Else, all parties involved in this grand conspiracy and sabotage against the will of the people of Abia and against the law and the constitution of Nigeria should wait for us. We shall meet at Phillipi,” he stressed.
Other supporters of the governor are equally not relenting on the matter. Last Thursday, the state chapter of PDP vowed that it would resist any attempt to inaugurate Ogah as governor of the state.
“We are ready for them, we are ready to die,” the party said, adding, “If they do it, then they are inviting anarchy and confusion in the state.”
The party made the declaration at the end of its emergency meeting in Umuahia.
The state chairman of the party, Johnson Onuigbo, said the party was poised for showdown over the planned inauguration.
He described the judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which ordered that Ogah be sworn in as “a rape of democracy”.
His words: “We want to inform the world that there is tension in Abia because democracy is about to be raped.
“As a party, we will resist any move by anybody to undermine the peace in the state.
“We are ready for them, we are ready to die,” he said. “If they do it, then they are inviting anarchy and confusion in the state.”
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, a journalist and newspaper columnist, sued for caution in the development in Abia.
“This is not the first time a governor has been sacked by a court and the sacked governor appealed the judgment. So is someone trying to unleash anarchy in Abia?
“The Ogah fellow should not allow anyone to use him to cause breakdown of law and order in his own state. At the end of the day, it is the ordinary people that will suffer if there is crisis.
“Ogah and the person eager to swear him in should exercise a little more patience. The appellate court may yet give judgment in his favour…and based on the Supreme Court ruling on Peter Obi’s case, his tenure will commence from the date he was sworn in,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Governance on recess?
The fear by concerned analysts in the Abia situation is the danger of the state slipping to the uncertain times of the first term of former Governor Orji. On account of the frosty relationship that existed between Orji, fondly called Ochendo by his supporters, and his predecessor, Orji Kalu, the greater part of his first tenure was spent on the tussle over the control of the state’s politics.
Ochendo, who eventually had upper hand in the encounter, told this reporter in an encounter that he needed to embark on the battle to free the state from the clutches of godfather dominance.
He said: “I did what majority of Abians wanted. That was to make Abia to be free. That was to remove Abia from the clutches of one family, to remove Abia from the clutches of undemocratic processes. That was the thing that made me achieve it. This state belongs to all of us. It can never be the property of one person. It can never be the property of one family, and no person in Abia can decide the fate of every other person. And they wanted somebody who would do that; they wanted Abia to come back to them and God used me to achieve that.”
Achieving that came with huge cost on administration of the state. The former governor admitted that the exercise amounted to a great deal of distraction to him and his agenda for the state. In the process, many jeered at his administration as lacking in mission and focus. Not even Orji’s spirited efforts at infrastructural repositioning of the state in his second term were enough to reverse the unflattering performance rating of the administration by the Abia electorate.
This is the rocky route, many fear, Abia will travel again as the legal entanglement between Ikpeazu and Ogah lingers.