Court Dramas Rocking APGA, APC, PDP Primaries Ahead of Anambra Election

The Anambra governorship election is slated for November 6. Ahead of the election, the Peoples Democratic Party, All Progressives Congress, and the All Progressives Grand Alliance are knee-deep in intriguing politicking regarding the authentic gubernatorial candidates to represent their parties, write Nseobong Okon-Ekong and David-Chyddy Eleke.

Last Friday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sent tongues wagging in Anambra when it released the list of party candidates in the state’s November 6 governorship election. For example, INEC did not approve any candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party as the electoral body cited “court order” as a reason. INEC listed Sen. Andy Uba as All Progressives Congress gubernatorial candidate. It listed Chuma Umeoji as All Progressives Grand Alliance’s choice though ex-CBN governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, was widely favoured to get the APGA ticket.

Events leading to the parties’ separate primaries indicated the courts would settle the score in the choice of gubernatorial candidates. APGA is the ruling party in Anambra. The PDP has a measure of a foothold with two senatorial districts in its grip. The APC has shown vast improvements in its electoral fortunes, mostly holding out the promise of integration with the central government in Abuja. Depending on who has their back, the different candidates took a hardline, not prepared to yield any ground.

The chance of the candidate of another political party winning by default is slim. The high stakes and the contestants’ apparent war chest have combined to make the pathway to secure the party ticket intriguing and tortuous, with the three parties featuring accomplished billionaires. It could have been anybody’s game. Nothing was left to chance, including the deployment of every legal instrument possible. In the end, whoever emerges victorious would have been thoroughly badgered on all fronts.

PDP and APC held their primaries on June 26. PDP held two separate primaries, producing two different candidates. APC held one primary, through direct means, Uba emerging the winner but not without acrimony as other aspirants disowned the election, claiming it never held, casting aspersion on Governor Dapo Abiodun-led committee. To further legitimise the claim, one of the aspirants, Dr George Moghalu, sued Uba and APC. There are fears the aggrieved APC aspirants may work against the party if they are not placated.

Moghalu told THISDAY in Abuja that the aspirants are “angry at the arbitrariness.” “If there was an election and we were defeated,” he argued, “nobody will say anything. I challenge anyone to produce a video of the APC governorship primary in Anambra. There was no election. It will be very unfortunate if the party goes ahead with this daylight robbery. I wish them luck.”

In APGA, the party is still battling legal fireworks over which faction should produce the party’s candidate. The party known for years as peaceful is currently in a messy web of crisis. While the Chief Victor Oye-led party had on June 23 elected Soludo as its candidate, another faction led by Edozie Njoku as the national chairman also nominated him to double as the gubernatorial candidate. A third faction led by Jude Okeke also sprang up, sacking Oye and his leadership while also suspending Soludo for being involved in the primary held by the Oye faction. The factions have been moving from one court to another to validate their primary results.

The Okeke faction was first to secure a high court order in faraway Jigawa, compelling INEC to recognise Umeoji as the party’s candidate. Last week, the Oye-led faction got a favourable judgment from a high court in Awka presided over by Justice Charles Okaa. The court ordered INEC to withdraw Umeoji’s name and replace it with Soludo as the rightful APGA candidate.

PDP fielded 16 aspirants in its June 26 primary. While its electoral committee was harmonising delegates’ lists, news filtered in Chukwudi Umeaba-led faction (as state chairman, loyal to a self-styled godfather of politics in the state, Chief Chris Uba) had held a primary. The former presented Valentine Ozigbo (ex-president and CEO of Transcorp Plc) as its candidate. The latter has Sen. Ugochukwu Uba (a former senator representing Anambra South and elder brother of Chris Uba) as flagbearer. While the primary that produced Ozigbo used ‘super delegates’ list to conduct the election, to avoid a court order mandating it not to use delegates earlier produced, the other faction used delegates’ list from all the wards in the state. INEC is in a quandary regarding who it should recognise amid conflicting court cases and even more contradictory court orders.

Recently, the Awka Division of the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Nganjiwa allegedly ordered the INEC to Ozigbo as the authentic candidate. THISDAY does not have the judgment details, but the Ozigbo faction is in a jubilant mood. The Uba faction quickly sent out a press statement, stating that the Ozigbo camp’s celebration was misleading. Umeaba insisted he was in court and that the judge simply mentioned the matter and asked that the status quo be maintained while the matter would be heard on September 21.

Meanwhile, a notice seen on social media had already notified Anambra people to look out, stating that a high court in Awka would give judgment in favour of Uba on the same day, accusing Uba of perfecting the plan. On the same day that the Ozigbo group jubilated about a favourable court judgment, another court, a state high court presided over by Justice Obiora Nwabunike, delivered a judgment as foretold by the Uba group, asking the INEC to list Uba as the authentic PDP candidate.

In a suit by Uba against Ozigbo, the Anambra PDP chapter, and INEC, the judge stated that Uba’s faction held its primary in line with the party’s guidelines and should be listed as the governorship candidate. The court also awarded N10 million against Ozigbo and PDP, to be paid to Uba as a cost of litigation.

Nwabunike said, “Let me speak to my judgment now in a way that all will understand. When a court makes a pronouncement, it is not for you to come and begin to cite constitution or to tell us that party is supreme. Yes, party is supreme, but the court is supremacy. The court is the only person that can say something that is green is now blue, and everyone will be bound to see it as blue. It will only take the court to rescind the decision, or a higher court upturning the decision before you can start seeing that thing as green again.”

He added, “So, what I am saying is that there is a court order on this matter that is still alive. It is not for you to come and be citing authorities, but for you to go back to the court and beg it to rescind its decision, or you go to a higher court to upturn it. That is why it is ‘My Lord’ that said it. It is only a court that can say a woman is a man, and it will stand. A decision may be wrong against the constitution of the party, it may be against the Electoral Act, or even against the constitution of the country, but what is important is that ‘My Lord’ has spoken. I salute the parties involved, but I want to say that Senator Ugochukwu Uba has proven his point more clearly.”

Then, he gave the final verdict saying, “Sen. Uba’s faction having followed the order of the court in holding its primary election is hereby validated as the candidate of the PDP. INEC is hereby ordered to list Sen. Ugochukwu Uba as the candidate of the PDP, and a cost of N10 million awarded against the first and second defendant to the plaintiff as legal fees.”

Reacting to the judgment, PDP’s national leadership faulted the judgment, alleging that Nwabunike was tried to thwart the party’s chance to field a candidate of its choice. In a statement by its spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan, the party alleged Nwabunike derailed the course of justice by making away with the case file on Uba Vs PDP & Ors in a desperate bid to frustrate an appeal against his judgment.

“The PDP charges O.A Nwabunike to immediately release the case file, as the compromises in the case are already known to the public, especially the people of Anambra state,” a PDP statement claimed. “The only reason Justice Nwabunike disappeared with the case file and refused to make copies of his judgment available to the PDP and its candidate, Valentine Ozigbo, is because he (Justice Nwabunike) is aware that his perverted judgement cannot stand in any appeal.”

It added, “Uba, who did not participate in the PDP primary, instituted a suit against the PDP, our candidate, Valentine Ozigbo, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), wherein he challenged Ozigbo’s candidature for the November 6, 2021 governorship election.

“Barely 24 hours after Senator Uba instituted the suit, Justice Nwabunike curiously granted an ex parte injunction restraining INEC from carrying out their constitutional duty and also abridged the time within which the defendants are legally obliged to file their defence from 42 days to only three days in violation of Order 16 Rule 1(2) of the Anambra State High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules 2019.”

Despite the obvious hardship created by “this strange ex parte order, the judge, on the day of the hearing, being July 16 2021,” denied the defendants time to respond to the processes served on them and proceeded with the hearing of the plaintiff’s case, PDP further alleged. It also pointed out that regardless of the 180 days provided by the constitution for the hearing and determination of pre-election matters, the judge hastily concluded proceedings and delivered judgment within 14 days.

“The most unfortunate part of this episode is that the judge,” said PDP, “after hastily delivering the judgment, made away with the case file and refused to release copies of his judgment to the defendants despite their application in the open court as well as the officially written application to the judge.”

However, to the chagrin of the defendants, “the court has gone ahead to issue copies of the judgment to the plaintiff, Sen. Uba.” PDP further accused the trial judge of making efforts to frustrate the party and Ozigbo’s notices of appeal.

“Justice Nwabunike must be made to release the case file as well as the copies of the judgment because his continued refusal is capable of pitching the Judiciary against the people of Anambra, whose mandate, as being expressed in our candidate, Valentine Ozigbo, is being undermined by Justice Nwabunike,” the party pointed out.

Weighing in on the crisis, a social commentator and member of the Ozigbo group, C. J. Ubaka stated, “To begin with, INEC did not ‘drop’ Valentine Ozigbo from the list of candidates as some mischief makers are making it seem. His name was omitted in obedience to an existing court order, restraining INEC from publishing the name of anybody as the PDP candidate.”

He further noted, “Following the dictations of the PDP constitution, the NWC transmitted the outcome of the election to INEC, a process that included the submission of the candidate’s name to the electoral monitoring authority. At the same time, Valentine Ozigbo received his Certificate of Return from the national chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, putting a final nail to the coffin of the shadows of doubt cast around the authenticity of his emergence.

“Hence, it is safe to say that the omission does not in any way undermine the validity of the candidacy of Valentine Ozigbo. Hence there is no cause for alarm.”

He anchored his argument on a statement credited to Festus Okoye, an INEC national commissioner.

“In the case of Valentine Ozigbo, INEC simply acted on an existing court order, stopping them from publishing the name of Valentine Ozigbo. However, the same INEC confirmed that Valentine Ozigbo is the candidate produced by their party’s primary election the commission monitored,” said Ubaka. “Therefore, the PDP has the opportunity to vacate the existing court order, and as soon as that is done, Ozigbo’s name will be published by the commission.”

If Ozigbo was ‘dropped,’ there would have been a replacement for him on the list, as in the case of the candidate of APGA, when Soludo’s name was replaced with Umeoji’s in obedience to a court judgment. The triad of APC, APGA and PDP’s troubles may be the turning point for other parties in the governorship race.

The national chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ralphs Okey Nwosu, told THISDAY: “What these parties held is not primary elections, and they should not participate in the November 6 governorship election in Anambra state.

“If, after 22 years of practising democracy, we cannot do the right thing, then we are doomed. INEC must learn to sanction people because none of these three political parties had a primary election.”

ADC fancies itself to win the election as the crisis-ridden big three parties race against time to resolve their separate malaise.

“ADC has a strong chance in the forthcoming election and we know our candidate, Akachukwu Nwankpo, has all it takes to govern the state. We have been in the political system of this state for decades, and we have always participated actively in the state’s transition process, and I can tell you that people are not happy with the ruling party in the state, APGA.

“We are working with a lot of people to sack APGA in Anambra state. You already know that both PDP and APC have lost the confidence of the people. So, the next option is the third most popular political party in the country, which is ADC,” Nwosu said.

QUOTE 1

“Let me speak to my judgment now in a way that all will understand. When a court makes a pronouncement, it is not for you to come and begin to cite constitution or to tell us that party is supreme. Yes, party is supreme, but the court is supremacy. The court is the only person that can say something that is green is now blue, and everyone will be bound to see it as blue. It will only take the court to rescind the decision, or a higher court upturning the decision before you can start seeing that thing as green again. So, what I am saying is that there is a court order on this matter that is still alive. It is not for you to come and be citing authorities, but for you to go back to the court and beg it to rescind its decision or you go to a higher court to upturn it.”

QUOTE 2