After declaring the Abia North Senatorial election inconclusive, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), reversed itself by announcing the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mao Ohuabunwa, winner of the election, creating room for suspicion that the electoral umpire was influenced by external forces to make a volte-face, writes MIKE UBANI.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Sunday, March 6, declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mao Ohuabunwa, winner of the re-run Abia North Senatorial District election held on Saturday, March 5, 2016. Ohuabunwa scored 26,009 votes to beat his closest rival, Orji Uzor Kalu, of the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), who scored 25,814 votes.
The candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief David Ogba Onuoha (Bourdex), garnered 13,633 votes to place third in the race, while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Nnennanma Lancaster Okoro, secured 976 votes to win the fourth position in the contest which according to several people, the ruling PDP government in Abia state treated as a major project that must be prosecuted to its advantage.
Not a few people were taken aback over the declaration of Ohuabunwa as winner of the election because the Returning Officer, Dr. Ojike Nwankwo, had earlier declared the exercise inconclusive on the basis that it was mismanaged in almost all the five local government areas that constitute the senatorial district.
Furthermore, the returning officer announced that the number of cancelled votes in areas where electoral malpractices were established are higher than the difference between the number of votes scored by Ohuabunwa and Kalu. The PDP candidate beat the candidate of the PPA with only 195 votes, while the number of votes cancelled was put at 40,000.
However, the The Head, Education and Publicity, INEC, Abia state, Mr Edwin Enabor, said that Nwankwo acted in error by declaring the election inconclusive.
“The returning officer erroneously declared the re-run election
inconclusive. This was wrong,” Enabor said, adding that “in a re-run election, a winner must emerge by simple majority.”
He explained that “the issue of the margin of lead vis-a-vis the
number of registered voters does not arise in a re-run election.”
Both Ogba and Kalu had challenged INEC’s declaration of Ohuabunwa as winner of the March 28, 2015 senatorial election in Abia North before the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, but the duo failed to get the tribunal to overturn the decision of INEC.
And dissatisfied with the ruling of the Election Petitions Tribunal, Ogba and Kalu had approached the Appeal Court to seek redress. But while the Appeal Court threw away Ogba’s appeal, it however, ruled in favour of Kalu – describing the March 28 election as synonymous with fraud, and went ahead to nullify it – a development which created room for the March 5, 2016 election.
LEADERSHIP learnt that the PDP-led government in Abia state was rattled by the decision of the Appeal Court, and the prospect of either the candidate of APGA or PPA, especially the candidate of PPA coming to the Senate filled the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu-led administration, and the immediate past governor of the state Senator Theodore Orji with alarm.
Kalu was governor of the state between 1999 and 2007. He was elected on the platform of the PDP, but later defected to the PPA – a party he formed while he was still in office as governor. He contested the 2007 presidential election on the platform of PPA, but failed to clinch the trophy.
But the story of Senator Theodore Orji, who served Kalu for eight years as chief of staff was totally different. Shortly after he was nominated as PPA governorship candidate in the state, Orji was arrested and detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly helping himself with public funds running into several millions of Naira. A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos later remanded him in Ikoyi Maximum Security Prison, Lagos.
Nevertheless, he went ahead to win the 2007 governorship election through the instrumentality of Kalu. And apparently using his network of connections, Kalu got the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to release him on bail from prison, paving the way for him (Orji) to be sworn-in as a successor to former Governor Kalu.
However, by or before 2010, ex-governor Orji complained publicly that he was held in bondage by his political godfather and some members of his family. He said that this repression accounted for his inability to provide the much needed democracy dividends to the people of Abia state.
When he thought that the alleged heat from his predecessor and relations had become unbearable, he defected from PPA to APGA, and was received with both hands by late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was then national leader of APGA.
But for inexplicable reason, Orji shortly afterwards left APGA, and returned to PDP. It was gathered that the late Biafran leader rained curses on ex-governor Orji, when he confirmed that he had abandoned APGA and returned to the PDP.
And ex-governor Orji on his part allegedly swore to make ex-governor Kalu politically irrelevant at the state and national levels. The position of Senator Orji who currently represents Abia Senatorial District in the upper legislative chambers could account for the reason why he stoutly stood against ex-governor Kalu’s bid to return to the PDP, even after he had been cleared by the national secretariat of PDP to return to the party.
In 2011, ex-governor Kalu contested the senatorial election on the platform of PPA, and lost to late Senator Uche Chukwumerije, then of the PDP. Those close to him confirmed to LEADERSHIP that after the 2011 outing, Kalu resolved to take a shot at the senatorial seat as many times as possible.
That resolve could have largely informed his decision to again contest the senatorial election in 2015. Also, his going to court after INEC announced Ohuabunwa winner of the March 28 elections could have flowed from his avowal to make it to the senate despite the odds placed on his way by his political foes.
It was gathered that Senator Orji had boasted several weeks leading to the March 5, 2016 rerun senatorial election in Abia North, that he would never allow his former political godfather to come close to the gates of the National Assembly.
Few days to the re- run election, some PDP chieftains in the state alleged that ex-Governor Orji is pro-Biafra, and so if allowed to come to the senate, he might infect several other senators especially those from the South-East with the pro-Biafra virus.
This accusation came within the period President Muhammadu Buhari vowed that his administration will not tolerate the agitation for the resuscitation of the failed Biafra Republic.
And going by the sloppy handling of the result of last Saturday’s Senatorial election in Abia North, there is a consensus in Kalu’s camp that the Federal Government would have taken the allegation of Kalu’s pro-Biafra stature seriously, and therefore ordered INEC to reverse itself, and declare Ohuabunwa winner of the election.
It was further gathered that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu literally ordered all those holding public offices in the state, and who hail from Abia North Senatorial District, “to go home and deliver your wards to Ohuabunwa.” The superlative performance of Ohuabunwa in Isuikwuato local government area where he won in eight wards, out of the nine wards in the council area, could be attributable to the governor’s alleged instruction to officials in his administration in this senatorial zone.
Abia North Senatorial District is made up five local government areas. They are Arochukwu, Bende, Isuikwuato, Ohafia, and Umunneochi. The PDP candidate won in four out of the five local government areas that make up Abia North. Ohuabunwa and Kalu hail from Arochukwu, and Bende local government areas respectively. Ogba comes from Ohafia local government area.
It was gathered that some senior Abia state government officials from Nkporo in Ohafia local government area, forced INEC to begin the election in the area by 2 a.m of March 5, when agents of the opposition parties and their supporters were probably enjoying their early morning sleep.
And shortly after casting his vote by 10 a.m. at the Onu Ibina Ukwu Primary School, Igbere, ward A polling unit 002, ex-governor Kalu, reportedly rushed to Nkporo to apparently get INEC to nullify the election allegedly conducted by 2 am.
The APGA senatorial candidate confirmed the incident at Nkporo while speaking to journalists after casting his vote at the polling booth located inside the premises of the legendary Enuda High School, Abiriba. He said that seven cars belonging to unidentified persons were burnt when some youths in Nkporo tried to stop the exercise from commencing at the ungodly hour. He blamed the police for not “properly policing the area”.
Perhaps, the result of the election would have been different if APGA supporters had come out en masse to vote for the senatorial candidate of the party. In fact, by 12.30 p.m. of March 5, only 34 people had cast their votes in the booth where the APGA candidate voted. And in several parts of Abiriba – which is said to be the stronghold of the APGA candidate, there were reports of low voter turn-out.
LEADERSHIP gathered that some party officials mounted pressure on the APGA candidate to order his supporters to vote for either Kalu or Ohuabunwa, since the party had lost the gubernatorial tussle in the state, and so had little prospect of producing a senator.
Many APGA supporters who apparently would have swelled the votes of their candidate were said to have stayed back at home when they heard that pressure was being mounted on their candidate to support either Kalu or Ohuabunwa. The APGA candidate scored 13,633 votes to come third in the election.
The struggle for the control of Abia Senatorial District may not yet be over. There are indications that ex-Governor Kalu may go to court to challenge INEC declaration of Ohuabunwa as winner of the election, when the same INEC had earlier declared the contest as inconclusive.
“I have a loud voice, and I also have a deep pocket”, boasted ex-Governor Kalu. The implication is that he might in the days to come take his case before the Election Petitions Tribunal.
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