It is that season again when politicians sit on the truth and prefer to share the lies; when they press high and quick for decisions in court, bamboozling the court and people with ‘facts’ and ‘figures’, just because they think they deserve to be awarded a decision which had gone against them previously.
So it was with Senator Ayogu Eze at the Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, upheld the nomination of Ugwuanyi as the 2015 PDP’s candidate for that governorship election in Enugu State.
What was Eze’s grouse? Well, he was the candidate of a parallel PDP primary that year and had insisted that he would go ahead to fly the party’s flag at the gubernatorial election, but the party had upheld the emergence of Ugwuanyi as the winner. Dismissing the suit brought by Eze seeking to upturn the emergence of Ugwuanyi, the court, presided over by Justice Evo Chukwu, held that there was no infraction on the Electoral Act.
Eze had approached the Federal High Court to challenge the delegates’ list used for the conduct of the election that produced Ugwuanyi on the grounds that another Federal High Court presided by Justice Adeniyi Ademola had, in November 2014, sanctioned the list produced by an ad-hoc delegates’ election duly conducted by the party in the state, which elected him in a parallel primary.
Eze, desperate for a decision, urged the court to hold that, the PDP, by “ignoring, refusing and/or neglecting to receive and act on the result of the ad-hoc delegates list,” breached Articles 2 and 3 of the PDP Electoral Guidelines for Primary Election 2014, Section 87 (1) and (2) of the Electoral Act and Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution.
In his ruling, though, Justice Chukwu upheld the submissions of defence counsel, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) and ruled that the judgment of Justice Ademola did not embody a mandatory order to use the delegates list from the ad-hoc delegates election, noting that there was no breach of Section 87 (4) (b) of the Electoral Act. He added that there was nothing before the court to show that any list was sanctioned. “Obviously, he (Eze) read the judgment out of context and attempted to impute meaning outside the judgment.”
The court noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had, through an affidavit it deposed before it, confirmed that its officials only monitored the conduct of the December 8, 2014, primary election that was organised by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, which was won by Ugwuanyi.
According to the court, Eze failed to adduce any evidence to show that the parallel election that produced him was either conducted, sanctioned or authenticated by the PDP through its NEC.
The court, therefore, held that: “The plaintiff had tried to import into the judgment what was not said by the judge. The powers to conduct congresses are vested on the NEC of a political party by the Electoral Act.
“Plaintiff has not been able to show any infraction on the Electoral Act. Only one election was conducted in Enugu by NEC of the PDP and it elected Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi as its candidate,” the judge ruled.
“Even if I agree with the plaintiff that there was parallel primary election on that date, the party still has the power to decide on who to sponsor and it has said that it is Ugwuanyi.
“The court, based on facts made available to it by all the parties in this matter, is on the right pedestal to hold that only one primary election was conducted by NEC of the PDP which nominated Ugwuanyi as its candidate.”
The Court expressed surprise that, while Eze insisted that he was forced to boycott the primary election that produced Ugwuanyi – after the man that was mandated by the PDP NWC to conduct the exercise, His Royal Highness, King Asara Asara, showed him the ‘doctored’ list of delegates – he, however, failed to mention the name of the person that conducted the parallel primary election where he (Eze) was declared winner.
In his remarks after the judgment, lawyer to the PDP, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN) said: “We contended that the PDP conducted only one election in Enugu state and that election produced Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. So, the plaintiff embarked on an illegality. The congress that produced him was not conducted by the National Working Committee of the PDP. That is it”.
On his part, one of the legal counsels to Senator Eze, Alex Akoja, said: “Eze approached the Federal High Court to confirm the election where he emerged as the governorship candidate of the PDP in Enugu state. The court dismissed the preliminary objection. But on the substantive suit, the court declared the fourth defendant (Ugwuanyi) as the candidate that emerged from the primaries. That is the judgment of the court.”
Upon the announcement of the court’s decision by the court, the court premises was turned into a carnival ground, as supporters of Ugwuanyi thronged the court premises, singing and dancing, promising that the man they call ‘Gburugburu; would return in 2019 “to do more”.
The Supreme Court on the 6th of July, 2018 in Abuja affirmed the election of Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi. In the lead judgment delivered by justice Centus Nweze and unanimously upheld by a five-man panel of the apex court, the court agreed with the Court of Appeal ruling which dismissed Eze’s appeal for lack of merit and locus standi.
The court also said the senator had admitted in his affidavit that he did not participate in the primary election conducted by the National Executive Committee of the PDP.
It then held that the High Court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit ab initio since Senator Eze did not qualify as an aspirant and was therefore not entitled to challenge the outcome of the primary election as provided in section 87 sub-section 9 of the Electoral Act.
The apex court also fined the lawmaker for one million naira on the grounds that the issues he raised have been decided on severally and there was no need for him to bring them up again. Senator Ayogu Eze in turn accepted a protracted defeat and congratulated Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.
While many have wondered if Eze would return to bite Ugwuanyi in the back come 2019, this article takes the risk to declare that neither Eze nor the APC – whose party hierarchy in the state have heaped praise on Ugwuanyi for his politics of inclusion and giant strides in the state – would pose any threat to either the PDP or its candidate, Ugwuanyi, come 2019.
Eze’s act has backfired, but, by every definition, it was the act of a desperate, wind-clawing, sinking man. Once upon a time, he advertised his “sufficient affinity with President Muhammadu Buhari” but it did not win him any ‘brownie’ point in his bid to win the 2015 election in the state. Having changed sides so quickly, it is pertinent to wonder what happened to the same “sufficient affinity” which he claimed to have with former president Goodluck Jonathan (whose presence in Umuida in 2014 he truly believed was enough to guarantee him ascendancy to Lion Building in 2015).
If he has any plans in 2019, it would do him a world of good to reconsider his “affinities” and how to channel them, for if he could not defeat Ugwuanyi with these “affinities” in 2015, he may hardly scratch the surface in 2019, given Buhari’s stance in the region – talk more of that for one of its sons.
Okwesilieze Nwodo and others have hailed Ugwuanyi’s style and strides in the state and these are the men who are supposed to endorse whatever Eze is cooking in 2019, even after he abandoned them and aligned with other interests for eight, long years. What will he do when the story of how he threw away the baby with the bath water back then is rehashed? The story would be better told by the membership of the Nsukka caucus of that administration who still feel betrayed by Ayogu Eze. What is well known is that, while at the Senate, he related better with his kinsmen across the divide than with the mainstream Nsukka folks that ought to be his constituency. We all know what the result would be; the odds are not in his favour, they are stacked against him.
In the last four years of his eight-year sojourn at the ‘Red Chamber’ of the National Assembly, Eze was not only one of the closest friends and acolytes of President Jonathan, he was equally the all-powerful chairman of the strategic Senate Committee on Works. In a period of reckoning such as now, it ought to have been beautiful for him to be pointing at the roads he attracted to his constituency, the great people of Nsukka senatorial zone. Sadly, there is none. One would have also loved to know how many students he offered scholarships to. Again, none. How many businessmen from Nsukka senatorial zone benefited from his influence like Sen. Ike Ekweremadu in Enugu West? We know the answer to that. Even more embarrassing is the fact that he came into Enugu only some weeks ago, since leaving the senate in 2015. This speaks volumes about his political structure, that was the much reason why he couldn’t know the name of his party ward chairman in an interview recently with channels television.
Let us leave Eze and his loss to Ugwuanyi and explain why 2019 would not be a great political forecast for him. Any observer of politics must know that it is local – essentially. Who will vote for Ayogu Eze after all these ‘years’ in the wilderness? When did he do his ground-work? Some say he is still “relevant”. That propaganda about his relevance is just a storm in a tea-cup or rather clawing at the wind. Right now, politically, he is no-where. He may yet rise, but now, he is not in a position to defeat anyone.
Eze’s gubernatorial dream is blowing in the wind; no one can be deceived. Well, may be he has succeeded in deceiving a few, but, definitely, not everyone. His bargaining chip may be the APC’s previous victory at the presidential poll. So much for that. Hardworking members of the party in the state, who have invested so much in the party know this trick. It is one they will not fall for; so far, he has sown nothing (even if he has, it is very little).
So, let us say he wants to advertise proof of his imposed candidacy; what, for God’s sake, would he advertise as his contribution to the party to deserve the coveted ticket? Rather than exercise discretion and study the structural context of the leadership of the party in the state, he has, in his usual megalomania, sought to polarise the structure of the party in the state. Thus, on his arrival at the Akanu Ibiam Airport of recent, he showed so much contempt for the party’s chairman in the state, Mr. Ben Nwoye and was busy searching for the man he later defeated in the primary, Deacon Okey Ogbodo.
Eze is welcome to contest in 2019, but he must know where he stands and that, ultimately, neither he nor his party poses a worry or stand a chance against Ugwuanyi. They have not earned that right at the polls…yet, thanks to Ugwuanyi’s political ideology which has seen him bind old wounds and reconcile the state. He is humble and, with him there are no broken promises.
Eze on the other hand…I guess we had better not go down that lane. 2019 in Enugu guber race, Ayogu Eze not Ugwuanyi’s headache.
