As the general elections remains few weeks away,
facts are beginning to emerge on the plans of
insiders in the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) to scuttle President Goodluck
Jonathan’s re-election bid and frustrate the
electoral fortunes of State and National Assembly
candidates loyal to him, including those from
Anambra State.
It is important to point out that the heavy weights
being schemed out at the instance of a group led
by Ejike Oguebego, a loyalist of Chief Chris Uba in
complicity with INEC officials synchronized by
the duo of Ambassador Lawrence Nwuruku and
Barrister Bawa are those who can swing votes in
favour of the President and PDP in Anambra
State.
Investigation by our reporter revealed that part of
the moves to stop President Jonathan from
coasting home to victory in the forthcoming
Presidential election billed for February 14, this
year was the complicity of the electoral
commission with the Oguebego-led faction of the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to botch a court
order.
Recall that, in the run-up to the 2015 general
elections, Mr. Oguebego faction of the PDP in
Anambra State had obtained an order of the
Federal High Court presided by Justice Chukwu in
which the court recognized Oguebego-led PDP in
the State and whatever list of candidates
emanating from it.
Specifically, the Justice Chukwu’s Federal High
Court judgment order in suit No. FHC/ABJ/
CS/854/2014 in Paragraph 5 states as follows:
That the 2nd defendant (INEC), its agents,
servants, privies, assigns, officials, whatsoever
name they may be called, are restrained from
accepting or receiving any delegate list or
nominated candidates that may emerge from the
congresses or primaries conducted by the
Caretaker Committee set up by the 1st defendant
(PDP) for the PDP, Anambra State Chapter, except
those that may emanate from the plaintiff
(Oguebego).
By this order, it means that if PDP sends any list to
INEC that is not from Oguebego, INEC is
restrained from accepting the list.
However, in the process of nominating candidates
for the general elections, an exparte judgment
was obtained at the FCT High Court of equal
jurisdiction ordering the PDP on one hand to
submit to INEC the names of Senator Andy Uba,
Hon. Mrs Uche Ekwunife and Princes Stella Oduah
as senatorial candidates for Anambra South,
Central and North districts and on the other hand
ordering INEC to process and publish the said
names.
INEC believed to have been compromised dilly-
dallied and did not publish the names of senator
Uba, Ekwunife and Oduah until the order expired.
Operationally, legal minds are of the opinion that
the court judgment earlier obtained by Oguebego
did not give any specific or direct order to INEC
and the electoral commission has no power or
authority to collect list of candidates from a State
Chapter of the party contrary to well-established
position of the law of the land, the Electoral Act
and Supreme Court of the land, that ruled that it
is only the National Chairman and National
Secretary of a Party that can submit list of its
candidates to INEC.
It is an accepted position in law that any law that
conflicts with the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria is rendered null and void and
of no effect.
This position, may have informed the contention
of those who stand by the decision of Senator Uba,
Hon (Mrs) Ekwunife and Princess Oduah to go
ahead with their campaigns, stressing that only
the National leadership of the party represented
by its National Chairman and National Secretary
that should submit names of its candidates for the
election.
But Chief Chris Uba’s moles in INEC, particularly
Ambassador Lawrence Nwuruku, the INEC’s
Commissioner for the South East zone and
Barrister Bawa, the acting Director of Legal
Department think otherwise and are frustrating
National Chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru
Jega’s desire to obey the Supreme Court
interpretation of the law to wit, that the
National Chairman and National Secretary of a
party are the only officials of a political party
mandated to submit names of its candidates to
INEC .
Against the backdrop of the two conflicting
orders, and desire of Professor Jega to toe legal
line to implement the Supreme Court order, the
duo of Nwuruku and Bawa, according to sources,
asked Chief Chris Uba to file a contempt
proceedings against the National Chairman of
INEC to use it to deceive him and create the
impression that the commission is disobeying a
lawful court order.
This gambit, it was gathered, was what prompted
Jega to remove his hands from the matter and
allow the Legal Department to have its way to
interpret the Justice Chukwu’s court order to
allow the Oguebego group to favour Chief Chris
Uba, Senator Annie Okonkwo and John Emeka for
the Senate seats, among others.
In addition, to the Legal Department, INEC has the
Delta State-born Ire Miren as Head of the Legal
Services Committee which has five Commissioners
including Nwuruku from Ebonyi State who was
asked to share the ‘dirty money’ from the hatchet
job running into about one hundred million to
other members for a job well done, though some
officials denied ever receiving the money. It was
gathered that he collected close to N200 million
from the political godfather gunning for elective
post in Abuja from which he was able to put up
one of the best mansions in the South-East geo-
political zone.
Insiders in INEC, still make a jest of the situation
that when Jega led INEC chieftains to a wedding
ceremony of Ambassador Nwuruku’s daughter at
his country-homein December, last year, the INEC
National Chairman was baffled to discovered the
magnificent edifice put up by his junior officer the
source of which is a subject of secret probe,
according to an insider who leaded anonymity.
Ambassador Nwuruku’s accomplice, Bawa is said
to perpetrate sleaze with impunity especially in
money laundering believable through the Alhaji
Wase who operates Bureau de Change near
Sheraton Hotel, Abuja.
The move to push the Oguebego list at the instance
of Nwuruku and Bawa, according to a source,
unsettled the Secretary to the Federal
Government, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim who had
preferred the former Aviation Minister, Princess
Oduah to former Transport Minister of State,
Chief Emeka, a brother to former Deputy
Governor, Chinedu Emeka.
According to information made available to our
reporter, Senator Anyim contacted his kinsman,
Nwuruku on 12th January this year on his interest
to have Princess Oduah to replace Chief Emeka as
the Senatorial candidate of the PDP for Anambra
North in Oguebego list, but Nwuruku pointedly
told the SGF that he could only do so with the
consent of Chief Chris Ubah.
On account of this, a meeting between Senator
Anyim and Chief Chris Uba, it was learnt, was
arranged by Nwuruku for the interested parties
and held at Chris Uba’s Asokoro residence in
Abuja, but it could not achieve any purpose
because the deadline had elapsed for substitution
and Chief Emeka refused any underground move
to substitute his name.
The fear now, pundits observe, is that, given the
fact that the Legal Department of INEC is the
engine room of the Commission and is involved
in the intrigues and monumental sleeze, the 2015
elections may be bungled and not be free and fair,
if these characters are not sanitized.
Credit Beti Onu, Anambra
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