All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu, has said the recognition accorded Chief Chekwas Okorie as the party’s National Chairman by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Maurice Iwu is unacceptable.Ojukwu said Iwu’s action was an affront on the rule of law and an indirect invitation to anarchy.
INEC had last Friday handed over the forms for the February 6, 2010 governorship election in Anambra State to the Okorie-led faction of APGA, a move that led to a free-for-all between the National Secretary of Chief Victor Umeh’s faction of the party and Okorie himself at the Abuja headquarters of INEC.
Speaking with newsmen on the issue yesterday in Enugu, Ojukwu said Iwu’s penchant for disregarding court orders portended great danger for the nation’s democracy.
He said it was wrong for INEC to recognise Okorie when the courts had accorded the status of APGA chairman to Umeh.
“Iwu should know that when the sun fails to rise, there would be total darkness in the land. My position has always been the same and I can’t change it inasmuch as I know that it is in accordance with the relevant provision of the law. And that position is that Umeh remains the National chairman of APGA,” Ojukwu said while expressing optimism that once the right thing was done, his party would win the February 6 governorship election in Anambra state.
He said: “I follow the path of legality. What we have found before us is straight-forward. We as a people have decided the path we want to follow and we cannot fold our arms and watch somebody in the mould of Iwu to come and decide otherwise for us. Iwu should respect our position because if he doesn’t do that, I don’t want to give out threats, but I’m sure they know what would happen.”
Ojukwu, the presidential candidate of APGA in the 2007 presidential poll, noted that his party had always obeyed court orders and as such would not find it funny whenever a court order is grossly violated by those that ought to abide by the rule of law.
He said he would direct his followers on what to do to Iwu and INEC at the appropriate time if the INEC chairman “continued to thread the path of dishonour”.
While accusing some outside forces of working tirelessly to discredit and de-list APGA from the next year’s gubernatorial election in Anambra, Ojukwu aligned himself with the position of Umeh that the party would return to court to further bring to its knowledge the gross violation and flagrant disregard of its orders by Iwu’s INEC.
Umeh in a reaction to the development stated that it would not join issues with Okorie but would head for court.
He said it was totally against the spirit and letters of the rule of law for INEC to present forms to Okorie whom he said had long been expelled from the party and his recently held convention described by the court as a mere domestic activity.
Umeh has threatened court action over the development while Okorie said his faction of the party was going ahead with arrangements for the governorship primaries.
A governorship aspirant of APGA, Mr. Mike Okoye, has, however, said his choice of the party is not based only on the conviction that it is only the platform that he can use to achieve his governorship ambition.
After collecting his nomination form, Okoye insisted that APGA was popular among the Igbo and that he was willing to bring all members together for a common purpose.
He said within the time available before the election, a lot could still be done to ensure a resounding victory for APGA.
Meanwhile, all is now set for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ward congress election holding in the state today.
Party members in the state are expected to elect three delegates from each of the 236 wards preparatory to the October 2 state congress election where the governorship candidate of the party will be picked.
THISDAY gathered from the office of PDP National Organising Secretary that the delegates’ election will take place simultaneously in all the 236 wards.
An aspiring delegate is expected to pay a nomination fee of N10, 000 and attach his or her photograph on the form to participate in the election.
A total of 708 delegates are expected to be picked but over 4,000 aspiring delegates had at press time paid that mandatory N10, 000 to contest the election commencing from 8 am.
Almost all the 47 governorship aspirants cleared to contest the election are said to be sponsoring most of the delegates.
Senators and members of the House of Representatives and state assembly members that belong to PDP are automatic delegates at the congress.