Intrigues that aborted APC’s conquest in Delta

Intrigues that aborted APC’s conquest in Delta

Classified information

FORMER  Minister of State for Education, Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, called Saturday Vanguard period before the Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Delta States Governorship Election Petition Tribunals delivered their verdicts to relate what he said what he would have loved not to reveal. It was meant to be off record at the time.

He made the phone call when the Akwa Ibom and Rivers Tribunals eventually nullified the elections of Governors Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Nyesom Wike (Rivers) almost in sequence    penultimate week and swore, “We will not allow it in Delta because our candidate (referring to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa) unmistakably won the election.”

Five days to October 26 judgment of the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, he invited Saturday Vanguard for an interview at    his country home at Oginibo in Ughelli South Local Government Area to discuss his unsettling concerns. Still, he kept meat of the matter a top secret, chiefly saying in the chat, published, last Saturday, that it would be illegal for the tribunal to annul the election of Okowa, as Deltans overwhelmingly voted for him. It was no doubt an attempt to preempt the tribunal from executing what he believed was a hidden plan.

He claimed that anxiety had built up in the state over alleged plan by the tribunal to invalidate the election, and order a rerun, adding that some people were already boasting that it was a done deal. Gbagi urged the tribunal to uphold justice.

The judgment came and went on Monday. The three-man tribunal presided over by Justice Nasiru Gunmi threw out the petitions by All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor and Labour Party’s Chief Great Ogboru on grounds that they woefully failed to prove    that the election of Okowa was not    in substantial compliance with the Electoral Act.

Unwary confirmation

Unwittingly, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who was knowledgeable on the affair confirmed to Saturday Vanguard 24 hours after the judgment that the clandestine high-level plan was actually to sweep out PDP in Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Delta states.

He said, “It was sealed and delivered until Saturday, two days to the judgment when those behind the scheme aborted it. It was easy in Akwa Ibom and Rivers states because of certain factors that worked in favour of the APC candidates there, but in Delta state, we had a different case because of our candidate.”

“The game plan was known only to selected leaders in the state, two other South-South states and Abuja because we did not want it to leak. The problem that came up at the last minute was if the tribunal cancelled the election and ordered a rerun in Delta, who would APC field for the election? It was not a question of that Delta could not go; after all, it was the same thing that happened in Akwa Ibom and Rivers.

“When Wike tried to do something funny, the tribunal was moved from Port Harcourt to Abuja, this was done to tell him that he was not in charge and cannot be in charge under this dispensation. Our challenge really was our candidate, O’tega Emerhor, whom many think is not strong enough to dethrone Okowa.

“You see, there was no need to nullify the election and also leave the room for PDP to win again. We tinkered with the option of getting a replacement from the Delta North (Anioma), Okowa’s senatorial district, recall that Emerhor is from Delta Central (Urhobo). The APC leaders involved agreed to the replacement option but there was a problem,” he said.

Obstacle

According to him, “The INEC guidelines do not allow substitution of governorship candidate in a rerun. So if the tribunal ordered a rerun, it would still amount to the same thing that we were trying to avoid, that was how we had to let it go.”

APC had no power to control  judges – Emerhor

Olorogun Emerhor, who was still waiting for his lawyers to obtain a certified copy of the tribunal judgment as of Wednesday. He dismissed the theory when Saturday Vanguard contacted him. He said, “People are just trying to speculate, some people are throwing up the theory, which they fabricated to gain significance. I have not heard of such plan before now, somebody is trying to be smart.”

“APC does not have the power to control judges, if there are people who have the power to influence judges, it is not APC, which is why I told you that I am waiting for the copy of the judgment to read it and know what the judges even said,” Emerhor said.

The APC governorship candidate said from what he heard, the tribunal said it did not annul Okowa’s election because the petitioners were unable to prove that the data uploaded by INEC, which they relied on was the complete one, adding, but they did not say that the respondents proved otherwise.

“I think it was just a loophole they created to pave way for Okowa, but it is not going to stand at the Appeal, that I can assure you,” he confidently asserted. For those saying he should forget going on appeal, Emerhor asked them to perish the thought, as he was not only going to the Appeal Court but    Supreme Court if need be.

APC’s game plan is to takeover S-South states

Gbagi, who spoke again on Wednesday to Saturday Vanguard, said, “All these 14 days to 15 days before the judgment, the people had completed what they wanted to do; they were already nominating commissioners in Delta state ahead of the October 26 judgment because of where their power was coming from. The target of APC is to take all the South- South states.”

“What I can tell you is that we did what we needed to do and at the end of it, we agreed that we must unleash several projectiles to put them in check. Everything put together, Okowa should go and thank God and for being sensible, to make the contacts that he made at the right time. Otherwise, the plan to throw him out had been concluded.” he said.

Gbagi asserted, “In Nigeria, it is not enough that you won an election, you have to struggle to sustain your victory. Like I told you before this time, it is not everything that one can discuss, some of the information will be too shocking to talk about now, a lot of mathematics went into play. Nobody in APC gave Okowa any chance to continue, but we proved them wrong. “

“When it is time to declassify the information, we will do so but for now, let us watch their next and subsequent moves,” Gbagi said.

Opposition cohesive against Okowa- Jaro

An APC stalwart, Olorogun Egbo Jaro, who corroborated Emerhor’s claim, said it was fallacious that the opposition in the state was at each other’s throat over how to dethrone Okowa. “I am a firm believer that the opposition should work together in Delta state and there is an understanding that we will all work together to present a candidate. We are already in advanced negotiation between Emerhor and Ogboru to maximize our potential to present a single candidate,” he said.

Jaro said PDP has been on 16-year hegemony in the state and “we know that we cannot break the hegemony if we fight from a disunited front, we have not determined who will run the ticket, but we are hopeful that the Appeal Court will overturn the judgment of the Delta tribunal and order a rerun.”

APC leaders, however, claim that the PDP influenced the tribunal with N3 billion to turn the verdict against it. They pointed to the report in an online medium same day the tribunal delivered judgment.

Okowa never influenced tribunal- Aniagwu

However, Mr Ehiedu Aniagwu, Chief Press Secretary, CPS, to Governor Okowa, said anybody that believes the story of the medium in question could believe anything.

He told Saturday Vanguard that Governor Okowa, who was looking for money to develop the state had no such fund to throw around and there was nothing like that. He maintained that PDP was the only party on ground in the state and those hoping that tribunal would overturn the wish of the people would fail.