Intrigues that aborted APC’s conquest in Delta
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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.
