Urge group to operate within ambit of law
• We’ll remain non-violent, pledges IPOB leader
From Chuks Onuoha, Umuahia and Fred Itua, Abuja
South East senators, operating on the platform of South East Senate Caucus in the National Assembly, yesterday, engaged the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu and his members.
The caucus chairman, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, represented the group, while Kanu attended the meeting on behalf of IPOB.
Kanu, who arrived Abaribe’s country home around 4pm in a Toyota Venza, was ushered into one of the sitting rooms by the aides of his host at the right hand side of the building.
After pleasantries with Abaribe and others, the senator and Kanu went in for a meeting, which lasted for about one hour.
Speaking after the meeting, Abaribe, expressed gratitude over Kanu’s visit, stating that their discussion was fruitful.
“You see, the South East caucus of the National Assembly decided that it was also necessary to have discussions and interactions with IPOB,” he said.
Abaribe, who recalled that the caucus was instrumental to Kanu’s bail, said:“We know that there is a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings, and so much tensions in the land and we want to reduce the tensions, and to do that, we had to discuss, to know where everybody is coming from.
“He (Kanu) has assured us that IPOB is non-violent, and will continue to remain non-violent and will not, in anyway, do anything that will lead to bloodshed and we have also told him our own position, which is that we cannot continue this nation the way it is.”
The senator said there must be restructuring, devolution of power and discussion by component parts of this country .
According to him, “this is to make sure that each and every one will have a better union. As Obama said, a far more promising union for each and everyone of us, not a union you will have some people having a feeling that there are first class, and second class citizens.
We have had a very fruitful discussion and I am very grateful to him for giving us the re-assurance and the assurances we have.
And we are calling on Nigerians to work for the unity of this country and peace of this country and there is not any single one of us that want us to devolve into any conflict.
“We don’t want our land to be used as a conflict base and we also want to continue this discussion.”
Abaribe said the caucus would meet after the National Assembly recess and continue to engage all persons, groups and associations to ensure that everyone was assured of equality and justice.
“We want to ensure that nobody is treated differently and we want to also see Nigeria, not as an oppressive state but a state where we can fully exercise our rights as true citizens of this country,” he said.
Kanu, on his part, said: “The security outfit we are setting up is like any other vigilante outfit every where; it is not armed. We want to stop the menace of Fulani herdsmen in our land; we don’t want it and we won’t have it.
“In the North, you have the Hisber police, the Sharia police, even the Janjawee police, but here we have nothing.
“We need to protect this very land from people and Fulani herdsmen from rustling; we are opposed to any form of disorder and criminality.
MY ORDEAL WITH THE NON- ACADEMIC STAFF IN NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Is a federal University located at awka, Anambra state capital fondly called “unizik” by her students. With her massive faculties scattered around it, sure is a great sight to behold and the serene environment makes learning a lot easier, though every typical student who studies there will know it as “uni-stress”.
After any program be it Regular, continuing education program(CEP), or Diploma ,comes being cleared from school or clearance, I don’t know for other schools but it takes quite a while for a student in NAU to complete this particular phase, and the people solely responsible for this are the non- academic staff of the prestigious University.
They are lazy, rude, annoying and above all they feel you owe them a duty by coming to them for your clearance.
I started my clearance from the faculty of Management Sciences where I was expected to show an evidence of faculty payments before being given the clearance form. The lady I met there was flipping through her phone and kept me standing for some minutes after I have mentioned my mission to her office. Out of curiosity, I peeped to check what she was engulfed in , only to see her pictures…. Yes, she was scrolling through her pictures and kept me standing for 15 minutes !! At the process of calling back her attention she poured water on my neatly arranged receipt that is on her table..
Oh sorry, was her next statement . Do I have a choice, I accepted her apology and headed straight to my department for my HOD’s signature. I submitted my clearance form with the secretary as the process demands, to be collected the next day. Out of my benevolence ,I gave them few days to avoid disappointment.
My next visit to my department made me feel like skinning the secretary alive, guess what? She misplaced my clearance form after days of leaving it with her, my form never got to the desk of the HOD. I was mad, “your form is not with us or it has been misplaced, you have to go back to the faculty and get another form, she blurted out. Ok ma, I replied amidst anger.
It was a terrible experience that the response I got from all these offices were almost the same. It is either they are chatting, neglecting their duties or they went for their break at unusual hour. Most of them are nursing mothers who put their entire attention to their babies. It is a wakeup call for the management of NAU to access the non- academic staffers and how they dispatch their duties. I was made to understand that most of them were either hired through political patronage or releated to management Staff of the University.
Finally,it is so painful that students are treated like animals.
The struggle to actualise the sovereign state for Biafra has taken a new diplomatic turn that might hasten the dreams of the agitators sooner than later.
To this end, a delegation of some Igbo leaders known as the Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), said to be the main sponsor of the trip, and South East Elders Forum, armed with petitions, had visitedto the United States of America’s House of Representatives in Washington DC and also to the United Nations, headquarters, New York, respectively, to drive home their point of self actualisation from Nigeria.
Daily Sun was privileged to have access to the petition from one of the members on their arrival to Nigeria. A member of the delegation, Dr. Dozie Ikedife explained that the team spent a couple of weeks in the United States to ensure that the message was properly delivered to the recipients for necessary actions.
Ikedife said the two bodies made up of traditional rulers, religious leaders, academics, technocrats and leaders of thought, in many fields of human endeavour in Igboland, were concerned about the Igbo ethnic group, Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world.
The petition read in part: “We have suffered genocidal crimes committed against us by Nigerians, especially those of the Northern Nigeria, dating back to 1945. This climaxed in the pogrom of 1966/67. By the general agreement of the people of Eastern Nigeria, we decided to distance ourselves from the rest of Nigeria, based on many waves of unjustified killings. We therefore, elected to be known as people of independent state of Biafra in 1967. Immediately after this, Nigeria with her allies, declared war on this young state of Biafra. Unprepared, unexpected, we were forced to defend ourselves for 30 months before we were overwhelmed by complete blockade, starvation, heavy indiscriminate bombing of churches, markets and other public places. We were forced to surrender to Nigeria’s allied forces on January 12, 1970, to save the rest of the Igbo population from complete eradication,” the letter read.
The delegation in the petition said despite window-dressing declaration of ‘no victor, no vanquished’ and ostensible policy of rehabilitation, reconstruction and reintegration, economic strangulation and systematic exclusion of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria had followed since then.
It articulated what it called unprovoked, unjustifiable sporadic killings of the Igbo that had continued with instances of the Igbo massacre in Jos and Kano genocide which culminated to 1966 pogrom when, according to the petition, over 66,000 Eastern Nigerian civilians were killed in the North, May 29, 1967 when over 200,000 soldiers and civilians were killed in Western and Northern Nigeria, as well as in 1967 to 1970 civil war when 3,000,000 were said to be killed, among other killings.
It noted that the Igbo, on May 30, 2017, decided to observe a ” sit-at-home”to ruminate on their fate in Nigeria, as well as remember their people who have been unjustifiably killed before, during and after the Biafra war. It said that the innocuous sit-at-home order was widely obeyed by Igbo people all over Nigeria, to the surprise of the rest of Nigerians.
“Following this, various Arewa (Northern Nigeria) youth groups unanimously issued a 3-month quit notice to all Igbo people residing or doing business in the Northern Nigeria to leave all parts of Northern Nigeria before October 1, 2017. Failure to do so will attract dire consequences including deaths and confiscation of their properties and businesses. The elders of Northern Nigeria instead of condemning this threat, the letter said, confirmed it.
“It described this as a very significant and ugly development that demonstrated deep seated wide spread disbelieve in one Nigeria of equal citizenship for all by people of Northern Nigeria both young and old . The letter noted that arrival at this point indicated that parting of ways, peaceful separation of Biafra from Nigeria is here now.”
The petition also noted that it was the Igbo people who, in practical terms, had demonstrated their belief in one Nigeria, saying that they lived and invested heavily in every part of the country. Whereas, according to the petition, “there is little or no worthwhile investments in Igbo land by Hausa/Fulani of Northern Nigeria or Yorubas of the Western Nigeria.
“The existence of both peaceful and violent agitations in various parts of the country is a clear indication of generalized discontent. The amalgamation of the country in 1914 has become a marriage in which the partners are not happy and appear irreconcilable. The peaceful dissolution of the marriage (amalgamation) is the most prudent thing to do, rather than persist till these agitations spin out of control with destruction of lives of properties and loss of life in thousands or millions again. Since the Igbo people are so hated and badly treated by some other Nigerians, the only fair thing to do is to let them be separated from the rest of Nigeria before it is too late.
“We agree that living in a big country like Nigeria has some advantages. But if security of life and property is not assured in a big country, then it is far better to live in a smaller country and be alive,” the petition further read.
The elders told the international community that they had noted the recent attempts by Scotland to pull out of the United Kingdom after centuries of the union. That the Great Britain voted to pull out of the European Union after several years of membership. They said they also recalled the the break-up of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the carving out of independent countries out of Union of Socialist Soviet Russia (U.S.S.R) and the recent creation of East Timor, and so on.
They said in the petition that it was because of the Igbo wish to have peaceful carving out of Biafra from Nigeria that the Elders of Indigenous People of Biafra, took the Federal Government of Nigeria to Nigeria’s Federal High Court sitting in Owerri, Imo State, for declaration on the rights of indigenous people to self determination. They said the case was still ongoing.
“We are happy that the United States of America is a champion of democracy and democratic principles hence this appeal to you to help us before it is too late. We hereby appeal to you and through you to the American Congress (Senate and House of Representatives), American Government and American people to save us, the Igbo people of South Eastern Nigeria numbering over 40 million people both at home and outside Igbo land from these series of senseless killings and threats to extermination, before it is too late.
The delegation was also said to have visited Martin Luther King’s Centre for discussion with the management of the Centre on peaceful and lawful process for self determination for people who strongly felt shortchanged.
Customary Government of IPOB has noted with great concern the mindset of President Buhari that the unity of Nigeria cannot be negotiated. President Buhari posited that he slept with Eze Igbo Gburugburu for two nights where they analyzed the problems of Nigeria and arrived at a conclusion that Nigeria must remain one .This position sounds like that of a man who just woke up from slumber-How does the opinion of two men represent the opinion of over 180 million people? Who nominated President Buhari to take decision for the indigenous People on the oneness of Nigeria?
It is sad and difficult to understand why President Buhari has not come to simple terms that Nigeria is man -made and that the Indigenous People residing in Nigeria have inalienable rights for Self determination. If Buhari understood the Problem with Nigeria, what exactly has he done to solve it for 2 years since he assumed power as the President of Nigeria? Is it not shameful that a President who understands the problem of Nigeria would allow himself to be treated outside his beloved country or even allow his beloved Children to enrol in foreign university?
It is no longer in doubt that Nigeria is a failed state and one expects President Buhari to declare state of emergency on poverty and give immediate hope to millions of Nigerians who are hopeless.CG-IPOB wants to welcome Mr President back home as he resumes office as the President of Nigeria.However,CG-IPOB would always remind Mr President that we are in democratic dispensation not military era.CG-IPOB wishes to reassure Mr President that Nigeria would remain as one if he supports the quest for Biafra independence. The new Biafra will assist to build Nigeria and will continue to maintain diplomatic relationship with Nigeria just like Nigeria relates with Cameron and other neighbouring countries.Biafra quest for independence is not new in the history of Nations even in a period Mr President is supporting smaller nations to gain independence.
CG-IPOB wants to emphasize that foreigners who have invested in Biafraland will remain the owners of their investment. We shall remain friendly neighbours as the Israelis and the Egyptians are today ,as the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians are today. The Nigerians will not need Visas to go to Nigeria because both nations are under the ECOWAS Treaty.Moreover; any Nigerian who wants to maintain dual citizenship is free to apply to become a Biafran citizen if he meets the requirements under the Immigration Law. Also, any Biafran who wants to maintain dual citizenship can retain his Nigerian citizenship just as many Nigerians today are British and American citizens.
Why are the people afraid? They are afraid because they lack knowledge of the law. The Bible says that the people perish for lack of knowledge, Hosea 4:6.
Let nobody be afraid of the coming of a new nation called Biafra.
ANAMBRA STATE UPP DELEGATES LIST AND A TRAGIC PRIMARIES
Despite all entreaties, including an order of court that the United Progressive Party should adhere to the provisions of its own constitution in the conduct of the Anambra state governorship primaries, the party did just the opposite.
After a hotly contested ward and local government congress in June 2017, in line with Article 10[4] of the UPP constitution, a delegates list comprised of local government chairmen and secretaries and ward chairmen, secretaries, treasurers, youth leaders and women leaders was compiled and counter signed by the state chairman and secretary and all the local government chairmen and forwarded to the national headquarters for record purposes.
To the surprise and consternation of party members, a delegates list copiously at variance with the list of ELECTED delegates was uploaded on the website of the UPP on the 29th of July 2017 and variously amended on the 4th and 5th of August 2017. The website list contained strange names with no phone numbers unlike the authentic delegates list that had the phone numbers of all delegates displayed.
When accreditation commenced on Saturday the 19th of August, the day of the primaries, I got information that only those whose names appeared on the website list were being allowed into the venue. I drove down to the venue at about 9am and handed over a letter of protest to the election committee chairman, Chief Ejike Uche and the chairman of the party in Anambra state, Dr Sylvester Igwilo. I threatened to withdraw from the primaries if they insist on the use of the illegal register.
I left the venue immediately after and left for the INEC office to register my protest. I thereafter returned to my campaign office. I did not appoint any agent nor did I participate in the kangaroo primaries. A couple of minutes later, I received a call that disenfranchised delegates were becoming uncontrollable and that armed policemen on duty were firing teargas canisters to scare them and that one of the delegates slumped and had been taken to the Amaku Teaching Hospital, Awka. By the time I got to the hospital at about 11am, the delegate, Hon Uwakwe Maduabuchi had given up the ghost. He was the ward chairman of Owerre Ezukala ward 1, Orumba South Local Government Area. The UPP constitution provides for five delegates per ward, the chairman, secretary, treasurer, woman leader and youth leader.
The late Maduabuchi was “lucky” that his name appeared in both the authentic list and the illegal website list. Equally “lucky” were the youth leader and the woman leader but the secretary and treasurer were yanked off the list and replaced with unknown persons. The secretary, Clifford Madu was replaced with Charles Nwafor and the treasurer, Joseph Onyegbule was replaced with someone called Annex Opara. Only the ward congress can replace those elected officers but the national Chairman, Chekwas Okorie, unilaterally replaced elected officers of the party. He replicated these whimsical replacements in about 264 wards across the state, giving him “preference shares” in the primaries and in his ‘dream government’ in Anambra state.
It was while struggling to ensure that his less fortunate colleagues were let into the venue for accreditation that Maduabuchi met his untimely death. He collapsed at the barricades of shame erected to prevent genuine delegates from gaining entrance and allowing handpicked delegates to vote in their stead. He died fighting for justice. How can a political party carry on with a primary election with an officer of the party lying stone dead, a victim of the party’s corrupt manipulation of its delegates list. I immediately called on the party to call off the accreditation exercise as a mark of respect for the dead officer of the party who was killed performing his duties.
When the call fell on deaf ears and considering the fact that my Christian faith and the Biafran Ideology we profess, places a high premium on human life, I promptly withdrew from the exercise. I consider it unconscionable for the party to have carried on with the primaries under the circumstances.
I have noted the willful and corrupt manipulation of the party delegates list by Chief Chekwas Okorie, but it is the display of gross insensitivity to the life of a party member that has made me reconsider my membership of the UPP. I hereby resign my membership of the party with effect from today the 21st day of August 2017. I urge all my supporters and all those who believe in the Biafran ideology of equality, freedom and justice to do same and await further directives.
I am very grateful to God and to all Nigerians for their prayers. I am pleased to be back on home soil among my brothers and sisters.
In the course of my stay in the United Kingdom, I have been kept in daily touch with events at home. Nigerians are robust and lively in discussing their affairs, but I was distressed to notice that some of the comments, especially in the social media have crossed our national red lines by daring to question our collective existence as a nation. This is a step too far.
In 2003 after I joined partisan politics, the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu came and stayed as my guest in my hometown Daura. Over two days we discussed in great depth till late into the night and analyzed the problems of Nigeria. We both came to the conclusion that the country must remain one and united.
Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable. We shall not allow irresponsible elements to start trouble and when things get bad they run away and saddle others with the responsibility of bringing back order, if necessary with their blood.
Every Nigerian has the right to live and pursue his business anywhere in Nigeria without let or hindrance.
I believe the very vast majority of Nigerians share this view.
This is not to deny that there are legitimate concerns. Every group has a grievance. But the beauty and attraction of a federation is that it allows different groups to air their grievances and work out a mode of co-existence.
The National Assembly and the National Council of State are the legitimate and appropriate bodies for national discourse.
The national consensus is that, it is better to live together than to live apart.
Furthermore, I am charging the Security Agencies not to let the successes achieved in the last 18 months be a sign to relax.
Terrorists and criminals must be fought and destroyed relentlessly so that the majority of us can live in peace and safety.
Therefore we are going to reinforce and reinvigorate the fight not only against;
• elements of Boko Haram which are attempting a new series of attacks on soft targets
• kidnappings, farmers versus herdsmen clashes,
• in addition to ethnic violence fuelled by political mischief makers. We shall tackle them all.
Finally, dear Nigerians, our collective interest now is to eschew petty differences and come together to face common challenges of;
• economic security,
• political evolution and integration
• as well as lasting peace among all Nigerians.
I remain resolutely committed to ensuring that these goals are achieved and maintained.
Members of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen, I make this Statement on behalf of the Chairman and the entire Leadership of the Movement of Biafrans in Nigeria (MOBIN), the political arm of the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB).
It has become necessary for MOBIN to address the public on our quest for the self-determination of the Biafran people through due process of the law, which includes political, diplomatic and judicial processes. Pursuant to this, MOBIN reached an agreement with the national leadership of the party to from partnership for building the party as a Biafran brand.
MOBIN has activated the three strategic engagements. For our political process, our organization went into an alliance with the United Progressive Party (UPP) in lieu of a Biafran National Party. MOBIN believes that the time has come for us to report to Biafrans and the general public our experience in the quest to achieve Biafra self-determination through political participation. We make this press statement as part of our promise to our Biafra people to always ensure that Equity, Justice and Fairness- which is what Biafra ideology represents is maintained and respected by the party in all its dealings with MOBIN and party faithful in general.
Against all norms of democratic practice and civilized conducts obtainable in all democracies, MOBIN regrets to make public the fragrant violations and bizarre abuses perpetrated by the leadership of the UPP at National level, as led by Chief Chekwas Okorie:
·The UPP national leadership instead of ratifying the Delegates list for conducting the Anambra State governorship primaries, they (the national leadership) sat in abuja national secretariat and mutilated the list by adding and removing names, re-designating several elected officials with the single aim of deciding for their nefarious purpose, who should be the delegates for the Anambra primaries against the express provisions of the UPP constitution and the Electoral Act. This was done in such a bizarre manner that a particular candidate has already been favoured by the doctoring that went on across board in all the LGAs of the state. This act of impunity saw a man taking up the position of woman leader in some wards, dead people taking the posts of chairmen and many chairmen downgraded as vice or other offices. Some were even taken off completely. What an act of rascality by people bestowed with public trust! Let me use the Anambra East LGA Wards Executives list as example of the said mutilation that has occurred in all the LGAs to give you an insight into what happened. The Anambra East LGA has a total of 15 wards; this will give you a total of 75 delegates emanating from this LGA since each produces 5 delegates namely: Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Woman leader, and Youth leader. Out of this 75, 38 names (57.33%), Nando ward III where the entire list was excluded by the national. We also gathered that the reason for these strange exclusions of some ward lists by the national exco is for their perceived absence of party members loyal to their favoured candidate, and replacements of which they are working out as we speak. These illegal and fraudulent re-designation and replacements of elected officials is purposely meant to deny these authentically elected Ward executives their rights to vote at the Anambra guber primaries. As said, in some cases, the entire lists submitted by the State EXCO for some Wards were totally thrown out and new names imported. It is important to state at this juncture that many of these imports are not UPP members but drafted for the purpose using them for the primaries only. How can you go to primaries with this level of manipulation and criminality? Where’s is the Biafra Ideology? Where’s the fairness? Where is the Democracy the UPP has promised?
As it stands, MOBIN will never be part of a system that upholds injustice, criminality and impunity, and can never support any candidate that emerges from this skewed process even if he is a pro-Biafran. MOBIN is totally committed to the integrity and had wanted to use the Anambra governorship election as a test case and for the gauging of the preparedness of Biafrans for the Biafra model of change. For the members of MOBIN therefore, the integrity of the process is far greater than its outcome. All the candidates of UPP for the primaries are Biafrans by birth so the issue of MOBIN supporting a particular candidate doesn’t even arise as our position is hinged on JUSTICE, EQUITY, FARENESS AND ABSOLUTE INTERNAL DEMOCRACY which is what Biafra ideology represents and MOBIN will defend these cardinal principles to their logical conclusions.
Therefore, as a political arm of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that went into an alliance with UPP, MOBIN is insisting that the party does what is right before the law viz-a-viz respecting the party constitution and states that;
·MOBIN is supporting the action of one of us Mr. Obi Emekaekwue who’s the party’s Assistant Publicity Secretary in Anambra State UPP Exco that went to court to insist that the party constitution be respected. In the said court order, the court is mandating the party to respect Article 10(4)(i-ix) and xi which stipulates the category of people that must be part of the congress. Also, MOBIN is insisting that the party respects Article 12(1) and (35) of her constitution which states that the congress for the state can only be presided over by the State Working Committee of the party while the National organ of the party will only observe the process.
We are making it emphatically clear that our alliance with UPP is in no way a servant and master relationship as our organization was given a key role as the mobilization agents of the party, which we have done judiciously and thus has earned us the right to challenge this gross criminality and impunity in the process as partners. MOBIN cannot allow itself to be ridiculed in any way after assuring Biafrans that UPP represents a new dawn.
We have the vision of self-determination by due process of law and will never compromise. We want a Biafra where honesty, justice, fairness, truth and righteousness will prevail. MOBIN cannot afford its vision to be destroyed by political journeymen and jobbers.
I wouldn’t have believed Mobin if I haven’t taken the pains to compare the state list of delegates that was sent to the national for ratification and what we see on the website of the UPP which I they plan to conduct the primaries with. I can confirm that the level of alterations done by the national ranges from 40 to 60% percent indeed for reasons best known to them. I am quite saddened for the simple fact that both the national organising secretary and the national chairman told me such alterations never happened, only obvious corrections. But this are fare-faced lies when actual facts are considered, and coming from such level of officers of the party.
For the avoidance of doubt, let me give a personal example of how I believe the national Exco has messed up the delegates list, may be believing they are dealing with a bunch of people that have no rights and brains: my Abatete Award delegates list aent to national by the state exco was entirety thrown out and replaced with people I am yet to confirm whether they are acually from Abatete. What manner of correction? The whole 5 delegates from Abatete corrected out and replaced by the national There are similar tales of woe everywhere, at valiance with the assurances of integrity of the process that I personally received from the national chairman. I wonder how these national officers who not even from Anambra state let from Abatete got to know UPP members from my town/Ward as to replace those we elected to lead us in the Abatete Ward with those they now prefer. What is more, the Abatete example is not isolated but evident across board.
I also recall that the Flint Obiekwe harmonization committee took care of all observations over a month ago. Why did the national chose to set aside the list arrived at by the harmonization committee that it set up? What really is going on?
It is time for members of the party as stakeholders to speak up. Those of us who newly joined the party thinking it is any different feel quite actualize and ashamed that what is happening in other political parties may even be a child’s play to that of the UPP.
I personally advise the national to take very urgent steps to restore confidence in party faithfuls and reconcile with the state Exco and have a primacies that is rancor free by relying on the delegates list the state generated from its Wards and LGs . That way, the party will enter the real guber race without being fractured. If this is not done, the party stands no chance of coming even a distant third in this election, let alone winning it, as all the forces that should direct their efforts at general election will have been spent in the infighting. Such inevitable war of attrition, which has already begun, has a predictable end which is not noble.
Let’s bind our party’s fresh wounds. UPP is bleeding profusely and may harborage to death if leadership is not fully exercised now.
Those who fail to learn from history are truly condemned to a repeat class.
A word is enough for the wise.
Dr. Law Mefor
(Anueyiagu Abatete)
UPP member, Abatete Ward.
ILLEGAL ALTERATION OF ANAMBRA STATE UPP DELEGATES LIST FOR GOVERNORSHIP PRIMARIES
Despite all entreaties, including an order of court that the United Progressive Party should adhere to the provisions of its own constitution in the conduct of the Anambra state governorship primaries, the party appears determined to violate its own constitution in the manner I shall lay down below.
1] Article 23[3] of the UPP constitution states clearly, that “aspirants for the office of the governor SHALL be elected by the STATE CONGRESS subject to the approval of the national executive committee”. It follows therefore that the state executive committee led by the Chairman should be the body to accredit and conduct the affairs of the state congress scheduled for today the 19th of August 2017. The role of the eminent members of the panel sent from the national headquarters of the party is supervisory.
2] After a hotly contested ward and local government congress in June 2017, in line with Article 10[4] of the UPP constitution, a delegates list comprised of local government chairmen and secretaries and ward chairmen, secretaries, treasurers, youth leaders and women leaders was compiled and counter signed by the state chairman and secretary and all the local government chairmen and forwarded to the national headquarters for record purposes.
To the surprise and consternation of party members, a delegates list copiously at variance with the list of ELECTED delegates was uploaded on the website of the UPP on the 29th of July 2017 and variously amended on the 4th and 5th of August 2017. The website list contains names of members of a campaign organization and some fictitious names with no phone numbers unlike the authentic delegates list that had the phone numbers of all delegates displayed.
I notified the national chairman of the party, Chief Chekwas Okorie who promised to take steps to remedy the situation and assured me that he would not allow anything that will affect the integrity of the primaries. But it appears that some members of the panel he sent to supervise the primaries did not heed his counsel, as they have not only decided to conduct the primaries but also to use the illegal delegates list in the process.
I will conclude by stating clearly, that the use of unelected delegates for the purpose of the UPP governorship primaries by the Anambra state congress will be a violation of Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.
I wish to bring this to your notice as you are empowered by law to monitor the activities of political parties.
Thank you and very warm regards.
Sincerely,
Hon Chudi Offodile
Governorship aspirant
United Progressive Party [UPP]
On Tuesday the 15th of August 2017 at about 3.30pm, while on a campaign swing through Nnewi North, Nnewi South and Ekwusigo local government areas, I received notification of my indefinite suspension pending the determination of “my case” by the disciplinary committee of the Anambra state chapter of the UPP. Another aspirant for the office of governor, Chief Osita Chidoka was similarly suspended. Whoever came up with the idea to suspend the only two governorship aspirants in the UPP, four days to a scheduled primaries due on the 19th of August 2017, does not wish the party well and has a lot of explanation to make.
The national headquarters of the party responded swiftly by dissolving the state executive committee with ‘immediate effect’. This terminology you may recall was popularized by the military regimes of yore and should not be part of our democratic lexicon. And the action even if well intentioned, is not in the interest of the party and the national headquarters may have acted ultra vires its powers. If the action of the state chapter was curious, equally curious was the reaction of the national headquarters. Why dissolve the state executive committee four days to a primary election in which the state executive committee has crucial roles to play?
The fact is that the contending parties have been at loggerheads for several weeks over the list of delegates for the governorship primaries. The list of delegates elected at the ward and local government levels was unilaterally amended by the national headquarters to the chagrin of the party rank and file, yours truly inclusive. The state chapter waged a relentless battle with the national headquarters insisting on the sanctity of the delegates list. Obviously, someone stands to gain from the alteration of the delegates list but it would not have mattered if the alterations were legally done. No one or organ of the party can unilaterally remove a ward chairman or secretary or indeed any officer of the party duly elected and engage in whimsical replacements.
The threat of sanctions by the national headquarters apparently triggered the bizarre indiscriminate suspensions unleashed by the state executive on the 15th of August 2017. Earlier that day, as we now know, Justice Y Halilu of the FCT High Court, in suit no CV/2658/17 between Obi Emekekwue [Assistant publicity secretary UPP Anambra state] and United Progressive party and five others, gave an interim order directing the defendants to follow its time table/guidelines and constitution in all its activities pending the hearing and determination of the originating motion. The suit was adjourned to the 29th of August 2017 for definite hearing.
The issues for determination before the court are
[1] Whether members of the local government and ward committees, having been elected and inaugurated, can be unilaterally amended or altered by any member of the party outside the local government area congress and ward congress that elected them?
[2] Whether having regard to article 12[1] & [35] and article 23 [3] of the UPP constitution, any other person or member of the party other than the Anambra state chairman of the party can preside over the Anambra state congress for the purpose of the governorship primary election?
These two issues need to be carefully resolved in order to preserve and protect the integrity of the primaries and the court has mandated the UPP to follow its constitutional provisions in the conduct of the primaries.
On the issue of my suspension from the party, I have since forwarded to the state secretariat all relevant documents submitted during the screening exercise and the mode of payment of the nomination fee, Guarantee Trust Bank draft dated 27/7/17 in the sum of five million Naira and five hundred thousand Naira in favor of UPP. I did not make any payment to the personal account of the national chairman of UPP, Chief Chekwas Okorie or any other person. The allegations are false and I expect a retraction from the state chapter of the party.
