The Crisis Of The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) In Ebonyi State: Who Is Working Against President Jonathan:

Source: pointblanknews.com

MARTIN ELECHI OR ANYIM PIUS ANYIM?
“ When an elephant stands quietly and closes its eyes, flies and other insects perch around its nose, eyes and ears.  It remains motionless and the flies presume the elephant is dead.  But when, suddenly, the elephant turns its head swiftly, onlookers around complain that the elephant is too hard on the insects.”

      PREAMBLE:
It is now a common experience in Nigeria that elections bring in their wake uneasiness, ugly disorder of varying magnitudes, name-calling and intrigues of disquieting proportion.  So it is now in all States of Nigeria.

For the fact that in Ebonyi State, the acrimony and public discomfort which are trailing current political campaigns have assumed an unusual dimension, the public is misinformed, the public is concerned and the public wants to know the truth of the matter.

From daily newspaper reportings, it is no longer secret that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, recently made a frantic effort to get the enlarged caucus meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pass a resolution for the impeachment of Chief Martin Elechi, the Governor of Ebony State.  It is also common knowledge that the President  and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria and National Leader of the ruling PDP, stoutly opposed such a measure and preferred the path of reconciliation.  What is important is not the clamour for Elechi's impeachment, which can happen like any other event; what is important is that the people of Nigeria in general and the powers that be, in particular, should be properly informed as to whose role is working adversely on the President's electoral fortune.  The recapitulation of some of the major highlights may prove helpful, hence this publication.

      THE GENESIS OF EVENTS
Appointment of the State Chairman
The Ebonyi State Chairman of PDP, Hon. Prince Ugorji Ama Oti, resigned his position as Chairman of the Party on 20 th October, 2014 to enable him contest election to the House of Representatives.  His Deputy, Onwe Joseph Onwe, was then allowed to act as chairman, pending the election of a substantive chairman.  In the first meeting of the State Working Committee presided over by Onwe Joseph Onwe, he claimed that he was sick; that he was going to a hospital and would probably undergo a surgery.  As the leader of the Party in the State, I called the State Executive Committee of the Party to consider the need and urgency of electing or appointing a substantive chairman, bearing in mind that the chain of congresses was less than 10 days away.  The meeting of the State Executive Committee met on 31 st October, 2014 and unanimously appointed Mazi Ben Akpa in fulfillment of the requirement of Section 47(6) of the PDP Constitution 2012 (as amended).  The minutes of the meetings of the State Working Committee and State Executive Committee were duly transmitted to the National Headquarters of the PDP for information.

Ward Primaries of 1 st November, 2014
The PDP Ward Congresses held all over the country to elect delegates who would attend other Congresses, essentially Local Government and State Congresses.  This exercise was conducted peacefully throughout the State.  Regrettably, information reaching us was that the delegates list sent to Abuja was massively distorted in the house of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, whereupon to allay the fears of the Party supporters in the State and sustain their confidence, I granted the State Publicity Secretary and the State Secretary, Apostle Benjamin Obaji and Mr. Uche Ali Ega, respectively, permission to publish the list of the delegates in some national dailies.

Local Government Congresses of 8 th November, 2014
The Second team of electoral officers to conduct the Local Government Congresses arrived in Abakaliki on the 8 th of November, 2014.  Both myself and the State Working Committee of the Party protested the use of returning officers compiled secretly by the sick Deputy Chairman who was expectedly in a hospital.  After prolonged argument, the team led by Dr Ogbede left Ebonyi State for Abuja.  Only God knows how the Party came up with the list of local government delegates who subsequently attended the National Convention on 10 th – 11 th December, 2014.

Meanwhile, the fake list of delegates was presented to an Abuja High Court with a prayer to declare it the only authentic list of delegates to be used by the PDP in Ebonyi State.  The Honourable High Court, not being properly informed of the real issues, had no option but to grant the prayer.

Dissolution of State Executive Committee (SEC)
The National Working Committee, without any query either to the Governor of the State or to the State Working Committee, unilaterally dissolved the SEC and announced the suspension of the State Secretary and the State Publicity Secretary for publishing the delegates' names.  The dissolution order further reinstated the sick Deputy Chairman as the Acting State Chairman of the Party.  No reference was made to the Governor who is supposedly the leader of the Party.  We read of the decisions on the pages of newspapers.  The President personally intervened to have the dissolution order rescinded.

Protest from 13 LGA's and Petition to the National Chairman

Following these developments, concerned stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ebonyi State resolved to interact with the National leadership of the Party.  A memorandum was signed by 103 stakeholders encompassing the feelings and views of these stakeholders who represented all levels of the Party in Ebonyi State.  The 14-page memorandum was duly presented by the delegation to the Party's National Chairman who, in his reply, promised to bring the warring parties together.

Jonathan's Support Rally of 22 nd November, 2014
    On 11 th November, 2014 at the Eagle Square, Abuja, His Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan, declared his intention to contest the 2015 Presidential Election; whereupon the Governor of Ebonyi State organised a mammoth rally at Abakaliki Sports Stadium on 22 nd November, 2014 to solicit support of Ebonyi people for the President's election bid.  This rally was boycotted by the Deputy Governor and Governorship aspirant, Engr. Dave Umahi; His Campaign Organization; the Speaker of the House of Assembly; the Senatorial aspirants of Ebonyi North and Central; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.   Following the huge success recorded in the outing, these same absentees from the rally, placed an advertorial in THISDAY newspaper, claiming the glory and self-congratulations for the success of the rally “organized by them.” No shame at all?  It was clear, at this stage that the battle line hadbeen drawn.

C .      HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS
On Thursday, 27 th November, 2014, the PDP Governors or Deputies from 22 States brainstormed with the President, the Vice-President and the Senate President on the progress of preparations and problems, as was normal with all previous elections.  The four States of Adamawa, Ebonyi, Ondo and Taraba had peculiar problems which necessitated the participation of the National Chairman, whereupon the other 18 Governors withdrew from the meeting, leaving the Governors of the four States with peculiar challenges for further deliberation.  At the time the meeting rose in the early hours of Friday, 28 th November, 2014, it was agreed that there would be no further congresses in those four States until their peculiar problems had been looked into.  I raced back to Abakaliki in jubilation, believing that justice was about to be done.  Back home,  I made this position known through the news media and in the swearing-in ceremony I performed the same evening in Government House, Abakaliki.

ILLEGAL CONGRESSES AND BOYCOTTS
In less than 30 hours of the directive to suspend congresses in the four States named above, election officials were sent to Abakaliki to conduct the congress that would elect House of Assembly members for the State, contrary to the pronouncement of the highest authority in the land.  The team led by one Senator   Ben-Collins Ndu from Enugu State, proceeded to a roadside hotel in Abakaliki, neither touching the Party Secretariat in Abakaliki nor paying a courtesy call on the Governor of the State.  For us in Ebonyi State, it is almost an act of treason to disobey the President of a country.  So those who shared the same belief with me joined me in boycotting the congress and subsequent congresses.  We are today the rebels, the enemies of the PDP, while those who disobeyed the directive from the highest body stand as the pillars and light of the PDP.  What an irony of fate!  And that was done with impunity!!

DEFECTION OF PDP MEMBERS
Following the unwholesome events referred to above, the majority of Ebonyi people could not stomach either the treachery being practised within the Party hierarchy nor give a thought to even a remote possibility of disobeying a presidential order.  They massively left the Party of their choice in regret but in righteous indignation to look for other openings in the political space.  Most of them preferred the Labour Party and they anchored their fortune with the Labour Party.

      THE WAVE OF TERROR
          The chain of cause-and-effect continued to multiply.  The PDP felt unduly jolted by the rising popularity of a hitherto unknown party in Ebonyi State.  The following quickly became the order of the day:

Attacks on Convoys
The convoys of Labour Party candidates, especially that of the Governor's son, were frequently attacked during their campaigns.  Gun shootings on vehicles suspected to be conveying Labour Party adherents were reported.  Burning of vehicles, billboards and houses were reported by both sides.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) were simultaneously deployed against the Government of Ebonyi State.  The Commissioners for Finance & Economic Development; Local Government, Chieftaincy Matters & Rural Development; Works & Transport; the State Accountant-General; the Labour Party gubernatorial candidate and the Governor's son who is a senatorial candidate under the Labour Party, were severally invited to Abuja for questioning and were released on bail.  As if that was not enough, the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Matters & Rural Development and the 13 Local Government Care-taker Committee Chairmen, were also severally invited by the ICPC on the same subject matter.  The EFCC froze the joint account of the State and Local Governments, even before concluding their investigation.  The matter is now in an Abuja High Court.

Apart from vandalisation of billboards, vehicles and buildings, a prominent young man by name (Emeka Nwigboji), was identified in a Labour Party meeting by a surveillance team of PDP adherents.  The young man was ambushed and stabbed to death on his way back from the party meeting.  The incident occurred on 3 rd February, 2015 in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.   The matter is now with the police.

Newspaper attacks and character defamation of the person of the Governor is now a daily banquet for the feasting of Nigerians.

Some members of the State Working Committee of the PDP are suspended indefinitely without fair hearing.  The campaign materials from the Presidential Campaign office which are meant to be disbursed by the State Governor/Co-ordinator of the Presidential Campaign for the State are diverted and utilized without the knowledge of the Governor.  How they are used, especially Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) rice is still an unanswered question.  The N80 million given to Ambassador Franklin Ogbuewu (Deputy Co-ordinator) for the January 16 th rally at Abakaliki was paid into his personal bank account.  Nothing has been heard of it till date.

THE IMPEACHMENT SAGA   
No day passes without one or more national dailies reporting the thickening of impeachment plot against the Governor of Ebonyi State.  The reports border on effort to assemble sufficient number of signatories or investigation to justify the impeachment.  It is interesting for Nigerians to know that the decision to impeach the Governor preceded the finding of justifiable reasons to do so.  It is simply the case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.  The legislator must be convinced that an impeachment is justifiable before he or she can consent to it.   But because there have been no justifiable reasons, many honourable members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly received threat messages to either append their signatures or risk assassination and/or a kidnap of their family members.  Others are coerced from the National Headquarters of the PDP to give their bank particulars so that (inducement) money will be paid into them.  The accused agents in this regard are, respectively, Uche Secondus (Deputy National Chairman) and Olisa Metu (National Publicity Secretary).  In consequence of the foregoing many Hon. Members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly have either fled the State or are in hiding.

      THE BURNING QUESTIONS
 17.    If, as a result of the foregoing atrocities, the electoral fortune of the President plummets, who should be held responsible, Martin Elechi or Senator Anyim Pius Anyim (the SGF)?  If the bank account of Local Governments is frozen by the EFCC (an agent of the Federal Government), such that the January 2015 salaries of workers are not paid in what is the most difficult month of the year, how will the family members and dependants of such workers, vote in the next election?  If senior government functionaries like Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries, Accountant-General, Council Chairmen become the object of weekly pilgrimage to the EFCC and ICPC to their anguish and consternation, how are they expected to vote?  If innocent people are shot at, unprovoked, or arrested and stabbed to death in broad daylight by agents of a known political party, how are their surviving relatives expected to vote?  If party faithful who have been loyal to the party for a long time are ignored and a ministerial appointment is given to a decampee of the party whose atrocities while in the opposition are such that he is denied re-admittance into the PDP, how are the party faithful expected to react?  How are the communities and families whose properties were burnt, whose relatives were either killed or maimed, react to the elevation of criminals?  These are some of the burning questions that all lovers of the Peoples Democratic Party must look for answers to.

We have said time without number that we of Ebonyi State are pro-Goodluck Jonathan because:

(a)             he is naturally a good person,
(b)             he has proved beyond doubt that he can wedge the destiny of Nigeria to its highest destination, and

(c)              because the process of his emergence was both transparent and in full compliance with the electoral guidelines, constitutional and party's requirements.

We cannot say the same of every PDP candidate, some of whom emerged through fetish administration of oath and financial inducement.  We stand by our attitudinal change guiding principle which says “ Nothing is right unless it is right .”  We believe that being a good citizen is a higher premium than being a member of any political party, be it a ruling or opposition party.  All political parties have an obligation to aspire to higher moral levels in order to attract followership and membership through justice and fair-play, rather than suppression of rights, intimidation and humiliation with unbridled arrogance.

In the present face-off in Ebonyi State, let Nigerians decipher the issues and tell the nation who is working against the PDP and President Jonathan:  Martin Elechi or Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, the Mighty Igor?

May God save and bless Nigeria!
Chief Martin N. Elechi MFR, CON
Governor
Ebonyi State of Nigeria
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