PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY(PDP) GOVERNORSHIP GLADIATORS IN KOGI TATE DIG DEEP TO OUTWIT ONE ANOTHER AS THE POLLS DRAW NEARER.
With the September 22 deadline given by the Independent National Electoral Commission for all political parties in Kogi State to conclude their party primaries ahead of the December 3 governorship election, it is not yet clear whether the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party will conduct a fresh primary.
Daily Sun findings revealed that that there was an uneasy calm in the state, owing to the fact that nobody could fathom out the mind of the outgoing Governor Ibrahim Idris on who his successor would be.
Not even the governor's aides or members of his kitchen cabinet, could really say who it will be.
While Jubrin Isah Echocho, the winner of the last party primary, and his group are insisting that his mandate is intact, some other interest groups in the party, especially the other governorship aspirants are saying there must be a fresh primary.
Ostensibly acting a script, the PDP legal adviser, Umaru Mohammed, was the first to stir controversy when he told newsmen shortly after the release of INEC's election time table that the party had reached a conclusion that there would be no fresh party primary in the state, saying there was no clause in the Electoral Act, or the party's constitution where it was stated that the mandate handed to Echocho had an expiry date.
The other group fired back by insisting that there must be a fresh primary, citing the case of Andy Uba whose mandate was quashed in 2007 by a supreme court during the governorship election in Anambra State.
This group consists of leading aspirants like Alhaji Isah Kutepa, Prince Olusola Akanmode, Nicolas Ughane, AVM Saliu Atawodi and Chief Abiodun Ojo, among others.
More confounding is the secret alleged endorsement of candidates by Governor Idris himself, as he was said to have brought in three people to come out to contest for the governorship race all within a week.
One of the persons allegedly being sponsored by Idris is a former military administrator of Ondo and Oyo States, Col. Usman, who was said to have been invited from Lagos and dragged into the race.
A source hinted that the press statement read to newsmen by Usman on the day of his declaration was said to be written in Government House by one of Idris' aides, a situation which gave him the impression that the governor is strongly supporting him.
The other two persons, who the governor reportedly urged to join the governorship contest are Commissioner for Works, Abubakar Adama, and Commissioner for Science and Technology, Prof. Aaron Baba, each of whom the governor was alleged to have given N50 million naira as take off grant for their campaigns.
According to a source, the continued unpredictable and inconsistent character of the governor was said to have played out in the last governorship primary in the state when the governor allegedly personally called no fewer than eight aspirants, urging them at various times to contest for the number one seat in the state.
This scenario has caused serious crisis of confidence within the governor's kitchen cabinet on one hand, and the PDP on the other as none of the old governorship aspirants was willing to rely on his words again .
It was said that in the hot contest that trailed the last governorship primary, Idris had sworn severally, even making public statements that he would ensure that power rotated to other parts of the state, especially viewed from the point that it was the bloc votes of the Okun Yoruba people from western senatorial axis of the state that gave him victory over the then governor Abubakar Audu in the 2003 poll.
Thus, the source said Governor Idris went further by holding several nocturnal meetings with members of his kitchen cabinet and other prominent politicians from the zone, and even funded the campaign activities of some of them to give them the assurance that he meant his words. But all the promises turned out to be false.
Those Idris separately had this pact with include, Chief Abiodun Ojo, a very powerful member of the kitchen cabinet, who was at various times the Commissioner for Finance and Agriculture, Abdulrazaq Isah Kutepa, a billionaire businessman and a close confidant of the governor's who later came second in the party's primary.
Others included, the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo , regarded as one of the pillars of Governor Idris' administration, Idris' deputy Philip Salawu, who is from the Central Senatorial district of the state, and the former Accountant - General of the State, Deacon Okpanachi Ubolo, and the Executive Director of Newswatch Communication Ltd., Yakubu Mohammed, both of whom are the governor's kinsmen.
Findings revealed that few days before the party primary, Governor Idris, in his 'maradonic' way, again sent for Yakubu Mohammed, gave him red carpet reception, lodged him at the presidential wing of the Government House and anointed him secretly as the his successor. As the agitation for power shift was going on, Daily Sun learnt that a powerful clique emerged from Igala land in the Eastern Senatorial district of the state, which has been controlling power since the creation of the state and said instead of power rotating to other Senatorial districts in the state, it must rotate among the three major districts in Igala, namely Idah, Ankpa and Dekina, with Dekina being thrown up to produce the next governor having, been denied the seat in the past.
The source said though Mohammed comes from that district, a strong cabal vehemently opposed the choice of Mohammed for no justifiable reasons. The cabal later forced their choice of Isah Echocho on the governor, threatening to banish him and his entire immediate family members from Igala land if the governor did otherwise. The source said the governor reluctantly agreed in principle to field Echocho and put him in his plan 'B' agenda, and secretly pursued his plan 'A', which was the court ruling that enabled his tenure elongation along with four other governors.
It was Idris' alleged betrayal of other aspirants that is about to tear the party apart ahead of the party primary. Already, some of the aggrieved aspirants were said to have secretly reached for a consensus candidate that will slug it out with Echocho, in case the governor still gives him his backing again.
One of the aspirants, who spoke to Daily Sun in Abuja, said should the party hierarchy in Abuja go ahead to affirm Echocho as widely rumoured, they would be left with the option of moving en mass to an opposition party and push it to win.
However, for now, there are about 19 governorship aspirants from the PDP alone, including new entrants like, renowned journalist, Ojo Adinoyi Onukaba, former Minister for Interior, Humphery Abba, former Military Administrator of Ondo and Oyo states, Col. Ahmed Usman and the two serving commissioners in Idris'cabinet, Prof. Aaron Baba and Adama Abubakar. However, a Government House source confirmed that Governor Idris was still seriously backing the candidatture of Echocho.The source told Daily Sun that he had set aside huge funds with which to prosecute the governorship ambition of Echocho.
The source said, one of the plans of the governor was to organise a fresh primary where three 'trusted' delegates will be used in each of the 239 wards in the state to just make an affirmation in favour of Echocho and Clarence Olafemi as the PDP standard bearer and running mate respectively. Away from the PDP palaver is an emerging strong Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which has vowed to wrestle power from the ruling PDP.
The ACN, which was relatively in the background in the previous elections in the state, has now come alive, bubbling with the entrance of former governor of the state, prince Abubakar Audu, who defected from his All Nigeria Peoples Party(ANPP) to the ACN two months ago. But the party is now embroiled in crisis as Audu's faction is insisting on changing the party executives, especially the chairman of the party, Haddy Ametuo, who they accused of double standards. Ametuo's group is also accusing Audu's group of coming to hijack the party from those, who stood firmly to nurture the party to where it is today.
Ametuo said it was wrong for Audu who is not an ACN card-carrying member to hijack the party from the original members, saying Audu only came into alliance with ACN and, therefore, is not a member of the party
Also, Daily Sun was told that the current ACN standard bearer, Prof. Yusuf Obaje, is said to be kicking over the plan of the party to dump him even as his critics see him as having little or no electoral value to win the forthcoming governorship election.
Although Audu may have deployed all his resources to win the party's primary, a source close to the party in the state hinted that the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, had told Audu in one of their meetings that before he could meet the aspiration of the party's leadership, he must first of all clear himself from his Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) case.
The source quoted Tinubu to have said none of the ACN governorship candidates in the country had an EFCC case and, therefore, advised him to stay in the background and present a credible candidate for the December poll. This, the source said, might have informed the former accountant general of the state, Ubolo Okpanachi, to defect to the party to pursue his governorship aspiration.
Ubolo is seen by many as a good substitute to Audu, having been blessed with enormous wealth and charisma with which he can get the party's ticket. However, those in the line up for the governorship ticket in ACN include, Rotimi Obadofin, Yusuf Obaje, Prince Abubakar Audu and George Olumoroti, among others.
By and large political observers believe that the ACN must put its house in order to be able to face the tough challenge ahead to wrestle power from the ruling PDP.