2019: Candidates that may not make it to the polls

As the general elections draw closer, some politicians who emerged candidates of their political parties may not make it to the polls for different reasons, including failure to abide by INEC’s guidelines and orders of courts. TOPE SUNDAY and ELEOJO IDACHABA take a look at some of the affected candidates.

The journey towards the 2019 general elections started with primary elections at the party levels to select flag bearers of the different political parties for elective positions.

However, the aspirations of some candidates who had emerged in their various political parties may not see the light of the day following the internal crisis that is rocking some of the parties which has led to the emergence of factional candidates in some states culminating in litigations that has seen some of the candidate being disqualified based on orders of competent courts.

As it stands, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) are worse hit. While governorship and National Assembly candidates of the APC in Rivers and Zamfara states were omitted from the list of the cleared candidates for the elections as published by the INEC on Thursday, the two factional presidential candidates of the SDP, Professor Jerry Gana, and Donald Duke, who are laying claims to the presidential ticket of the party, were also not cleared.

INEC list

The country’s electoral umpire on Thursday released the names of the candidates for the presidential and National Assembly elections. In this list, which was published on the INEC website, names of none of the SDP’s factional presidential candidates was among the 73 presidential candidates that were cleared by the electoral body.

Similarly, the commission also excluded the name of APC candidates for the National Assembly election in Zamfara and Rivers states.

Expectedly, this development has changed the narratives as some of the affected candidates are now running from pillar to post to avert the impeding storm. It is worth noting that some of the affected candidates were already in court before the INEC list of was released and the outcome of the litigation may affect the results of the polls even after the votes are cast.

Gana/Duke tussle

The brawl between Professor Jerry Gana and Mr Donald Duke may likely foreclose the chances of the SDP of fielding a candidate in the president election if the issue is not quickly resolved.

The duo are locked in the war of writ over who is the ‘authentic’ presidential candidate of the SDP, hence INEC could not publish the particulars of either contender as the party has not forwarded it any name following a court order.

Duke was said to have won the SDP presidential primary election in October 2018, in defiance to the party’s existing zoning arrangement, which Gana objected to in court.

On December 14, 2018, therefore, an Abuja High Court sacked Duke and declared Gana as the party’s authentic candidate. The court agreed with Gana that Duke’s emergence contravened the existing zoning arrangement in the party’s Constitution.

This, however, did not go down well with Duke and the leadership of the party which then approached a Court of Appeal seeking to upturn the December 14, judgement in favour of Gana.

According to Duke, “While we await a copy of the judgment for a detailed review, it is imperative we reiterate our constitutionality backed belief that every Nigerian who meets the legal requirement is entitled to contest for the office of the president. Any law that seeks to curtail that right under any guise is unconstitutional and of no effect.”

Also, the party has maintained that Duke remains its presidential candidate and has openly refused to back Gana or be part of his campaigns. A situation perceived in some quarters to have greatly affected the presidential candidate’s campaigns.

While both candidates may not have appeared on the INEC list, respite may have come the way of the party as the electoral umpire has said that the SDP can contest presidential election without candidate despite not having submitted the names of its presidential and vice presidential candidates.

The National Chairman, Voter Education Committee, INEC, Festus Okoye, who spoke on Sunrise Daily, a live programme of Channels Television, on Friday, said the party had forwarded Duke’s name to the commission as the name of the presidential candidate prior to the court verdict.

According to the INEC official, the commission later received a court order that Gana should be the candidate for the SDP in the presidential election.

Okoye added that the court went further to direct that the SDP should submit Gana’s name to INEC. “At the time we published the list yesterday, the SDP had not forwarded the name of Gana as the presidential candidate of the party. If the party had forwarded the name of the presidential candidate as directed, INEC would have put up the name of Prof Gana on the list as the candidate of the party. So, the onus is on the party.

“The court did not say INEC should substitute or put up the name of Gana as the presidential candidate of the party. So, we are waiting for the party to submit the name of Gana to INEC as directed by the court. That is why we put by the side (against the blank space where the name of the party’s candidate should have been), ‘by court order.’

“It’s the political party that is going to be on the ballot for today (for now). Any time they submit that particular list (of names of presidential and vice-presidential candidates), we will collect the list.

“If we go into the presidential election and we do not have the name of the candidate of the SDP, the logo of the SDP will still be on the ballot because the court did not direct that we should remove the logo of the SDP from the ballot,” he said.

Okoye noted that, in line with the court order that the political party should submit Gana’s name, INEC would wait for the party to comply.

He, however, added, “If after some time they do not submit, we will see what the law says in relation to the issue of whether they are time-bound or not.

“If the SDP wins the presidential election, then it becomes a different ballgame. But I believe the political party is law-abiding and they should, within the next few days, obey the court order and do what the law says they should do.”

Rivers APC candidates exclusion

In Rivers state, the two factional governorship candidates of the APC, Senator Magnus Abe and Tonye Cole, appear to have lost out in the political calculation.

For Abe, erstwhile ally of former Rivers State Government and acclaimed leader of the APC in the state, Hon Rotimi Amaechi, his stand-off with his political godfather is said to be his undoing. Amaechi, who is the Minister of Transportation, has been enmeshed in intractable political tango with the factional candidate a development which gave rise to the factions in the state.

Aside from his stand-off with Amaechi, a recent court pronouncement to the effect that his party violated extant judgement regarding the position of the current APC chairman in the state appeared to have hampered every step the party may have taken so far, including all the primaries conducted.

According to a court judgement by Justice Kolawole Omotosho, “the direct primaries through which Tonye Cole, another governorship candidate emerged as winner was conducted against a court order.”

Amaechi was said to have used his closeness with President Muhammadu Buhari to impose Cole through indirect primaries contrary to the directive of the APC National Executive Council (NEC).

The court also set aside the direct primaries that produced Abe because the national executive of the party did not participate in the primaries; hence the Henry Odike faction that conducted the primaries had no right to nominate anyone for the governorship race.

While the party was still battling with the court verdicts on its governorship candidate, INEC also brought another shocker with the exclusion of names of APC governorship and NASS candidates in the state.

Similar scenario in Zamfara

The same scenario has also played out in Katsina state where the quest for the duo of Senator Kabiru Marafa and Alhaji Mukhtar Shehu Idris, who is said to be the preferred choice of the incumbent as successor, may have been dashed.

Their ambition may have been truncated by what INEC referred to as the inability of the party to conduct a proper primary to elect a candidate for that position.

At the moment, Marafa has lost the opportunity to run for governorship of his state and as well as the chance to return to the Senate. This development stemmed from the perceived battle for supremacy between him and the Minister of Defence, Mannir Dan Ali, as well as the state Governor, Abdulaziz Yari.

Marafa has made it clear in several fora that there was no primary election in the state hence the APC had no governorship candidate.

The latest list by INEC also delisted all the party’s candidates names from the contestants for the National Assembly election and this also affects the governor of the state, Alhaji Yari, who is contesting for the Zamfara West senatorial seat.

Kashamu’s hanging hopes

In Ogun state, the PDP is not also finding it easy but the fate of Senator Buruji Kashamu appears to be have been sealed since his name was listed as the party’s governorship candidate for the state.  He and his rival, Hon Oladipupo Adebutu, a member of the House of Representatives, have been locked in litigations over who is the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state.

When a court judgement upheld gave Kashamu candidacy, Adebutu approached a High Court in Apo, Abuja, seeking to nullify the judgement. Although, Justice Joke Adepoju dismissed Adebutu’s suit because his nomination earlier violated a subsisting court judgement, all is still not well with Kashamu and Adebutu as far as the election is concerned.

As it stands, Hon. Adebutu may not go to the poll except there is a court pronouncement in his favour and the INEC decides to abide by it.

Kwara APC drama

The Kwara state chapter of the APC is also still enmeshed in crisis and yet to ascertain who the party’s authentic governorship candidate is with several interpretations to the court ruling over the issue.

The state has two factional governorship candidates; Hon. Abdulwahab Kayode Omotoshe and Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrasak.

Omotoshe is allegedly planted in the party by the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, who is the acclaimed leader of Kwara politics, while the faction of the party loyal to the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, produced Alhaji Abdulrasak, who has reportedly been endorsed by the national leadership of the party.

The two candidates have continued to lay claims to the governorship ticket of the party. This development came to being following the ruling of a Kwara State High Court, sitting in Ilorin, which recognised the executive committee of the Ishola Balogun-Fulani faction of APC, which produced Omotoshe as its candidate.

National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, had dissolved the executive, following the defection of the Senate President to the PDP, and had installed another state executive under the chairmanship of Mr. Bashir Bolarinwa.

Unsatisfied with the development, Balogun-Fulani headed to court, insisting that the executive was constitutionally constituted. In a judgment by Justice T. S. Umar, the court held that “the purported dissolution of the executive committee of APC led by Balogun-Fulani was illegal, null and void.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should recognise the list of members of the executive committee presented by Kwara APC executive committee led by the Balogun-Fulani faction,” the judge averred.

Some members of the Balogun-Fulani are banking on this judgement and insisting that their governorship candidate is the one that will be recognised by the INEC.

Though, the matter is before the appellate court, the duo of Omotoshe and Abdulrasak are going about their campaigns, however, only one candidates will make it to the INEC list of the governorship candidates expected to be released later this month.  

Abia experience

The situation in Abia state is not much different as two separate candidates are also parading themselves as ‘authentic’ candidates of the APC.

While Uche Ogar, who was picked by a faction of the party in the state, appears to enjoy the support of the party’s national leadership, Chief Ikechi Emenike continues to lay claims to the ticket.

This is as an FCT High Court, sitting at Kubwa, Abuja, presided over by Justice K. N. Ogbonnaya, on Thursday, reaffirmed its order that Chief Emenike is the authentic Abia state candidate of the party.

Justice Ogbonnaya had on November 29, 2018, given the order that Emenike was the candidate of the party and directed INEC to publish his name as the candidate, which the commission failed to obey.

Hpwver, Ogar, had approached the court and filed a motion praying the court for a stay of execution of the order and for the order to be vacated.

Ruling on the motion, Justice Ogbonnaya refused to grant the stay of execution motion and also refused to vacate the order reaffirming but rather reaffirmed her order as valid until it is set aside.

The issue of who is the authentic candidate of the party in the state has been lingering for long following an order secured from an Abia State High Court sitting at Okpuala Ngwa, which recognised the state’s party executive that produced Emenike.

However, the Oshiomhole-led national executive recognised Ogar, who was produced by the other faction of the party not favoured by the court.

Oshiomhole, had accused Emenike of allegedly romancing the Peoples Democratic Party-led administration in Abia state.

He claimed that Emenike was being sponsored by Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the PDP to cause confusion in the party, thereby weakening the chances of the APC in the forthcoming 2019 general elections in the state and vowed to resist what it termed as evil machination of Emenike to sabotage the party leadership ahead of the March governorship election in the state.

According to him, “Ikechi Emenike is APC in the day and PDP at night. He betrayed me in the secret and I will betray him in public. You can’t be holding broom in the day and be visiting the PDP governor at night collecting money from Ikpeazu to make sure you keep APC busy in court.

“I am Adams Oshomhole, I will make sure Emenike did not see the light of the day in politics. No reasonable APC member will complain about the type of primaries we conducted in Abia state.

“We conducted direct primaries, which Dr Uche Ogah won. And I assure all of you Uche Ogah is the next governor of Abia state.”

Meanwhile, the Abia state chapter of the APC, has continued to restate that the suspension of Chief Ikechi Emenike, from the party, still stands.

The Publicity Secretary of APC in the state, Comrade Benedict Godson, who made this known in an interview with journalists, on Monday, frowned at the alleged anti-party activities of Chief Emenike.

But the media Aide to the APC chieftain, Mr. Mike Ozoemena, reacting to the claims by Godson in a chat with journalists in Umuahia, dismissed the purported suspension.

He said, “My principal remains a high ranking member of APC both in Abia state and Nigeria as a whole.

“He has never, and will never engage in any activity that may mar the chances of APC in the upcoming governorship election in the state. So, he means well for the party. Godson and co lacks power to suspend him.”

Though, the electoral umpire has not released its list of cleared governorship, among the two gladiators in Abia state only one of them will eventually make it to the polls.

‘APC can’t benefit from its stupidity’

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the exclusion of the candidates of the APC as a clear indication that, “they cannot benefit from their own stupidity.”

PDP National Publicity Secretary and Director Media and Publicity of the party’s Presidential Campaign Organisation, Kola Ologbondiyan, said the exclusion was their own doing.

He said, “What else am I to say, it was theirown doing. In fact, like the judge said, APC cannot benefit from their stupidity.

APC keeps mum

However, there was a graveyard silence in the APC last night as none of the party hierarchy was ready to speak on the matter.

In what appeared as being evasive, some of them, who one of our reporters spoke to last night declined comment, rather they muttered’ the case is still in court.’

Leave a Reply