News Analysis: Intrigues, drama trail APC Imo North Senatorial District primary election

By Tunde Opalana

Ahead of the 31st October concurrent legislative by-elections in eight states of the federation, the All Progressives Congress (APC) last week Thursday conducted a primary election to pick its candidates. While the party had seamless primaries in the majority of the legislative constituencies, the Imo North Senatorial District by-election sparked controversy as two different results were submitted to the national leadership of the party. In this piece, TUNDE OPALANA reports the intrigues and drama that played out for Daily Times.

The National Caretaker and Extraordinary National Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the chairmanship of Yobe state governor, Mai Mala-Buni inaugurated a 7-member Primary Election Committee for the process of electing APC candidate for the coming by-election in Imo North Senatorial District as it did for other constituencies.

The by-election was a result of the death of the Senator who represented the district, Ben Uwajumogu on 18th December 2019.

Headed by a serving senator and spokesperson of the Senate, Sen. Surajudeen Ajibola Bashiru as Chairman and Chief Samuel Ogbuku as Secretary, other members of the committee are Sen. Jibrin Gada, Hon. Bello Kumo, Alh. Umar Gana, Mohammed Salihu Saba, and Prince Godfrey Ejim.

News broke late Thursday that elections were conducted by two factions of the party across 64 wards in six local government areas that made up the senatorial district, through the direct mode of the primary.

The parallel results after the conduct of the exercise produced Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, on one hand as the winner having scored 22,944 votes, while on the other hand Hon. Frank Ibezim emerged winner with 13,637 votes.

Both results were announced by Umar Gana, a member of the committee, and Senator Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru, the APC Primary Election Committee Chairman, respectively.

Swiftly reacting to the development, the party, in a statement, signed by Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, on Thursday, 3rd September explained that the Basiru-chaired committee is the duly appointed panel by the party’s National Caretaker Committee.

The drama that played out the following day, Friday, 4th September at the party’s national secretariat, Abuja, clearly explained the intrigues behind the double results from a single body on assignment in Imo state.

After submitting the Committee’s report at about 8.15pm to the office of the Organising Secretary, the Imo North Senatorial District Election Committee Chairman, Senator (Dr.) Surajudeen Ajibola Basiru on behalf of three other members of the Committee, Chief Samuel Oguku, the Secretary, Senator Jibrin Gada and Hon. Bello Kumo, spoke with APC correspondents.

According to him, the report submitted was signed by the four of the 7-man committee because the rest three members could not be located after the assignment to ratify the result and endorse the report.

The Committee chairman said, “Since yesterday afternoon, I’ve not set my eyes on three members of the committee and as you know the rule of Committee, it is operated on a simple majority. I am the Chairman and I have a Secretary and two other members with me, which helped us to form a quorum to be able to do our work.

“The work started with the seven members until about noon yesterday (Thursday) after the election was almost completed in all the sixty-four wards where the election held. The report we presented showed the composition of the committee and the engagement of stakeholders in Imo State.

“The election was conducted free and fair. There was no rancor. It was monitored by INEC and the Police and other security agencies. We did not receive any adverse report of violence.

“At the end of the exercise, the result was announced publicly in the presence of INEC and Police at Okigwe, the Senatorial headquarters of Imo North Senatorial District. Everything was done in the public glare. We submitted our result to INEC. At the end of the day, the aspirant that got the highest votes is Hon. Frank Ibezim and he is the person declared as the winner in my capacity as the Chairman of the election committee and his name has been submitted to the Organising Secretary of our party moment ago.

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“We also sent a copy of our report to the Election Appeal Committee, in case there may be an appeal emanating from the exercise. We have submitted a report to the Police and INEC before we left Imo State”.

Dismissing insinuation of a parallel primary election and result, Sen. Basiru said it is unarguable that the report he submitted is authentic and will be upheld by the party.

He said “Any reasonable person does not enthrone himself or herself. I did not make myself Chairman of the committee. I received a letter from the Organising Secretary. You can ask him (Organising Secretary) who is the chairman of the committee. I was handed letters to other members of the committee. Yesterday (Thursday) the party’s deputy national publicity secretary, Mr Yekini Nabena issued a statement that there was no parallel congress and that it was the committee set under my leadership that is recognised, I think that settles that.

“I am not the one to answer the question of parallel elections. Go and meet the national chairman of the Caretaker Committee or the national publicity secretary of the party. I have a letter appointing me as the Chairman and I just entered the Organising Secretary’s office whom I personally handed over the following: sixty-four results sheets for the wards, six local government results sheets, and one central collation sheet for the district and I handed over the result sheets to him. So go and ask the other group where they get what they are parading as a result?

“Ask who collected election materials from the Organising Secretary? Find out if the election materials were giving to any other person other than Senator Ajibola Bashiru. I know I collected the materials physically and not through a courier.

“It is sad that the issue of criminality will arise. The proper person to ask if you doubt the authenticity of that I’ve done as chairman is to ask if the party-appointed Sen. Ajibola Bashiru as chairman.

“When the report of parallel elections was broken, I just laughed. I have pictures on my phone of the people claiming we had parallel elections. We sat together, we held meetings together with the Commissioner of Police of Imo State. At the stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday, they were in attendance where I spoke, so I don’t know at what point in time the parallel election held. I say it with all honesty that as at noon yesterday (Thursday) the committee still met to review before we were about to proceed to the field. As at the time we were to proceed to Okigwe that they disappeared”.

When asked at what point there was a crack in the committee, the chairman denied dispute or rancour among members but said “suddenly I just can’t see the three members. We went to check their rooms, as I talk to you now, I have not set my eyes on them. If there was a dispute, they should be able to tell you (Media).

“They should tell you where they went when you see them. I reported them to the Police that I can’t see them. We checked their rooms, they were not there but left the television sets there on, we had to break into the rooms for fear that nothing untoward had happened to them.

“They absconded and four of us were on ground to do the work and you know that 4 is greater than 3. In our party, the day will not come when 3 will be greater than 4. If my committee is not recognised, I will not be here (Party’s National Secretariat, Abuja). We just presented our report to the Organising Secretary”.

Shortly after Sen. Bashiru and three others left the party secretariat, the acclaimed conductor of the parallel primary breezed in and headed to the office of the Organising Secretary to brief him and later addressed the press.

On behalf of Mohammed Salihu Saba and Prince Godfrey Ejim, Alhaji Umar Gana admitted that the three broke away members actually conducted an exercise which was free and fair, without molestation.

He said “in our own case, there were eleven people that contested for the Imo North senatorial seat, Okigwe is the name of the headquarters of the zone.

“Infact the election was peaceful and at the end of the day, the ward returning officers submitted their results to the local government returning officers, who then returned their results to us and we announced the results. So after all these exercise we had Senator Godwin Ifeanyi Ararume emerged as the winner of the primary election.

“Some people are making a lot of noise about the election in Imo state, I was there live and I can show you many pieces of evidence that I attended the primary live and it was done successfully. We had just submitted our report to the headquarters of the APC and it was acknowledged. So we are waiting for the day of the election. Whoever emerges, we will support him, all of them are APC men, an APC man is an APC man.

“We went there and we did the right thing. So, anybody that is short of this is not being fair to the APC and he doesn’t want the APC to grow into a stronger party. All these things that are coming up here and there, litigation up and down in the APC. In fact, it is because we the followers we have one or two challenges. You know it, people will influence you with one hundred million naira and you divert from the real assignment you want to go and do, but we should try to avoid these. Nigeria has come of age and APC has come of age, and things have to be done the right way”.

On what transpired among committee members, Gana said ” Well I’m a member of the committee. We are a seven-man committee and we are three here, but just as I was saying, in a democracy you have to agree and disagree. So when we went for the election, we took off on the second, on reaching there, you know we had to have a meeting with our colleagues with whom we went together, so when we had the meeting it was very successful, after the meeting we decided to go and see the governor around nine o’clock because as the chief executive and a member of our party we have to go and see him”.

He claimed that after meeting with Governor Hope Uzodinma, the assignment schedule of the committee changed and both the chairman and the secretary started avoiding him, leaving him with no option than to move ahead with the assignment with two other members.

Gana said “just there I decided there and said let me go and do my election with the two other members of the committee. So I went through about six local governments with two of our members, we supervise them, we interviewed them, and we collected our results. So when we came back, they wrote their own in the hotel and we said we are going to submit the rightful result. That was what happened”.

On the result sheet they wrote their results on and if the national organizing secretary of APC received it from them, he said “it is not necessary we have to write on a result sheet. Just bring your own result, the important thing is bringing your own result, not necessary on a result sheet.

“The party gave us a document, if the leader of the committee who is in the possession of the document and the result sheet, if he said he is not going out, then I should go and sleep. No! You can write on the paper and come to the party and explain to them that this is what happened.

“It is left for them to act or not to act. We have given our results to them and explained to them what happened and they said they are going to look into it. We gave them and they collected it, you can ask them questions and they will answer you”.

While party members and stakeholders in Imo state earnestly await the pronouncement of the party leadership on the outcome, it is hoped that the APC will not lose the Imo North senatorial district by-election to pre-election friction.