Enugu guber: Why Eze has no case

Their permutations could not be faulted given the rising political tension occasioned by the fierce power contest between forces loyal to Governor Sullivan Chime and the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu. However, the PDP congresses and primary elections have come and gone, and Enugu State, especially the PDP, remains one, peaceful, and […]

Their permutations could not be faulted given the rising political tension occasioned by the fierce power contest between forces loyal to Governor Sullivan Chime and the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
However, the PDP congresses and primary elections have come and gone, and Enugu State, especially the PDP, remains one, peaceful, and waxes stronger. The greatest credit goes to the big masquerades who opted for dialogue and sacrifice to move both the state and party forward. I was moved seeing Chime surrender his senatorial ambition to allow Ekweremadu, who has higher prospects in the legislature to continue his good work as a tested hand. There are those who say that he had no choice having been outwitted in the struggle for structures for the primary election by the Ekweremadu group. But I totally disagree. He could have opted for another party as rumoured and that would have caused the PDP a lot of trouble. Again, I was even moved all the more watching Ekweremadu on TV dedicate his second term PDP ticket to Sullivan Chime.
Virtually all the other gubernatorial candidates like Chinedu Onu and Anayo Onwuegbu withdrew from the race in support of the highly favoured candidature of Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, even the Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Eugene who went the whole length, but lost to Ugwuanyi never complained about the process. All these are acts of political maturity uncommon in our clime.
It is against this background that PDP supporters in Enugu were taken aback when Senator Ayogu Eze, a few minutes into governorship primary election at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, took to the media to declare himself Enugu PDP Governorship candidate. With due respect to Senator Eze, his polemics and tales are rather condescending and unbefitting. At least, even if his incredible tales deceives a few, critical minds and party faithful who were at the primary election venue could not be deceived.
I am not aware that the 1999 Constitution or the Electoral Act or the PDP Constitution permits delegates to conduct primary elections, even if you claim they are the “authentic delegates”. This validates the critical questions raised by the Enugu PDP denouncing Ayogu Eze. It questioned: “Since the bodies authorised by the party, the 1999 Constitution, and the Electoral Act 2010 to organise/supervise/observe primary elections were all absent, which ballot papers, result sheets, and certificate of return did Senator Ayogu Eze use? “Who certified and accredited the delegates? Do our laws, party constitution and guidelines for primary elections permit aspirants to just assemble a handful of rented passers-by to assume both the roles of delegates, election organisers, returning officers, INEC, etc. and declare themselves winners?”
It also beats my imagination how Ayogu Eze could describe a gathering of who-is-who in Enugu PDP as “an assemblage of passersby, touts, cheerleaders and office messengers who were hurriedly railroaded to the venue as a face saving measure”. The State Chairman of the party who has the power to convene a congress of the party as well as his deputy and all the state excos were present. The statutory delegates of the Enugu State Chapter of the PDP, including Governor Sullivan Chime and Deputy Governor Ifeanyi Nwoye, the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, all National Assembly members of Enugu State extraction (with the exception of Senator Ayogu) as well as the members of the Enugu State House of Assembly led by the Speaker who was a gubernatorial aspirant, Hon. Eugene.  The list goes one. This array of respected men and women do not appear to me as touts or people who would all congregate with touts. I challenge Ayogu Eze to name just one statutory delegate or State exco present at his 15-minute charade.
On the list of delegates, I believe the PDP, being a law-abiding and responsible organisation, must have taken all legal and political imperatives into consideration before sending the panel on the assignment with a list of delegates. It could not have used any illegal list. Rather, the panel mitigated the confusion and anarchy that would have ensued. Imagine a situation where the King Asara-led panel had accepted and worked with lists from other candidates rather the authentic one handed them by the party, which, by the way, sent them on the assignment.
The reason appeal panels are set up is to address grievances, making/recommending redresses where necessary. Thus, the responsible step Ayogu Eze should have taken was to participate in the primary election and thereafter petition PDP’s Appeal Panel for the Enugu gubernatorial primary election, rather than run to the media to impugn a party that has brought him fortune and power since 1998. As it stands now, Ayogu Eze has no case and is certainly pushing his luck too far by dragging the party to the court. The position of the law is that to contest the outcome of a primary election, you must have participated in the said election. He has already admitted that he did not.  
Now, tell me, will the PDP jettison the primary conducted by its panel and state excos, and attended by all its statutory and ad-hoc delegates and observed by the INEC for one purportedly conducted by mere passersby at an illegal venue? Already, the Enugu Chapter of the party has petitioned the Commissioner Police, Enugu State Command alleging that Ayogu Eze forged the PDP result sheets he filed in the suit he instituted against the PDP and Ugwuanyi at a Federal High Court, Abuja.
Providing graphic descriptions to support its case, the State party Chairman, urged the police to “investigate the facts stated and therefore take necessary steps to arrest and prosecute Senator Ayogu Eze for uttering and forgery of PDP Result sheet in accordance with the dictates of the law”. Political sagacity entails knowing when to stop, whether in victory or in defeat. It entails magnanimity in victory and sportsmanship in defeat. My humble take is that the longer Ayogu drags this, the more he loses relevance and sympathy in the scheme of things as well as the chances to cut a good political deal. It is sad that he has already thrown away the opportunity of returning to the Senate, flatly refusing a return ticket reportedly facilitated by Ekweremadu, Senator David Mark, and some national leaders of the party before the primaries. It would’ve been a good soft-landing, especially given that he is no match for Ugwuanyi in terms of acceptance by masses and political bigwigs in Enugu. Can Ayogu stop pushing his luck too far?
Ekwe lives in Enugu, Enugu State