War in Abia PDP as Gov Orji, son move to impose successor

Chinedu Orji plans to contest House of Assembly election to become Speaker

Ahead of the No­vember 29, 2014, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gover­norship primaries, all is not well within the Abia State chapter of the party over plans by Governor Theo­dore Orji and his son, Chin­edu, alias ‘Ikuku’, to

impose Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as next governor in 2015.

Despite the governor’s sev­eral denials through his spokes­man, Mr. Charles Ajunwa, that he has no anointed candidate and promises to ensure a level-playing field for all aspirants, there are strong indications that he has commissioned his son, Chinedu, to work with some elders, government and party officials to impose Ikpeazu on the state.

It was gathered that the much-talked about peace and unity, which Governor Orji claimed to have brought to the stakeholders of the party seemed to have disappeared, as the three senators representing the state, Uche Chukwumerije (Abia North), Nkechi Nwaogu (Abia Central) and Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), governorship, national and state Assembly aspirants had vowed not to allow the governor and his son have their way in the choice of the next governor of the state.

Checks revealed that the recent impasse had polarized the state chapter of the party into old and new PDP, with the former group vowing that Ikpeazu would not succeed Governor Orji.

In a petition signed by Chukwumerije, Nwaogu, Aba­ribe and the governorship and National Assembly aspirants, including Alex Otti, Acho Nwakanma, Emeka Wogu, Solomon Ogunji, Uzoma Abonta, Nkeiruka Onjejeocha, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, they stated that no ward congress held in Abia State, as the Tony Caesar Okeke committee allegedly did the bidding of the governor and his son by writing the result of a congress, which never held.

The three senators and leading aspirants, who met in Umuahia after the botched congress, accused Governor Orji and his son of ordering the 17 transition committee chair­men to move around the 184 wards of the state, with sol­diers and policemen, harassing people, in their desperation to cover the fraud of the congress.

According to the petition, “between 5.30pm and 6pm, the people dispersed to their homes disappointed, which means that no congress held anywhere in Abia State. From about 8pm, we noticed sur­reptitious movements of non-executive members of the party and government officials carrying pre-prepared fictitious result sheets of papers to the members of the panel in Dam­grete Hotel, where they were huddled since their arrival, af­ter the meeting with stakeholders and aspirants, which, as earlier noted, ended at 2.15pm. Rumour has it that the panel spent most of the night compiling these fictitious results into their result sheets.”

After presenting their cases before the Mrs. Ashanti Be­kwai-led PDP Electoral Appeal Panel, the aggrieved as­pirants and stakeholders, who called on the national secretariat of the party to reschedule the ward congress, insisted that it would not be in the interest of the Abia PDP to allow the governor to impose a candidate on the state, against the people’s wish.

The aggrieved aspirants were said to have asked Gov­ernor Orji to drop Ikpeazu and support another candidate, but the former denied supporting any aspirant as his successor. Among those who were said to be deeply aggrieved by the plot to impose Ikpeazu, was his in-law and two-time deputy gov­ernor of the state, Chief Acho Nwakanma, who had so far resisted overtures to support the former.

It was gathered that Nwakanma had vowed not not accept Ikpeazu as governor.

Senator Abaribe was said to be bitter with the development, as he had expressed preference for another aspirant emerging governor from his native Ob­ingwa instead of Ikpeazu, if he would not be the candidate.

Sources stated that with what happened at the Novem­ber 1 PDP congress in Abia, it was clear that Governor Orji was not popular in the state chapter of the PDP and know­ing that if a credible ward con­gress was held, his preferred candidates would lose, his camp decided to frustrate the exercise and wrote results in­stead.

The governor’s plan, it was gathered, was that with the pre­pared list, which had the names of his supporters, the plan to impose Ikpeazu as his succes­sor would be easily achieved in the primaries.

Checks revealed that to give the false impression that Ikpeazu’s choice enjoyed the support of most members of the PDP, some handpicked “el­ders” of the party in the state on the payroll of the governor had been recruited to start endors­ing Governor Orji’s choice.

Sources revealed that part of the plan was to ensure that only Governor Orji’s preferred aspirants in the state House of Assembly and the National Assembly elections emerged candidates of the party.

This, it was gathered, was to ensure that if Ikpeazu emerged governor, he would also be caged, since the state lawmak­ers would be Orji’s loyalists.

It was gathered that the governor’s son was likely to contest the state House of As­sembly election, with the plan that he would become speaker, while other loyalists would be lawmakers.

Some of those the gover­nor wanted to go to the state House of Assembly with his son, it was learnt, are former Chief of Staff to the gover­nor, Chief Cosmas Ndukwe; former Commissioner for In­formation, Eze Chikamnayo; Special Adviser to the Gover­nor on Labour matters, Lucky Akabuike, among others.

Also, some lawmakers in the current House of As­sembly, who are loyal to the governor, such as the Deputy Speaker, Asiforo Okere, and the Chief Whip, Dr. Ikechuk­wu Nwabeke, among others, have been shortlisted to return to the House, it was gathered.

The Speaker, Chief Ude Oko Chukwu, it was gathered, has been shortlisted as deputy governor to Ikpeazu.

Though Governor Orji’s son had severally denied nurs­ing the ambition of contesting the House of Assembly elec­tion and becoming speaker, he recently exposed himself when he reportedly said the post of speaker belonged to the old PDP camp of the party.

Close watchers of the Abia political situation predicted that going by Governor Orji’s non-performance, coupled with his insistence to anoint his successor and represent Abia Central at the Senate, while his son emerged speak­er, the state could be in trouble.

A PDP chieftain from Oha­fia bared the minds of Abia citizens when he said: “It amounts to greed for the gov­ernor to want to produce a suc­cessor, go to the Senate and his son, Ikuku, will be the speaker. What has the Ohafia man gained from this government? Our people are suffering; we have no road. People are not happy with this government. We are hearing that he now wants to use the Speaker, Ude Oko Chukwu, as deputy gov­ernor instead of the core Ohafia people. We will not allow that to happen because we are not slaves to Nkporo people. The people should reject anybody anointed by Ochendo. I am still thinking on how Ochendo will go on a campaign trip to Aba to raise Ikpeazu’s hand as successor. I don’t think he can do that. He will be stoned be­cause of his non-performance, which has led to the suffering of the people.”

In the meantime, aggrieved PDP aspirants have started ne­gotiating with the All Progres­sives Grand Alliance (APGA), the Progressives Peoples Alli­ance (PPA) or All Progressives Congress (APC) to realise their ambitions, in case Gov­ernor Orji goes ahead with the plan to impose Ikpeazu as the candidate.