– Jonathan Unites Warring PDP Factions
AS the clock ticks down towards Saturday’s governorship election in Kogi State, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, assured the people of the State on Thursday that the agency was ready for the election, saying all necessary arrangements to ensure a smooth process have been put in place.
The commission, according to Professor Jega, would be relying on members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, for ad-hoc staff – as was the case with the last general elections in April.
According to the Electoral Commission boss, troublemakers would be apprehended and prosecuted. He referred to instances where electoral offenders were prosecuted since he took over as INEC boss as proof that it is no more the same old order under his leadership of the Commission.
Head of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, Mr. John Amanana Abrakasanga, also announced on Thursday that movement in the state would be restricted between 6am in the morning at 8pm in the evening.
Mr. Abrakasanga, who doubles as the state’s police commissioner, made the disclosure to stakeholders present at a meeting held at premises of the State Independent Electoral Commission in the state capital, where the final details of the plans to have a hitch-free election exercise were ironed out.
The police commissioner stated that Kogi residents would only be allowed movement between their homes and designated polling booths, while politicians would not be allowed to be accompanied by security personnel.
President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday night at the Presidential Villa, Abuja hosted People’s Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders from the state where a unanimous resolution was reached that all aggrieved parties should bury the hatchet.
Jonathan, who reportedly urged the various contending factions to ensure that the party emerged victorious in the election, noted that Kogi had been in the news in recent months because of misgivings arising from the two gubernatorial primaries, which produced two gubernatorial candidates.
“There were teary eyes in the room as arch rivals who were not expected to have seen eyeball to eyeball given the level of acrimony reported in the media, hugged and embraced themselves and proclaimed peace. They assured that they would turn a new leaf and ensure victory for the PDP tomorrow.
“Allusions were made to the losses recorded by the party in Imo, Nasarawa, Oyo and Ogun states during the April elections and the need to avoid a repeat in Kogi,” an insider said.
PDP National Chairman, Abubakar Baraje who spoke first, recalled that the in-house problems began with the annulment of the first primary election held in January as a result of the ruling by the Court of Appeal of April 15, affirming the February 25 judgment by the Federal High Court, Abuja, which extended the tenure of the incumbent Governor Ibrahim Idris from May 29, 2011 to April 2012.
As a result of this, he said the party was compelled to hold another primary election in line with the guidelines released by INEC, adding that the party’s national secretariat provided all the aspirants with a level playing ground to express themselves freely.
Baraje was said to have enjoined embittered aspirants, particularly Alhaji Jibrin Isah, winner of the January primary election who was still in court at the time of the meeting, to see the president’s intervention in the impasse as “presidential recognition of a special kind, which will not be without its positive fallouts at the appropriate time”.
Former PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Chief Tony Anenih admonished the outgoing Governor Idris to accept responsibility for the “flip-flops” which trailed the issue of endorsements, which led to Alhaji Jibrin Isah, winner of the January primary, being replaced with Capt. Idris Wada who emerged at the second primary held on September 22. Wada is the flag bearer of the PDP for tomorrow’s poll.
Former PDP National Chairman, Senator Ahmadu Ali reprimanded Isah for his activities, including attempts to seek court injunction stopping the second primary from holding and eventually for taking the party to court over Wada’s candidature.
Ali, who hails from Kogi, said the party’s decision on all matters should always be respected by members, adding the party is greater than individual interests.
“Once the party says you are dropped, that is it; you don’t say ‘no, I will fight’. You cannot do that because no one is greater than the party. Party interest towers above individuals interests,” he said.
Air Vice Marshal Atawodi (rtd), one of the aspirants who withdrew from the primaries, cited imposition of Wada by Idris as reason for his action, adding however that he has forgiven the governor and Wada, especially the latter who he claimed had promised to back his ambition.
Isah was said to have registered his pains having won the January primary election. He was quoted as pointing out that he was naturally aggrieved having gone through the rigour of electioneering campaign round the state with a lot of resources put into the efforts and filled with prospects “only to be dumped by Idris for a new man who was not part of the process from the beginning.”
The former banker who openly apologised to Governor Idris for any wrong doing that might have led to his being substituted, however told President Jonathan and his guests that he has put the matter behind him and was ready to work for the party to achieve victory.
He pledged to call his supporters who he noted were equally aggrieved, to shift their allegiance to Wada. Senator Smart Adeyemi, who backed Isah, said the governor drew the ire of the Isah camp by failing to carry the group along in his decision to drop Isah for Wada. He however said that as a party man who believes in the ideals of the PDP, he, like Isah, decided to stage a road show yesterday in Kogi West Senatorial District in sympathy with Wada’s running-mate, Yomi Awoniyi, who is from the zone.
“President Jonathan spoke last. He thanked everybody for the honour given him and for their promises. He said the PDP umbrella was big enough to accommodate all interests and that it is God who gives power to whom He deems fit, citing the story behind his emergence as president.
“Mr. President then enjoined all to put their differences behind them and work very hard to ensure victory for PDP in their various domains. Jonathan, Wada and Isah later went into a brief session behind closed-door and re-emerged with Wada and Isah embracing each other.
“The atmosphere in the room was electrifying. This was followed by another embrace by the trio of Jonathan, Wada and Isah to everybody’s excitement,” the insider added.
Describing the reconciliation as a welcome development, Chief Tunde Olusule, a former aide to erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo, noted: “This is a most fitting denouement to a long drawn debacle in Kogi PDP, a pleasant icing on the hard work, commitment and efforts which the PDP has put into the forthcoming election. The human resource capacity of the PDP to resolve its challenges is awesome. “The minimum we can do is to deploy this diversity and depth of our human resources to address our challenges. This development has signaled the eventual nunc dimitis of other parties in the Saturday election. God willing, PDP will win transparently, fair and square,” Olusule said.