As political parties are preparing for the February 3 rerun election in Udenu/Igboeze north federal constituency, Enugu State, voters’ apathy and cold feet developed by stakeholders may affirm the result of the previous election annulled by the appeal court. LAWRENCE NJOKU reports.
The excitement, frenzy and trappings expected of an electoral contest appear to be lacking or brought to knee levels in the February 3, rerun House of Representatives election in Igboeze North/Udenu federal constituency in Enugu State as ordered by the Court of Appeal.
Reasons for this are not far-fetched and may not be limited to rulings of the courts over the 2023 general elections, which dashed hopes in some circles and ignited the same in others. The other might be likened to the expected outcome of the process.
The Court of Appeal had on November 3, 2023 nullified the election of Labour Party’s Dennis Agbo for the Igboeze North/Udenu Federal Constituency and ordered a rerun within 90 days for all the parties.
The court removed Agbo following the appeal brought by the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election, Oby Ajih. She had approached the appellate court, challenging the ruling of the tribunal that the election did not follow due process as the logo of her party was not in Form EC8A.
It was based on this ground that the election was nullified. The court ruled that non-inclusion of the logo of APC in the result sheet was not in compliance with the Electoral Act; thus setting the tone for the rerun election for all parties involved on February 3.
Before then, Agbo had already been sworn in as a serving member of the House of Reps. At the last general election, he garnered 28,750 votes to beat his closest contender, Simeon Atigwe of the PDP who polled 14, 229 votes among others.
There are 166 polling units in Udenu and Igboeze north local government councils, where the rerun election of February will take place. Information obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by The Guardian showed that the two local governments have registered voters of 62,688 and collected Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) of 61,544.
The elections will not be holistic as it would take place in areas where APC logo was missing including 10 polling units in Umuozzi; 3 in Umuitodo; 2 in Ette; 3 in Essodo; 2 in Orba and 1 each in Obolloetiti, Obolloafor and Ununedem, respectively.
At a stakeholders’ meeting held last week, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), for Enugu State, ChukwuemekaChukwu assured political parties and their candidates that the electoral body was prepared to conduct hitch free election to end the political tango of 2023 in the area.
“Working under the order of the court, which specified 90 days for the conduct of the rerun elections, the commission has fixed February 3, 2024 for the rerun elections.
“We are prepared and have made necessary arrangements for hitch-free and inclusive rerun election”, he stated and assured of timing arrival of materials at the voting points
Ordinarily, the rerun election could have become an easy one for the PDP since it produced the current government in power in the state. This however, may not be so as many things have changed in the party since the conclusion of the 2023 general elections won by Governor Peter Mbah.
The governor appears not to be interested in party politics for now. He seems to have pulled all his muscle in governance aimed at giving the masses a reason for voting him to power. Mbah believes that members of the party, especially its stakeholders could not rise to the challenge when it mattered most during his election and therefore, sees his victory in the election as an act of God, hence, has not looked the way of the party since he was sworn in May last year. This has hugely affected PDP as nothing is happening in the party.
PDP members are rarely heard or seen and cannot boast of any meeting of the party in recent times. The secretariat of the party in the state is almost deserted.
To further underline the situation of the party, nothing is being heard from the PDP over the local government election in the state even when the tenure of current council chairmen expires in February. The development has given rise to speculations of possible Caretaker Committee at that level. The state Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC) had, last year, announced a time table for the exercise, but that is the most anybody can say of the process since then.
Atigwe, who is the candidate of the party in the February 3, rerun election, was displaced from the same seat in 2023 by Agbo. He won the election in 2019 and attempted to retain his office in 2023 after winning the party’s primary. He did not contest the outcome of the election that threw up Agbo in his place. That might follow from his conviction that the electorate chose his opponent over him.
Close watchers of the party stated that he may need to rely on his personal efforts and contacts to pull through the election, adding that his major challenge lies in the fact that the majority of the polling areas affected are dominated by sympathisers of his opponents.
They added, however, that things may turn out for good for the party in the exercise should the state government throw its weight behind the candidate in the election.
When they held their stakeholders meeting in November last year, the APC in the state congratulated ObyAjih for vigorously pursuing her electoral case, leading to the call for a rerun election in the federal constituency by the court.
The party, which saw the rerun as a first step towards winning an election in Enugu State, promised to unveil a high-powered campaign committee that would lead to a resounding victory in the election after due consultations with the regional and national leadership of the party.
This promise has been kept as the party recently unveiled an expanded campaign council for the rerun election to be coordinated by ChukwuraMamah.
Among other prominent members of the Campaign Council are Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, UcheNnaji; Deputy National Chairman (South) of the party, Emma Enukwu; National Vice Chairman (Southeast); IjeomaArodiogu; state chairman of the party, UgochukwuAgballah; 2023 deputy governorship candidate in Enugu, George Ogara; Senator AyoguEze; former state chairman, Ben Nwoye; former Speaker, Eugene Odoh; all candidates of the party in the 2023 general elections and several others.
Ajih, the only woman in the election stated during the unveiling ceremony of the campaign council that she would emerge victorious in the rerun election, stressing that she was receiving the best of support from her party, as well as the people of the constituency.
The challenge for her however, is that her party is not popular in the area and has not won any election in the state. Ajih, unlike her opponents, is a political neophyte. While her opponents, especially from the PDP and LP had won electoral contests in the past that saw them representing the people of the area, Ajih had never won any. Although she has raised a large campaign council comprising even members that had fallen out with the leadership of the party in the state, fears that this love-lost will be imported into the election is gaining traction. She may though make something out of the election if members of the party are really desirous and focused on the election.
The candidate of the LP in the election, Dennis Agbo won the election last year. The process was not nullified because of electoral manipulations rather from the printer’s error that failed to insert the logo of the APC in some of the result sheets.
Agbo, it could be recalled had previously won election for the same federal constituency seat in 2015 on the platform of the PDP and represented the area for four years. In fact, it was the PDP candidate, Atigwe who became the favourite for the party’s ticket in 2019 thereby replacing Agbo. He returned to his shell after he was denied the ticket by the PDP and resurfaced in 2023 to claim the ticket of the LP to vie in the federal constituency election seat.
The candidate who believes he would win again, said that the essence of political power was to offer service, stressing that he was poised to continue to give the people a reason for their support and votes.
Although Agbo is counting on popular will and experience to overcome the challenge of his opponents in the election, part of the challenge facing him is how to rekindle the enthusiasm, especially among the LP members that made them massively vote for him in the election of last year.
Findings showed that since the rulings of the courts, especially on the governorship election, things have not been the same with the party. The challenge therefore, is how to overcome the electoral apathy that may trail the process.
Members of the LP believed that ChijiokeEdeoga who was the governorship candidate won the election, but rulings of the courts from the tribunal through the Supreme Courts proved otherwise.
Edeoga has been a source of inspiration for the party members. His inability to recover his election through the courts brought some disillusionment in the party. The tendency that this could affect the party in the election is prominent.
But going by the result already achieved from the last election and leveraging the strength of the party by winning the two senatorial zones of the state, five House of Reps seats, as well as producing the highest number of lawmakers in the state Assembly, hopes that Agbo will return to office have remained high and strong. As it is, all eyes are fixed on the February 3 rerun election and a winner is certainly going to emerge from either the LP, PDP or APC.
