Political analyst and Sunday Editor of The Nation Newspapers, Festus Eriye, joined by Senior Correspondent Dare Odufowokan to discuss how states will vote at 2019 governorship and state assembly election.
Tag: 2019 governorship
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2019 governorship: Amosun, Okorocha lose out as APC insists on Dapo Abiodun, Uzodinma
NATIONAL Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, declared yesterday that Senator Hope Uzodinma and Prince Dapo Abiodun remain the party’s governorship candidates for Imo and Ogun States respectively, despite protestations from the governors of the two states. Oshiomhole said he would not be a party to alleged effort by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State to create a political dynasty in the state. He said Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State would also not be allowed to keep running the affairs of the party in his state like an emperor. The party chair spoke to reporters in Abuja ahead of last night’s deadline for the parties to submit the names of their governorship and state assembly candidates for next year’s elections.
Oshiomhole said the party was in the process of conducting fresh primaries in Rivers State after the Supreme Court invalidated the last congresses in the state that produced candidates for the elections. Taking the states one after the other, he said while the party’s constitution allows only the National Working Committee to conduct primaries, Amosun resorted to selfhelp by organising primaries where the secretary to his government was the chief returning officer. His words: “The Ogun State governor decided in his wisdom to conduct his own self help. I mean resorting to what you can call self-help by conducting what he called his own primary. “The Secretary to Ogun State Government became the Chief Returning Officer and I and other NWC members were watching the television and we saw the Secretary to Ogun State Government proclaiming himself as the returning officer, and purported to have conducted the primary.”
Amosun, he also claimed, at a point decided to introduce consensus and went ahead to announce the names of those he said were the consensus candidates of the party. The governor’s action, he said, was rejected by other stakeholders in the state, after which the governor settled for direct primary. Oshiomhole said that when the electoral committee sent to the state to conduct the primary got there, Amosun and his preferred candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, refused to participate in the exercise. Dapo Abiodun went on to win the primary, he said. Oshiomhole said Amosun thereafter began to pile pressure on the party’s hierarchy to get the party to accept Akinlade, including mobilising some traditional rulers in the state to visit the President on the matter.
He vowed that no amount of blackmail would make him or members of the National Working Committee change what had been done in accordance with the laws of the party and in accordance with the provisions of the electoral act unless a court of competent jurisdiction rules otherwise. He said: “As we speak, we have submitted Amosun’s name to INEC as our senatorial candidate (for Ogun Central). “If we had anything against him, we would have found a way to disqualify him. The fact that we submitted his name means we don’t have anything against him. The issue is that he did not have his way. “He announced somebody as the consensus governor. He proceeded to announce another man as deputy governor. “He went on to proclaim himself as the next senator, and he said the current senator, Tejuoso, should step aside. “He also went on to announce that the second senator, also from Ogun State, will step aside while another man will come in. “Governor Amosun went on to announce another man who will be the next speaker, and another one as the next deputy speaker.
“He also singlehandedly picked eight House of Representatives members. Seven will not return, according to him; only one will return. All these he claimed as consensus.” On Imo State, Oshiomhole said the APC reviewed the report of the panel sent to the state, headed by Ahmed Gulak, and discovered that it substantially met with the guidelines set by the party and decided to uphold the report and adopt the senator as its candidate. Responding to a reporter’s question, the APC chair said: “The governor of Imo State said I should obey the order of the court and the law. I accept that advice wholeheartedly. “Yesterday (Thursday), I received documents from the High Court of Justice in Owerri where Governor Rochas heads the executive arm of government. The Chief Judge of the state ordered that I should not tamper with anything that has been done legally to throw up Uzodinma as the candidate of the party.
“The sitting Deputy Governor is the one who obtained that order. So, in accordance with the advice of Governor Rochas, I will respect that order of court.” Oshiomhole vowed that he would not be a party to helping the governor to build a political dynasty for himself where he would be a senatorial candidate of the party while his son-in-law would become the governorship candidate. He said Governor Okorocha is already a beneficiary of the party’s belief in doing things in accordance with the principles of fairness and justice. He said: “He completely lost out in the congress that was conducted by my predecessors, and when we came in, he cried foul and we took another look at the process and decided to cancel it, and we conducted another congress that now put a smile on his face.”
On Zamfara State where INEC said the party did not conduct primaries and will not be allowed to field candidadtes, Oshiomhole said the party is already in court to challenge the INEC position. His words: “We respect the sanctity of INEC and we expect them to remain impartial and not deny the people of Zamfara the opportunity to choose who should be their governor.” He said it would be undemocratic for the electoral management body to deny the party its right in the state. Oshiomhole expressed confidence that justice will prevail and the party will be allowed to present candidates in the state. The APC chair said the party will soon conduct fresh primaries in Rivers to pick its candidates for all elections after the previous list sent to INEC was invalidated by the Supreme Court. He apologised to the judicial arm of government for the invasion of the court by hired thugs in Rivers. He also expressed confidence that President Muhammadu Buhari will emerge winner of the 2019 election, boasting that “Buhari will defeat Atiku in his home town.”
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2019 governorship: IYM says no room for ethnicism in Rivers
The Ikwerre Youth Movement (IYM) International and the Ogoni Unity Initiative (OUI) have stated that in the multi-ethnic Rivers State, ahead of the 2019 governorship election, that no ethnic group can achieve political power alone.
They stated this yesterday in a 10-point communiqué at the end of the maiden visit of OUI to the leaders of IYM at its international secretariat in Isiokpo, the headquarters of Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers state.
The communiqué was signed by IYM’s Director-General, Intergovernmental and Other Agencies Relations, Sir Rowland Orlu, and OUI’s Letam Nzidee.
The communiqué read in part: “That no matter the diversity of our ethnicity in Rivers State, the Ogoni and the lkwerre have shared so much in common over the years, in collaboration and aspiration to build a greater Rivers State. This bond should be perfected and strengthened through peaceful and mutual friendship.
“That the political leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has been a blessing to the Ogoni and lkwerre, as well as the entire Rivers State, especially considering the fact that he (Amaechi) made it possible for Ogoni sons and daughters to hold some of the prominent positions in his administration (as Governor of Rivers State between 2007 and 2015), such as the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and the Deputy Speaker, Rivers State House of Assembly, and other high-profile positions throughout his eight-year tenure.
“That Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi’s brotherly deposition towards the Ogoni shows that he does not hold any ill-feeling towards the Ogoni. Whatever political aspirations the Ogoni, the Ikwerre and other ethnic nationalities may have, the Ogoni and lkwerre have resolved to remain united, under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Hon. Minister of Transportation, as no ethnic group can by itself achieve political power alone.”
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2019 Guber: Youths disassociate selves from Shehu Sani’s endorsement
Ahead of 2019 governorship polls, the youth of Southern Kaduna under the umbrella of Concerned Southern Kaduna APC Youths, on Tuesday disassociated themselves from the endorsement of Senator Shehu Sani, by the youth wing of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU).
Addressing a news conference in Kaduna, the leader of Concerned Southern Kaduna APC Youths, Hon. Manasseh Istifanus, called on people of the region to disregard what he described as, ‘a political charade’, saying, 2019 is still far and cannot be decided now by a group of people who are supposed to be politically neutral who endorse people without due consultations with the grassroots.
Istifanus advised further that people should be allowed to express their political freedom as it is enshrined the constitution of the Federal Republic, stressing that Southern Kaduna is not for one party: “it is also not for one aspirant/candidate”.
According to him, “It is no longer news that the SOKAPU Youth Wing on Sunday 14th May, 2017 held an emergency meeting at BBS Hotel in Barnawa, Kaduna in which the Leadership of the SAKAPU Youth Wing endorsed Sen. Shehu Sani as their gubernatorial candidate come 2019. After the meeting, a communiqué was issued by the Leadership of the SOKAPU Youth Wing”.
“Some statements were made in their communiqué that seek to incite the good people of Southern Kaduna against the APC and the APC led Government in the State.
On behalf of the APC Youths from Southern Kaduna, we wish to state categorically that we dissociate ourselves from that kangaroo endorsement of Sen. Shehu Sani by the Leadership of the SOKAPU Youth and we wish to State some facts clearly”.
“Sen. Shehu Sani is not from Southern Kaduna and he is not representing Southern Kaduna in the National Assembly. He has never identified himself with the people of Southern Kaduna not until recently that he started nursing a political ambition that he started showing solidarity to the people of Southern Kaduna”.
If at all there is a politician who has always identified himself with the people of Southern Kaduna, who is not from the zone, it should have been Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi. So, why did the Leadership of the SOKAPU Youth did not deem it fit to call Sen. Hunkuyi instead? We cannot forget in a hurry the demonization and negative statements that Sen. Shehu Sani made against the people of Southern Kaduna in 2011 after the post-election crisis that rocked the state in that same year”.
“If the Leadership of SOKAPU Youth Wing is really honest with their patriotism for Southern Kaduna, why didn’t they endorse one politician from Southern Kaduna extraction? Or don’t we have politicians that are better than Sen. Shehu Sani? If Sen. Shehu Sani truly loves Southern Kaduna people as it was shown by the SOKAPU Youth, why won’t he pick one person from Southern Kaduna and support his/her political aspiration in 2019 against his personal ambition?
In their communiqué, the SOKAPU Youth Leadership tagged Governor Nasir Elrufai as the “press secretary” of SIECOM which further portrays the partisanship of a Socio cultural group that is supposed to be politically neutral”.
“We therefore distance ourselves from such a political suicide mission,” the concerned youths maintained.