It is back to the basics, for candidates who contested the National Assembly elections on March 28, 2015, as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has proposed July 23 and 30, to conduct the suspended re-run elections in Kano, Kogi, Imo and Rivers States.
The Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, who disclosed the dates recently, at a meeting with security officers, the electoral body’s commissioners and political parties representatives from the affected States, said re-run elections in Kogi and Imo States, will hold on July 23, while re-run elections in Rivers and Kano States will hold on July 30.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Owerri, Imo State, had nullified the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the 2015 National Assembly election, Chief Attan Achonu, while delivering judgement in an appeal filed by INEC, challenging the verdict of the Elections Petition Tribunal, that nullified the said election.
Affirming the tribunal’s judgement, the appellate court directed that a re-run election be conducted within 90 days.
The tribunal, had in its Judgment in the petition filed by the candidate of the Accord Party, AP, for the Senatorial poll, Rita Ibemere Okoroafor, challenging the unlawful exclusion of her party logo and symbol from the ballot paper for the election, ruled that the petitioner proved her case beyond all reasonable doubt.
The battle for the Senatorial seat was like no other, since the return to civil rule in 1999, as for the first time in the political history of Imo North, also known as Okigwe Zone, three political heavyweights from three parties of almost equal strength, battled to represent the people of the area.
The trio were; Achonu, a businessman and philanthropist; the immediate Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly, Honourable Benjamin Uwajumogu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and another businessman and philanthropist Mazi Clem Owunna of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
While AP is hopeful of making an impact in the re-run, the APC, which celebrated the court verdict, believes that nothing will stop its candidate (Uwajumogu), from emerging top this time, as the result of the March election did not reflect the wishes and aspiration of Okigwe people.
Uwajumogu, had in his reaction to INEC’s declaration of Achonu as winner of the election, said the poll was not only marred by irregularities, but that voting did not take place in Ehime Mbano, Isiala Mbano and Okigwe councils of the zone.
The then ruling party in the State had ceded the position to Imo North, and the lot fell on Uwajumogu, being the party’s only legislator from the zone.
On paper, the former speaker looks good to win the poll, given his pedigree, but politics is a game of the possible, so it is not going to be a smooth sail, as there is still the issue of his platform, the APC.
He has a lot to do in convincing a majority of the people of the zone, who believe that the party has nothing for the people of the South-East.
However, another political school is of the opinion that merit should not be sacrificed for zoning. To members of this school, the people of Imo North, cannot afford to send their best to the Senate, as legislative representation is so unique and elevated, that experience is always the key that unlocks the doors of opportunities in that arm of government.
No doubt, the three candidates can match each other strength to strength, but to most indigenes of the zone, personality and antecedent, not party structure or financial strength, will determine who wins the election, as the zone has suffered poor representation for too long.
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