Fresh tension is brewing in the Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over the substitution of the running mate to the late Prof. Uche Ikonne, Hon. Okey Igwe.
Following the emergence of a new governorship candidate, Chief Okey Ahiwe, the PDP nominated Dr. Jasper Uche, to replace Igwe as the deputy governorship candidate. Ikonne died on January 25, 2023 while the national leadership of the party conducted a primary election to replace him on February 4. Both Igwe and Uche hail from Umunneochi council area of the Abia North senatorial district.
Igwe, who is currently a member of the State House of Assembly, is already spitting fire over his substitution, insisting that his candidacy subsists in accordance with the Constitution and Electoral Act.
He has filed a suit at the federal high court challenging his substitution ,asking the court to determine whether the party was right in substituting for another candidate.
Igwe has also accused 'entrenched interests' who were afraid of what he and Ikonne represented of rising against him.
Igwe advised the party to exercise caution and understand that the attempt to replace him shall fail and render the PDP governorship candidacy invalid.
His words; "I wish to use this medium to thank all my supporters, fans and all Abians of good will for your phone calls and show of concern in the face of attempted substitution of my candidature as the duly nominated and subsisting deputy gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, Abia State for the 2023 General Elections.
"I have committed my soul, resources and energy to the course of victory for our party since my nomination alongside my late boss. My boss passed, and I have accepted his passing, albeit painfully, as the will of divinity. Yet, my candidature subsists in accord with the constitution and our Electoral Act.
"Indeed, certain entrenched interests that are and were opposed to what Prof and myself represented towards charting the course of a new, sustainable Abia, have arisen against me. I will advise them to see reason, exercise due caution and understand that their attempt to unlawfully subvert my candidature shall fail and worse still render the entire PDP gubernatorial candidacy inchoate, that will amount to pulling the rug from the under feet of our great party.
However, the PDP in the state disclosed that it dropped Igwe as the deputy governorship candidate, because he has dual citizenship.
Acting Publicity Secretary and Vice Chairman, Abia North zone of the party, explained that the President, governor and their running mates are considered as a ticket where any defect affects both of them.
He said; "Our former guber candidate is deceased and as a result of that, a section of the Electoral Act was activated. That section of the Electoral Act which was activated requires a primary to be conducted and in conducting fresh primaries means that a new candidate must emerge from the party and that was exactly what has happened.
"A new candidate has emerged and one of the legal privileges of a candidate who emerged as a flag bearer of the party either as a governor or a President is that, the first privilege that accrues to the person is the right to nominate his or her running mate. Nobody or institution compels you to adopt somebody. Of course, a candidate can choose his running mate by consulting with the party, but it is the candidate that will eventually determine his or her running mate. So, when Prof. Ikonne died, the joint ticket with his deputy or running mate died as well. Whoever that was his running mate ceases to exist as a running mate, because nobody elected the running mate in any party primary. The person who was elected was Prof. Ikonne and that is the person who is vested with the powers to nominate.
"If he who was nominated had died, the nominator would have been empowered to re-nominate another person. That is what happened.
The truth is that he is a very qualified person. The truth is that we feel so bad that he is no longer the deputy governorship candidate of the party. But you see, his private interest as an individual cannot override the interest of the party.
"One of the reasons why we didn't consider him (Okey Igwe) is also based on legal issues and one of those legal issues is that as of the time that he (Okey Igwe) was already a running mate, a matter came up in a Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where a candidate was challenged that in a Federal High Court that he is not eligible on the grounds that he has dual citizenship and the Federal High Court ruled in the matter that anybody who has pledged allegiance to a foreign country cannot be qualified to stand for public office in Nigeria. That person was disqualified.
"Now, the person took the matter to the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal quashed the decision of the Federal High Court and the matter is before the Supreme Court. Our legal team opined that if by the time we get to the deadline for the submission of running mate the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, that the new governorship candidate can consider him (Okey Igwe) as his running mate. But if as at the time of the deadline, the Supreme Court has not adjudicated on the matter, the governorship candidate may not consider him because of the adverse implication of our party going into the election without any candidate in the March 11 election. It was based on that, that he was not considered as Okey Ahiwe's running mate.
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"He is a dual citizen; he has served in the American Military and the rest of the things that were part of the plus which he had as a person and if for any reason those things which were part of his plus have now developed legal challenges, then we cannot because of his individual interest take a risk that will make our party go into an election without a candidate.
"As a party, we felt that it was not necessary to start talking about the challenges that made the party to drop him, but we are now addressing this issue because of the position that he (Okey Igwe) is taking now and that is why it has become important that we explain to the public reasons for our actions."
