The Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, was prominently mentioned ahead of today’s election in a plot by the People’s Democratic Party to manipulate the bye-election for the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise seat in the House. The seat became vacant following the Elections Petitions Appeal tribunal’s nullification of the election of Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe of the PDP as the representative of the constituency. This followed a suit filed by Ken Agbakwuru of the Labour Party, against his exclusion from the ballot, last April.
The Deputy Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, was prominently mentioned ahead of today’s election in a plot by the People’s Democratic Party to manipulate the bye-election for the Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Mbaise seat in the House. The seat became vacant following the Elections Petitions Appeal tribunal’s nullification of the election of Raphael Nnanna Igbokwe of the PDP as the representative of the constituency. This followed a suit filed by Ken Agbakwuru of the Labour Party, against his exclusion from the ballot, last April.
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A citizen reporter gathered that Ihedioha and Alex Obi, a noted political prostitute who has traversed several political parties; one Charlton Osuagwu, a former chairman of Ezinihitte Mbaise Local Government; one Charles Obinna, also an ex chairman of Aboh Mbaise; Remy Igbokwe, a 419 king pin and the elder brother to PDP candidate Christogonus Okoro, another notable 419 king pin, among many others, were the arrow head of the project, which had the blessings of the distressed State PDP.
Sources said that these people have met severally, under the leadership of Ihedioha, to map out strategies to rig the election to favour the PDP. Chief among their strategies was to buy up voters cards from voters in the two local government areas of Ahiazu and Ezinihitte, as well as import ‘voters’ from neighbouring Aboh Mbaise, Ihedioha’s local government, to see that they mopped up cards in favour of the PDP. It was understood that a heavy sum had been set apart for this dirty project and the PDP had been freely spending in the run up to this bye election.
It was learned that Ihedioha and the PDP worked on a multi-pronged approach of infiltrating INEC for the purpose of diverting the electoral materials and ballot stuffing while at the same time, banking on the use of the police to intimidate voters and fix figures for their hugely unpopular party and candidate. Ihedioha had severally boasted to his political associates and confidants in Mbaise that he hoped to use the present Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, who is his personal friend, to enforce their rigging strategies in the election.
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On Friday, the disgraced former governor of Imo State and mentor of Igbokwe, Ikedi Ohakim, was sighted with Ihedioha at Ahiara Junction, Ahiazu Mbaise, as they frantically strategised to steal the election for the PDP. He was to spend the night in Ihedioha’s country home in Mbutu where they planned to finalize the modalities for the rigging of today’s election.
This election is considered critical to the PDP as they want to shore up their dwindling fortunes in Imo State. Recently, the state chairman of the party, Eze Duruiheoma, was reported to have gone cap in hand to beg for favours from the national leadership of the party, claiming that with the party out of power in Imo, hard times had hit members of the party. It was not possible to confirm if Ihedioha is working with the mandate of the national leadership, which is scared of the prospect of the party in Imo State, given the popularity of incumbent governor, Rochas Okorocha and his promising performance in office.
It would be recalled that Okorocha, of APGA, backed with massive popular support, wrestled the governorship from PDP’s Ikedi Ohakim in April 2011. His hard-fought victory against the desperate attempt by the PDP to steal the election drew national and international attention. The remarkable following he enjoys has been complimented by his performance, which many observers in Imo State have rated as surpassing the combined performance of Ikedi Ohakim and Achike Udenwa in twelve years of PDP ruin in Imo State.
Ihedioha and Igbokwe are beneficiaries of the badly rigged National Assembly election in Imo, which was swung by Ohakim before he was stopped by raw popular revolt in the governorship election. In fact, Ihedioha was able to nick the Aboh Mbaise/Ngor Okpala federal seat through the last minute ballot stuffing in his Mbutu village after he had been beaten in the results from 95 per cent of the entire constituency by Soronnadi Njoku of the ACN, who is now the Attorney General in the Okorocha government. Igbokwe benefitted from the massive ballot stuffing that characterized that election and given his unpopularity, there is fear among the PDP faithful that he cannot survive the bye election. He had made desperate efforts to fend off the bye election, including appealing to the same tribunal which nullified his election, to reverse itself.
Ihedioha, who was the Chief Whip in the Dimeji Bankole House, was able to get the Deputy Speakership of the House through the efforts of the opposition parties that stood down the attempt by the PDP to force a different leadership on the House. He is said to be nursing the dream of contesting for Imo governorship in 2015 and sees the bye election as an opportunity to get his foot soldiers in strategic positions and help save his party, the PDP, from its present sorry state.
When we sought the APGA side to the story, a top official of the party said they were aware of the plot but maintained that the people would stop the desperate rigging machine of the PDP. He said that the party was keeping an eagle eye on both INEC and the mentioned plotters and warned them to desist from any effort to earn the wrath of the people. He asked the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega and the new Inspector General of Police, Abubakar to restrain themselves from being used as pawns in Ihedioha’s desperate ambition as that would not augur well for their image.
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