EMBATTLED ANAMBRA STATE COMMISSIONER RESIGNS

Chief Vincent Ejikeme Ezenwajiaku, who was declared wanted by the Special Fraud Unit, SFU, of the Nigeria Police for allegedly obtaining N10.6 million by false pretence and forgery has announced his resignation from the Anambra State Executive Council.

He has also sued the Commissioner of Police in charge of Special Fraud Unit, SFU, as well as one Chuks Mgbenena of NIMASA and CSP Okposiakpo Elolor for N250 million over what he described as an attempt to damage his reputation.

The embattled Anambra State commissioner spoke to the newsmen in Awka on Septmeber 19, 2013.

Chief Ezenwajiaku said the import of what the people were doing was just to take his pound of flesh because he was appointed a commissioner by Governor Peter Obi.

According to him, the amount involved was not N10.6 million, adding that Chuks Mgbemena and SFU just want to put him in bad light, to smear his hard-earned image that had taken him time to build and perhaps, to lose his job as commissioner in the state.

He said: "Since my life, I have never been involved in fraud, or arrested or detained by the police on anything concerning any form of illegality because it was a vow I took after my National Youth Service Corps.

"As a result of this raging fire, I am going further by resigning my position as the State Commissioner for Special Duties and I am going to tender my letter to Governor Obi first thing tomorrow morning (Friday), because I do not intend to embarrass this government.

"This is to prove my innocence until I clear my name of this mess. Whatever it will take to do it, I will do it".

In the suit instituted at the Awka High Court, Ezenwajiaku is urging the court to restrain Mr. Chucks Mgbemena, the Commissioner of Police in charge of SFU and CPS Elohor from arresting him or continuing to harass him, pending the determination of the suit.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: PDP Suspends Andy Uba, His Brother Chris And Three Other Members

The Andy Uba versus PDP saga continues as the People's Democratic Party has Suspended Him and four other members of the party thought to be his loyalists.

The National Working Committee of the PDP on Thursday, August 29 2013 suspended the five men for failing to honour the party's invitation over the parallel congress organised in Awka on Saturday.

The suspension was contained in a letter addressed individually to the five men. The letters were signed by the party's Acting National Secretary, Remi Akintoye.

Others suspended alongside Senator Uba are his brother, Chris Uba, a factional chairman of the PDP in Anambra, Ejike Oguebego, Benji Udeozor, and Tonia Nwankwu.

Andy Uba had won the PDP governorship ticket for Anambra at the parallel primary conducted by the Oguebego leadership of the party in the state.

The PDP national headquarters has recognised Tony Nwoye, elected at another congress, as the party's flag bearer for the Anambra governorship election in November.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: Court orders PDP to accept Uba as Anambra candidate

 There was a twist on 28^th August 2013 to the candidacy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the November 16^th 2013 Anambra State governorship election.

A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt ordered the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise the candidate elected by the Ejike Oguebego-led faction of Anambra State PDP.

Senator Andy Uba won the primary. But Tony Nwoye won the primary conducted by the Ken Emekeyi-led faction of the party. Both congresses were held last Saturday in Awka.

PDP Chairman Bamaga Tukur yesterday gave the certificate of return to Nwoye as the party’s flag bearer.

Senator Andy Uba told the court presided over by Justice H.A. Nganjiwa that the primaries that produced him as the candidate followed the laid down procedures. Joined in the suit as defendants are the PDP national leadership and INEC.

The suit was filed before last weekend’s primaries. Oguebego, the state secretary of the PDP, Chief Gilbergt Okoye, and the Legal Adviser, Chucks Okoye sued for themselves and on behalf of the State Executive Committee of the PDP.

Justice Nganjiwa ordered that the result of the primaries conducted by the Ejike Oguebego-led executive, where Uba emerged as the candidate, should be upheld, pending the hearing and determination of the suit by the applicants.

He said the PDP and INEC should accept the results that emerged from the wards and state congress, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice or hearing and determination of the motion to set aside the interim order.

The judge said: “The first and second defendants are to forthwith comply with the order of this honourable court made on the 26th of August, 2013.”

Prior to the ruling, the court gave an exparte order restraining both the INEC and PDP from dealing with the Ken Emeakayi faction, pending the hearing of the main application. The court adjourned the matter till tomorrow.

However, at the meeting of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja, Tukur pronounced Nwoye the winner of the primaries and governorship candidate, following the report of Katsina State Governor Ibrahim Shema, his Gombe counterpart, Ibrahim Dankwambo, and Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba, who monitored the primaries.

Nwoye was yesterday presented with a certificate of return by the national chairman.

The presentation came just as the Uba brothers, Andy and Chris, shunned the summon extended to them by the leadership of the PDP.

Also summoned alongside the Uba brothers were Chief Benji Udeozor and Mrs. Tonia Nwankwo. They were ordered to appear before the party’s leadership at 10am yesterday. None of them honoured the invitation.

They were summoned to explain their roles in the conduct of the August 24 parallel primary election through which Andy Uba emerged as PDP candidate.

Shortly after collecting his certificate, Nwoye told reporters that he remained the authentic candidate of the party.

The Southeast zone also insisted that Nwoye is the party’s candidate. The zone’s position was made known during its Zonal Executive Committee meeting in Enugu on 28^th August 2013.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, Governors of Ebonyi and Abia states Chief Martin Elechi and Theodore Orji, House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha, Senator Hope Uzodinma and former PDP National Chairman Vincent Ogbulafor, among others, attended.

The Southeast PDP Publicity Secretary, Ali Odefa, who read the communique at the end of the meeting, said the zoning arrangement for all PDP’s National Working Committee given to the Southeast Zone had been retained.

He, however, stated that elections for the positions would take place, adding that people would be advised not to contest for positions that were not zoned to their states.

According to Odefa, the leadership of the party passed a vote of commendation on people from the Southeast zone that held positions in the NWC of the party in the past.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: ….Anambra PDP Crisis: Senator Andy Uba Absent At PDP Disciplinary Panel

Senator Andy Uba, the winner of the parallel primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, was sighted in the Asokoro District of Abuja on Wednesday, August 28,2013 when he and four other members of the party were supposed to appear before the PDP disciplinary panel at the national secretariat of the party. 

They were summoned to explain why they organised a separate congress in the state last Saturday, August 24, where Uba was elected as its governorship candidate for Anambra November 16 election. The other four members are Uba's younger brother, Chris, and Ejike Oguebego, Benji Udepzor and Tonia Nwankwu.

At the primary attended by the party officials Hon. Tony Nwoye was elected as the party's candidate. 

The erring party members were directed to appear before the NWC by 10 a.m. on Wednesday, but none of them showed up at time of this report.

Although there were speculations at the PDP national secretariat that Uba had travelled outside country and therefor could not appear before the NWC, the senator was sighted in Asokoro District in Abuja on Wednesday afternoon. The attempts to contacts Uba have been unsuccessful so far.

Meanwhile at the PDP national secretariat

Also on Wednesday, the National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur, presented a certificate of return to Nwoye, at a short ceremony held at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja. Tukur said he did not know the party’s flag-bearer until he emerged the winner at last Saturday’s primary election:

“That is how it should be. If we do things transparently, honestly and with commitment, PDP will always arrive at the right thing. You have made us proud.”

He also said upon his assumption of office as the national chairman and in line with President Goodluck Jonathan’s quest for one-man-one vote, he had declared that a level-playing field would be provided for every member of the PDP seeking elective offices while equity and justice would begin to reign in the party.

Speaking to journalists after the ceremony, Nwoye said his emergence was God’s design because he was never considered as one of the top aspirants before the primary election. Nwoye, a former state chairman of PDP in Anambra State and former President of National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, also explained that he did not labour much to secure the ticket last Saturday as he did when he contested election into the House of Representatives in 2011, though he was denied the right of taking his seat in the House.

If elected, he added, he would empower the suffering masses of Anambra State and ensure adequate security in the state so that its indigenes would no longer take refuge in the neighbouring states of Enugu and Delta.

It will be reminded, that the parallel primaries took place on 24 August 2013. The PDP leadership disapproved the primary held by the faction chaired by Ejike Oguebeogu and recognized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), where Mr. Uba was elected as its governorship candidate. After that, PDP summoned Uba to appear before a disciplinary panel to "show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.”