APC may lose Benue governorship poll victory to PDP – Party leaders warn

Multiple court cases against the selection of Chief Sam­uel Ortom as the governor­ship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State may switch the party’s electoral victory in the recent general elections to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) if urgent steps are not taken by party leaders.
This is the outcome of a meeting held by some APC leaders in Abuja during the week to appraise the performance of the party in the state and review the strength of ongoing court cases against the Gover­nor-elect, Samuel Ortom.

A prominent figure at the meeting told Saturday Sun that the meeting was called “to review the decision by the PDP to challenge the election of Chief Ortom on the ground that APC did not have any candidate as at the time the governorship election was held on April 11 in the state and this is due to the multiple court cas­es filed by some other APC governorship aspirants led by Hon. Emmanuel Jime who is strongly laying claim to the party’s ticket having been adopted by four other aspirants and party leaders as consensus candidate before Ortom’s name was sub­mitted to INEC.”

It was gathered that because of the dispute on who the authentic candidate of APC is and the court case instituted by Hon Jime, Senator JKN Waku, and Prof Steve Ugbah at the Federal High Court, Abuja in suit number FHC/ABJ/ CS/1057/14, the PDP had last week gone to the Benue governorship election peti­tion tribunal in Makurdi to abort the inau­guration of Ortom on May 29.
The PDP through its governorship can­didate, Hon. Terhemen Tarzoor in its pe­tition number EPT/BEN/GOV/01/26 is asking that it be declared winner of the guber poll with a total of 313,878 votes. The request is based on their claim that APC, though scored the highest 422,932 votes, did not have an authentic candidate for the election.

Faced with the danger of losing the par­ty’s electoral victory to the PDP, one of the APC leaders early in the week wrote a letter to the National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu intimating him about the legal moves that could rob the party of the Benue governorship seat if urgent interventions are not made.
The letter written by Mr Tor Gowon Yaro urged Tinubu to rally other party leaders and abort an imminent unpleasant judicial pronouncement that will embar­rass the party.

In his words: “Kindly indulge me, Your Excellency, to draw your attention to the dire situation our great party has been plunged into in Benue State due to the illegal selection of our governorship can­didate. As I write, some aggrieved gover­norship aspirants are pressing on in court in suits filed against the party, while the PDP has equally filed a different suit to take advantage of this crisis and claim that the APC had no candidate in the April 11, 2015 governorship election in the state. Both suits, no doubt, portend great danger for the electoral success recorded by the APC and the image of our party.

“Having seen this ahead, you will recall Asiwaju that early in January 2015, I drew your attention to the emerging crisis in Benue APC over the selection of our gov­ernorship candidate. As a result, you had called for a meeting of all governorship aspirants and some stakeholders involved in the dispute, a parley which held at the Lagos House, Abuja on the 11th January, 2015.
At the meeting held under your able chairmanship with the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Oyegun as well as other prominent leaders of the party in attendance, the following resolutions were proposed, debated and voted upon to adopt a consensus and signed by all the governorship aspirants, with myself as a facilitator:

1. That Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Jime be and is hereby adopted as the APC consen­sus gubernatorial candidate for the 2015 gubernatorial election in Benue State.
2. That the APC National Secretari­at be and is hereby put on notice and in­formed of this consensus arrangement.
3. That the APC National secretariat may wish to forward the name of Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Jime to INEC as the guberna­torial candidate for the 2015 gubernatorial election in Benue State.
4. That these resolutions be forward­ed to the APC National secretariat and INEC for the necessary action.

“Four clear months after this agreement was reached, it is disheartening to note that these resolutions are yet to be imple­mented and in my opinion, based on crit­ical legal opinions sought, this develop­ment constitutes a grave risk to our party’s chances in Benue State, notwithstanding a favourable outcome of the gubernatorial election.”
While drawing the party leader’s atten­tion to what may likely be the outcome of the ongoing court cases, Yaro said: “If party leaders decide to close their eyes to the ugly development in Benue, the con­sequences will be too expensive and pain­ful for all to bear after a sweet success at the polls.

No court will close its eyes to the over­whelming evidence establishing the fact that no gubernatorial primary election held in Benue state as stipulated in Sec­tion 87 (1), (2), (3) and 4 (b) 1&11 of the Amended Electoral Act 2011. A pro­test letter dated December 12, 2014, ad­dressed to the National Chairman, HE John Oyegun and endorsed by four out of the five APC governorship aspi­rants in Benue State, namely; Messrs Emmanuel Jime, Mike Iordye, Joseph Waku and Steve Ugbah attests to this. In addition to this, a report by the Babade Olukolade-led Electoral Committee on the Monitoring of the APC Gubernato­rial Primary in Benue State held on the 5th December, 2014 at the IBB Square, Makurdi further confirms this.”

He added: “Further silence by Na­tional leaders of the party on this brazen robbery on internal democracy will not only rubbish the gains made so far by the party but will equally dent the integ­rity of the incoming Muhammadu Bu­hari administration and worse still, sow a seed of discord similar to the one that ultimately led to the downfall of the rul­ing PDP at the state and federal levels.”
On the way out of the crisis, he ad­vised: “The only solution I can proffer to this crisis is to revert to the resolution adopted by all the five bona fide APC governorship aspirants at the meeting held at Lagos House, Abuja on January 11, 2015. This will save the party of any painful and embarrassing judicial pronouncement and ultimately heal all wounds and entrench unity among par­ty members as well as leaders in Benue state.”

“I am, therefore, as a very con­cerned member of our great party and stakeholder in Benue State, calling on you and the leadership of the party, to urgently act so as to guide against an irreparable occurrence that may embar­rass our great party in Benue State”, the APC chieftain added.