BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, Political Editor
The faction of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), loyal to Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State is contemplating its future within the party following fears that the governor and his loyalists would be denied tickets in the general elections.

Chime

The governor’s camp, Sunday Vanguard learnt, is in talks with the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, on a possible defection of the faction to the party. The talks were held in Abuja on the fringes of last week’s secret meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of ACN. The Chime group, according to reliable sources, was led by a member of the National Assembly.

The Chime faction has the governor, all but two members of the Enugu State delegation to the National Assembly, all members of the Enugu State House of Assembly and commissioners.

A senior official of ACN, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed the talks.The Enugu State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chuks Ugwoke, however, played down the reported move, saying the governor was going nowhere, insisting the talks to reconcile the two factions were in favour of the governor.

At press time, the involvement of the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, in the planned move could not be confirmed. Ekweremadu, who is an integral member of the Chime group and has led negotiations with the Nwodo camp, risks losing his ranking and position in the new Senate should he defect. Repeated efforts to contact him on the development at the weekend were unsuccessful.

Significantly, ACN is insisting on a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU with the Chime faction that would debar them from decamping back to PDP should they be accepted within the party.

Besides ACN, the Chime group, Sunday Vanguard further learnt, is weighing the option of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, and the Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, should the talk with ACN fail. Ironically, APGA is also insisting on an MoU to check the Chime group from returning to PDP after the election. Chime, it was learnt, is to hold talks with his brother-governor, Mr. Peter Obi, to help concretise the talks should the ACN talks completely flounder to a halt.

The frustration of the Chime group follows the breakdown of the negotiations as directed by President Goodluck  Jonathan between the Chime group and the group led by the National Chairman of PDP, Dr. Okwesileze Nwodo, to reconcile with one another. At the centre of the reconciliation efforts was the directive that the two parties should share the executive on a 50:50 basis and, by that, avoid the rancour that could flow out of a congress.

While the governor’s group had agreed to it, the Nwodo group, it emerged, later backed out on the fact that the “sharing” was contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Act that specifically directed that congresses and other democratic methods should be employed to select party officials and choose party candidates for elections.

The Nwodo group had consequently organised its own congress where officials were chosen to the chagrin of the Chime group. There are fears that the Nwodo group could, as such, give the Chime group a fait accompli by organising primaries for political offices that could leave the Chime group out in the cold.

Remarkably, while almost all other states have conducted their party primaries to choose candidates for the forthcoming state and federal legislative elections, Enugu, at press time was yet to conduct its own primaries as a result of protracted crisis that has lately engulfed the state chapter of the party.

The frustration of the Chime group, it was further gathered, was on the limited time available to it to get a platform to present its candidates for the election as the Electoral Act puts January 15 and only through democratic primaries.
Elements within the Nwodo camp had in the last week gone to Court twice to uphold the congress as conducted by the group which has left the Chime group in the cold.

Remarkably, the court is yet to accede to the quest for an exparte injunction as requested by the group’s members.

The scene now playing out in Enugu is being compared with what happened in the party in 1999 when members of the PDP loyal to Chief Jim Nwobodo defected to the Alliance of Democracy, AD, to contest against the official candidates as presented by the PDP in the Senate race. Remarkably, Dr. Okwesileze Nwodo,  presently the national chairman, was then the national secretary of the party who allegedly used his position to foist the candidates of his choice on the party as opposed to the candidates as favoured by Nwobodo.

In the election, the Nwobodo protegees won the election on the platform of the AD but subsequently defected to the PDP. The ACN and APGA are now insisting on an MOU to forbid the Chime group from defecting should they be offered the party tickets.