By Clifford Ndujihe & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

Usani is our candidate – ACN.
AHEAD of the February 25, governorship election in Cross River State, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN is parading two candidates for the polls.

The ‘flagbearers’ are Pastor Usani Usani and a former member of House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003 and Dr. Mike Ogar. They emerged from the two factions of the party following parallel governorship primaries.

After the parallel primaries conducted on February 2, 2012, the faction of Hon. Cletus Obun, the embattled chairman adopted Dr. Ogar, while Mr. Usani picked the ticket on the side of the newly elected state executive under the chairmanship of Mr. Hillard Etta.

Speaking after being adopted by the Obun faction, Ogar claimed that Mr. Etta’s executive was illegal, as the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar had on February 3, 2012, in a Suit No FHC/CA/12/CS/2012, issued an injunction that the status of Hon. Cletus Obun’s exco remained valid, and that no other person should carry out any activities in the name of the party until the matter of the authentic leadership of the party was resolved.

Court order
The presiding judge, Justice Adetukumbo Ademola, had issued an order to restrain the new chairman Mr. Etta from conducting any form of activity in the state in the name of Action Congress of Nigeria, until the determination of the matter before it.

Ogar claimed that in spite of the court injunction, Etta went ahead to conduct the February 6, 2012, governorship primary, which led the emergence of Usani as candidate.

Tinubu...ACN leader

He said in the injunction, the Court maintained that “the status quo be maintained pending the hearing of the motion on Notice dated 27th January 2012”, and advised Etta and Usani to stop parading themselves as state chairman and governorship candidate of ACN, respectively.

He described the new executive under Etta and his governorship primary as an illegality, since any activity carried out by the group after the court order was void.

His words: “shortly on arrival in Cross River State after my visit to the National Headquarters of our party in Abuja, where I went to complete the processes of obtaining my nomination forms, I was confronted with a situation where two parallel state committees were making frantic efforts to conduct governorship primaries. On inquiries, a subsisting court order obtained by the Hon. Cletus Obun state exco was made available to me.

After reading the court order, I decided not to align myself with Mr. Etta electoral body in order not to go contrary to the law. So, I contested unopposed, under the Hon. Cletus Obun group, which is the authentic group and emerged as ACN candidate for the election.”

Ogar said having served in two administrations in the state as Commissioner for Information, and later as a  member of the Nation Assembly, it would have been an indictment on his personality to allow himself be seen as one of those perpetrating the unlawful act.

INEC observed Ogar’s election
Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the state confirmed that there exists two factions of the party, but the commission observed the Obun-led faction governorship primary as a result of the court order that said that the status quo should be maintained.

The officials said, INEC, as a law abiding commission should always act according to the dictates and stipulations of the law, but however added that the factions went to Abuja to settle their crisis.

We’re the authentic ACN – Etta
However, Etta said that his faction was the one recognized by the national secretariat of the party and that his election penultimate week was supervised by the national officers of the party.

He said the party had already filed an appeal against the Federal High Court Judgment, insisting that Usani was the recognized candidate of the party.

Investigations revealed that in any election year in the state, there must be attempt to change the leadership of the party and after the election nothing will be heard about the change of leadership. The embattled chairman, Obun would always be accused instigating crisis in the party. This time, Obun is being accused of working for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, by the Etta-led faction.

Usani is our candidate – ACN
However, the national leadership of the ACN yesterday reaffirmed Pastor Usani Usani  as its duly nominated gubernatorial candidate for Cross River, dispelling reports that the party had two gubernatorial candidates in the state.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said Pastor Usani emerged at its primaries held in Calabar, which was witnessed by INEC officials, the police and other security agencies.

It said the misinformation on the emergence of two gubernatorial candidates was engineered by the former  chairman of the party in the Cross River, Mr. Cletus Obun, who it said was apparently colluding with the PDP in the state “to try to thwart an impending ACN victory in the governorship election slated for Feb. 25th.”

‘’We are aware that Mr. Obun went to INEC to submit the nomination form for one Mike Ogar who, even though obtained the ACN forms, did not show up at the venue of the primaries in Calabar. Unfortunately for Mr. Obum, the form he took to INEC proved to be a worthless paper as none of the two authorized signatories, the National Chairman and the National Secretary, signed the form,’’ ACN said.