•Says election rigged to favour Ogboru
•’National leadership promoting crises’

By Charles Kumolu, Deputy Features Editor

Irked by the controversial   outcome of the governorship primary of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State, a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Chief Victor Ochei, who participated in the exercise, tells the inside story of the event. Ochei  blames the party’s national leadership for the crises dogging the governorship primaries of the party across the country, cautioning against what the situation holds for the APC.

You participated in the governorship primary in Delta State and the outcome of the exercise did not go down well with most aspirants. What truly happened?

When the Major General Lawrence Onoja (retd). led panel came, they  held a stakeholders’ meeting with aspirants. At the meeting, I, Prof Pat Utomi,   Great Ogboru and Dr. Cairo Ojuogboh were cleared to contest the election. Utomi, Ujuogboh and I complained that we did not have the delegates’ list. In such an election, the delegates are members of the state executive, local government executive and certain members from wards. We requested that we should have the list so that we could know those to woo. It didn’t   make sense  if we did  not have the list.

Ochei

The state Chairman said it was not his fault, adding that he didn’t have the list. He went further to say that it was the national body that would bring the list. Onoja confirmed that they only released the list from the national headquarters at 7.30 am. We complained that they were bringing the list of the delegates we didn’t know. But to our surprise, Ogboru said that complaining that we didn’t have the list, meant that we were lazy. His statement made us to suspect that he had the list. Even when the state Chairman said he didn’t have it and Onoja said that he received it at 7.30am, Ogboru  spoke as if he had it.

We suggested that the election should be postponed for a day so that people could get the list, they refused. They said they were going ahead with the election, stating that we should go to court if we were not satisfied. That is what Onoja told us at the stakeholders’ meeting. At the time, Utomi addressed the press, stating that he would not participate in a fraudulent election. Cairo left after sometime.

Being from Aniocha North Local Government Area, my LGA was the first to be called  to vote. Sen Ovie Omo-Agege, who paraded himself as an agent, opposed the list of  Aniocha North. I asked why he was opposing the list being read and he said the name of the Chairman mentioned was wrong. I had to ask him how he knew the name. That was where an argument ensued. After a while, the Chairman felt  it was necessary to allow me to  have a copy of the list. He allowed me to have a snap shot of the list they were using and the subsequent LGA they would attend to which was Aniocha South.

When I requested for the full list, they refused. I was contesting an election and deserved to have the list but they refused. That was how the accreditation continued until when it was dark. I told the  Chairman that it was wrong to be accrediting people when it was dark. Reluctantly, they got that done. While they were doing that, the gate was porous and I had to tell them to do things properly. After a while, the state Commissioner of Police came and appealed to me to leave the gate, promising that he was going to man the gate. The next thing we saw was Ogboru walking towards the gate with some people. They were shouting and asking for Victor Ochie, threatening that they were going to deal with me. I had actually left the gate. When they got there, they pushed the gate open. They were said to have arranged some people who will pose as voters. They didn’t want to be accredited. That  is why they were claiming that I was disturbing them.

My presence at the gate was frustrating their plan to bring in the boys to overrun the process, because they were not ready to subject themselves to the electoral process. Ogboru claimed to be popular but was scared of a proper election. He was boasting because it was alleged that our National Chairman  was pandering towards him. The panel Chairman had earlier said he was not going to allow the election to take place in the night but  the election  continued. Surprisingly when they had only accredited one LGA and eight wards in the second one, the Chairman said accreditation had ended. And we have 25 LGAs. He said we were going to commence voting at 3 am. It  was a charade because it made no meaning starting an election without accrediting people. Those  who were there voted more than seven times. They had a  field  day. As far as I am concerned, that was not an election.

While the schemings were going on, did you have cause to complain to the national body to intervene, so that there wouldn’t be a disorderly exercise?

I called the National Chairman twice at the time but he didn’t pick my calls. I went to the Chairman of the panel three times. I was not sure that the names of the people he was calling were the names on the list. I questioned why they were being secretive with the list of those that should vote for us. I also went to tell him that we agreed that there will not be voting   that night. They even tagged the names of the LGAs on the boxes. It was wrong to do so because it took away the sanctity of the votes which should have been done by secret ballot system. I told the Chairman that it was wrong to tag the boxes. What else could I have done? Even the national body was already biased. Since they had made up their mind about the candidate they wanted, why did they deceive us by collecting our money? All I wanted was a transparent election. I had to say that if they could not provide a level playing field, they should give me the one that is inclined. I was ready to take a-50 percent inclination and still ran the election. But giving me a-100 percent inclination meant that they didn’t want me to participate.

What you are saying suggests that the exercise was programmed to favour Ogboru. If that was the case, why did you go into the contest?

We raised the alarm over our suspicions but  our National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, was not ready to listen to anybody. If I told them that I didn’t have the delegates’ list and they did nothing, what else could I have done? I paid my nomination fee. Why would I not be availed the list which was the basic thing any aspirant should have had. No aspirant had it except  probably Ogboru.

What are the options available for aggrieved aspirants like you in the party?

There is a window of redress which is an  Appeal Panel. But the party did not set up any. What would someone in my shoes do?

You are not alone in this. Utomi and Ojuogboh were also affected. Are you seeking redress jointly?

We want the outcome nullified so that the proper thing would be done. If we don’t do the proper thing, I want to see how the party can win in Delta State. I want to reiterate that if the party does not redress what happened, its fortunes will suffer a major setback in the state. If it did not do the needful, it cannot win in Delta except they want to write the result of the election. If they don’t do it quickly, if the national body conducts an election in the state, it will lose. This is not a threat but the reality. I am not joking.

Have you opened lines of communication with some South-South APC leaders like Ibe Kachikwu and   Rotimi Amaechi, who are capable of saving the situation?

Coincidentally, Kachikwu was at the stakeholders’ meeting where he said aspirants should be allowed to have access to the delegates’ list. Kachikwu was even the one  who said that Lagos shifted its election by one day to sort out things, adding that we could still shift our election  so that the aspirants will have the list to be able to woo delegates. He was turned down immediately. They kept the delegates from morning till night and started teargassing them at some point. All that was done  negates what the party constitution stands for. I wonder how the national body can think that it can win an election in Delta with such a charade. The National Chairman has a fixation that Ogboru can win in Delta. We are waiting for them.

If your calls for the nullification of the exercise are not met, what options do you have?

I don’t know yet. But there are many options on the table.

Aggrieved aspirants are sometimes given consolation offers, are you likely to accept any consolation if the party decides to do so?

Party offices are clearly defined. If I wanted any of them, I would have chosen one other than governorship. The crisis should have been handled with diplomacy. Since the national leadership preferred a particular candidate, other candidates should not have been allowed to waste their money. The best thing would have been to ask other aspirants to help achieve the aim of fielding the preferred candidate. But when people are cheated and are compensated, some will take the compensation just to ridicule the giver. But taking it does not mean that they have forgotten about how they were exploited at the expense of a preferred aspirant. I am a very vocal person, who does not like injustice. The party belongs to all of us and nobody can walk us out of the party. That is why I will speak truth to anyone in the party hierarchy, who is doing the wrong thing.

It is not even peculiar to Delta because there are crises all over the place. Why would things happen like that? Probably, some persons have issues with others because when they were contesting, the people didn’t support them. Why are they pretending about it?

Why do you think the crisis is so pronounced in Delta State chapter?

Maybe it was because the national leadership took sides in the factional fights. The President as the National Leader has matters of state to deal it. Why does he have a party Chairman? In Delta State, the National Chairman is partisan because whatever is happening there should have long been resolved. Since he took sides in the battle, the crisis has continued. If he felt that   both sides were playing games, he ought to have engendered peace as the National Chairman. That is what I wanted him to do because he has the courage to reconcile all the factions. But he wants things to remain like that so that he can have his way.