Royal Curses!

Obi of Onitsha and Chairman, Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council, Nnemeka Achebe: Inititated the Igo Ofo ritual.

Anambra Traditional rulers place curses on anyone who attempts to rig the state’s gubernatorial election
By Okechukwu Obenta, Awka
here has been palpable fear in Oraifite, Ekwusigo local government area of Anambra state since the police high command named the town as one of the areas being used as recruitment and training ground for thugs by some unscrupulous politicians who want to upset the forthcoming February 6 gubernatorial election in the state. The Inspector-General of Police (IG), Ogbonna Onovo had two weeks ago made known some areas in the state where he said security reports had shown that some politicians were using as training grounds for thugs they have recruited, with intent to use them to unleash mayhem during the gubernatorial election in a determined bid to rig the exercise.
Onovo revealed the unhealthy situation during a meeting he held with gubernatorial candidates and major stakeholders of political parties participating in the election. Apart from recruiting and training miscreants, the mischievous politicians, according to the security reports, had also procured some arms and ammunition, as well as police and military uniforms to be distributed to the thugs to fake them as regular police and military personnel to enable them carry out their plot. Onovo revealed that while a certain confraternity was being harboured in Oraifite, many towns in the popular Omambala area of the state made up of Anambra east, Anambra west, Oyi and Ayamelum were basically the areas the hoodlums being conscripted by the unscrupulous politicians were being trained.
Apparently based on the said security report, the IGP had at the meeting he held with the guber candidates, other stakeholders and political parties in Anambra state compelled them to sign an undertaking to leave above board and to abide by the rules that guarantee free, fair and credible election.
Based on the IG’s security report the leadership of Oraifite town under Chief Raphael Emenike Nwike as President-General had on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 held an emergency meeting where they reviewed the security situation in the town based on the IG’s revelation, as well as the political situation in the area vis-à-vis the forthcoming guber election.
Shortly after the meeting, the town union leadership in a press conference described the IG’s security report in the town as a worrisome development. The town union President-General, Chief Nwike commended the IG and the security personnel in the state for their prompt action in intercepting information about the existence of such hoodlums and pleaded with the IG and other relevant security agencies to act fast to flush such miscreants our of the state and Oraifite in particular. He pledged the support of the town to the security agencies to make sure that the town was not used to truncate or do anything that would frustrate the guber election from being a free, fair and credible exercise. He said that it was clear that no indigene of the community is among the 25 guber contestants and as such there was no reason why the town should have hands in any plot to rig the election, or do anything that would undermine the credibility of the exercise.
Besides, he noted that the town was not known for criminality and expressed worry that since the IG released the security report, prominent indigenes of the town and several friends of the area have been calling him to find out the true situation and to express their worries over the development.
“We want security agencies to increase their surveillance on our town and even you pressmen, to help us expose anybody or group who would want to use Oraifite to do anything that would undermine the coming governorship election in the state and make sure that they were flushed out of the town. Oraifite has many prominent sons and daughters that we wouldn’t want the name of the town to be tarnished by anybody. This is the home of retired Justice Nwazota, Justice Amaizu, Ernest, these are not politicians. And I am sure that our beloved daughter, Mrs Janet Mokelu (of blessed memory) did not rig election when she won election to the then Eastern House of Assembly”, Nwike stated.
But though the people of Oraifite were worried by the IG’s security report on the town, Nwike however stated that as things were, voters in the community might be denied the opportunity to vote in the guber election. This, he stated, was because as things stand in the area as at Tuesday, January 12, 2010, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have not made known areas that would serve as polling centres in the town during the election, while no voter in the town was sure whether or not his or her name was in the voters’ list.
Nwike particularly lamented that INEC officials have not as at that fateful day carried out any voter education in the town concerning the coming guber election. The worst, according to him, was that the commission has not displayed voters register at the respective polling units to enable voters confirm their names and be sure where they would go and cast their votes on the election day.
“As at now, our people do not know where they will go and cast their votes on the day of the election and the election is just about three weeks away. Let the INEC come and display voters’ register at the polling booths so that our people will go and confirm their names and be able to know where they are expected to go and vote on the election day. We in Oraifite believe that if the INEC do what they are suppose to do, display voters’ register and allow voters to know which polling centre they are suppose to go to to cast their votes on the election day, the chances of rigging will be minimal,” Nwike said.
Tochuchukwu Udoji, chairperson of the state council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), commended the Oraifite town union leadership for being proactive to issues bordering on the integrity of the town and the people. She particularly commended the Nwike leadership for pledging support towards making the guber election a free, fair and credible exercise as according to her, Anambra state are better if only the people should be allowed to choose their leaders, rather than having leaders foisted on them.
Interestingly, danger signals have been sent to all those plotting to rig the guber election in Anambra state by the state’s traditional rulers. Traditional rulers from the 177 communities in the state had last two weeks ago converged on Awka, the state capital and committed the election into the hand of the gods of the land. All the traditional rulers had arrived the Dr. Alex Ekwueme Square, venue of the ceremony, with their “ofor”(symbol of authority of their traditional office) and performed the traditional rites of invoking the spirit of the ancestors to come and preside over the guber election to make sure that only the wish of the majority of the people of the state prevailed. They also urged the gods to visit anyone who would want to rig the election with severe punishment.
Though some of the front-runners in the election were absent at the ceremony, observers were of the view that they were also bound by the prayers of that day. Among the governorship contestants present were, the incumbent Peter Obi, Njideka Anyadike of NAP, Arthur Nwandu, Nnaemeka Chukwuemeka and former Governor Chris Ngige, who was represented by his running mate, Phil Agbasi.
Dr. Andy Uba of Labour Party (LP), Prince Nicolas Ukachukwu of Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Mrs. Uche Ekwunife of the Progressive Peoples Alliance(PPA),Professor Chukwuma Soludo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were among guber contestants absent.
Obi Nnaemeka Achebe, traditional ruler of Onitsha, who incidentally is the chairman of the state’s council of traditional rulers was at the head of the ceremony, while Igwe Obidiegwu Onyeso, traditional ruler of Nri, the acclaimed ancestral home of the Igbo race, conducted the traditional prayer ritual assisted by three other traditional rulers.
All the governorship candidates at the ceremony were made to enter into a covenant to play by the rules of free, fair and credible election. Both Governor Obi and Anyadike commended the decision of the traditional rulers to return the state to the way of upholding justice by the forefathers of the land and said that in their view there was nothing fetish in what the traditional rulers did.
“What our traditional rulers have just done was to return us to the path our forebears did things to ensure that we followed the path of justice in the coming governorship election. There is nothing fetish about what they did,” Obi stated in an interview with The Source.
Chris Okoye, chairman of the state’s Free and Fair Election Committee in his speech shortly before the traditional prayer ritual underscored the significance of the ceremony as a deliberate action: “It is that we should meet, as our forefathers met in times of critical difficulties, under the banner of our customs and the traditional moral imperatives which have always governed our lives,” adding, “Meetings of this kind gave all citizens the opportunity to brain-storm and to re-affirm their unity as a people; they took difficult decisions together, they resolve to act together”.
He bemoaned the manner public property were burnt in the state in 2004, public funds squandered, faction – fighting among politicians, even in the streets and the state rendered ungovernable.
At the traditional prayer ritual, the gods of the land were called upon to cleanse the state of all odd characters, practices and conducts and to enthrone proper ethical behavior and ensure that the forthcoming guber contest was free, fair and transparent; that only the person that wins the popular votes be declared winner and to stop any attempt by anybody, group and or from any quarter aimed at rigging the election or to bring the state to ridicule in the election.
Already, many observers are of the view that the prayers of the traditional rulers have started working. Those who reason this way pointed at the recent sack of 10 staffers of INEC in the state and interdiction of 10 others on account of their involvement in manipulating voters list, whereupon names of non-existent voters were found, including other fraudulent manipulation done on the voters’ register.
The INEC national leadership had meted the action against the commission’s staff following the findings of its investigation panel that visited the commission’s headquarters in the state and the 21 local governments areas of the state which indicted the affected staff. Though the Resident Electoral Comissioner,Josiah Uwazuruonye was said to have travelled out when The Source visited the commission’s headquarters in Awka, Anambra state capital and the Administration Secretary declined to speak to The Source, claiming that he lacked the powers to grant such an interview, The Source, nonetheless gathered that those sacked and or interdicted included some Electoral Officers and staff of the ICT unit.
Officials of the commission who spoke on condition of anonymity explained that those affected were those that were directly involved in the compilation of the voters’ list. The indictment of the commission’s staff came less than a week after the traditional rulers carried out the igo ofor ritual at the Dr. Alex Ekwueme square.
The fraud in the voters’ list was committed when the immediate past REC, Chief Rowland Uwa was in charge in the state. And though he was not directly involved in the manipulation done in the voters list, according to the INEC investigation team findings, he is believed to have failed to carry out his statutory supervisory responsibilities as he ought to, according to the report.
Instructively, The Source had scooped the story of the alleged manipulation of the voters’ register by the INEC staff – an allegation Uwa denied then. Indeed, infuriated by the publication, Uwa had sued the magazine for a whooping N100 million. And the action is still lying in the court. He was however later to be transferred out of the state but the commission explained that the action was not punitive.
Meanwhile, the profiles of the contestants have started to swing with some of them who were earlier rated to be weak contestants appear to be gaining the upper hand among the grassroots. Apparently because of the their realisation that the forthcoming guber election would basically be determined by the voters pointers are that the rigging strategy might be difficult to pull through, hence the popularity profile of the contestants have started to alter.
For instance, Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu, candidate of the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) appear to have started harvesting the gains of his enormous past philanthropic gestures as his campaign strategy is now targeted at house-to-house campaigns. He is said to have recruited five persons in each of the over 4,000 polling units in the state who now sell his candidature to the voters at the grassroots. And playing in his favour is the over 1,500 people in the state, including indigenes and non-indigenes in the employ of the about 13 industries he owns in the state. The Source learnt that most of those working in his companies are now campaigning for him in the hope that if he eventually wins, their working condition would improve and that his victory would translate into more job creation.
Also, he is believed to have funded the legal battle that saw the reversal of the election of most of those returned under the PDP in the 2003 general election as winners for the National Assembly seats, particularly in the House of Representatives. He is even believed to have won the Anambra south senatorial seat in the election, but was stopped by the Uba political family whose eldest son, Dr. Ugochukwu Uba, was eventually declared as the actually candidate of the party by the tribunal. The Source learnt that Ukachukwu might be the highest beneficiary of the anti-party activity which most members of the PDP might resort to in the guber election, as a way of paying their national leadership of their party for foisting former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo as the party’s candidate.
Though former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme has thrown his hat into the ring, throwing his weight behind Soludo apparently to neutralise a similar action done for Obi by Eze Igbo-Gburugburu, Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, many political observers are of the view that Ekwueme’s influence cannot be compared with that of Ojukwu in the entire Igboland. Ojukwu, who had been on campaign tour with Obi, had pleaded with Anambra electorate to use Obi’s re-election as a parting gift to him. He said that Obi has acquitted himself well through the achievements of his administration vis-à-vis his campaign promises.
The Source learnt that most PDP members who have not outrightly defected to other parties but only decided to stay back on principle so as not to be seen as jumping from one political party to the other are not happy with Soludo’s candidature. They believe that at the end of the guber election, if Ukachukwu wins he would come back to the PDP, just as the Imo state governor, Ikedi Ohakim did after winning the 2007 gubernatorial election under the PPA. The PDP faithful who reason along this line believe that Ukachukwu’s crossing over to the HDP was justified and not out of desperation as is being interpreted in some quarters. They believe that it was as a result of the glaring injustice that Ukachukwu was forced to leave the party as he did in 2007 when he defected to the ANPP where he flew the party’s gubernatorial flag.
On this score, many observers are of the view that at the end of the day, the contest would actually be between the incumbent, Governor Obi and the Prince of Osumenyi, Nnewi south, Ukachukwu, and Ngige.
Political observers are of the view that the last Tuesday fund-raising in support of Soludo’s guber project where oil magnet, Sir Emeka Offor and Prince Arthur Eze were among the highest donors has rather sent feeling of fears into the minds of many in the state because of the antecedents of the duo in the politics of the state. While Arthur Eze is believed to have called the shots in the state throughout the period the military held sway and nothing moved in the state, the activities of the Emeka Offor-financed Anambra Peoples Forum(APF) which held the administration of former Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju captive and ended up frustrating the government is still fresh in the minds of the people. Thus, observers believe that Soludo’ emergence would eventually amount to returning the state to its dark days.
So, barring any last minute permutations, the facts on the ground clearly indicate that the toughest challenger Obi might face in the election would be Ukachukwu.