Politics
G-5 finally shuts door on Atiku! Announces choice, Thursday! Set to lead Makinde’s campaigns
It is now clear that the G-5 Integrity Group, the group of five governors, rebelling against the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), would be supporting one presidential candidate outside Atiku Abubakar, who is currently holding its ticket for the February 25 presidential election.
The choice eagerly being awaited by Nigerians would be announced on Thursday, this week, according to snippets emerging from the camp, which also includes former governors, members of the National Assembly, serving and present and top members of the party.
Last week, speculations had been quite rife that the group was in talks with the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, in London, a parley, which was said to have broken down due to unacceptable conditions, only for the former Governor of Lagos State to repudiate the report, saying he never met with anybody.
Whirlwindnews, gathered that the governors, which also have in their fold, Bode George, former National Vice Chairman (South) of the former ruling party, now in opposition, its fold, would storm Ibadan to attend the flagoff campaign of Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State one of its prominent member and use the occasion to announce the candidate they would be backing.
It came as a last-ditch attempt at rapprochement, initiated by Udom Emmanuel, Governor of Akwa Ibom, who is leading the Atiku campaign, was said to have failed in getting the group reconsider its position.
Before now, the G-5 which announced its position by pulling out of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PDP-PCC), had insisted on the ouster of Iyorchia Ayu, the party’s National Chairman as the irreducible demand on the ground that he came from the same North with Atiku, in contravention of the letters and spirit of the PDP constitution forbidding the two positions to come from the same part of the country.
The PUNCH, reports that attempts by Emmanuel, to spring a truce by persuading the aggrieved governors to embrace peace, which he initiated by visiting Samuel Ortom, Governor of Benue State, last week in Markurdi, the state capital and Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, the arrowhead of the rebellion in Port Harcourt, came to naught.
Emmanuel, who had described the meeting with Ortom as a brotherly visit in the spirit of Christmas, had told reporters that he felt empty whenever he was at Atiku’s campaign across the country, without his colleagues from the South, saying that he was hopeful that something positive would happen.
Incidentally, this appears not to be the case as the governors are said to be preparing to storm Ibadan on Thursday for the inauguration of Makinde’s campaign, hinging their position on the stiff-necked position of Atiku not to support the ouster of Ortom.
The report, which quotes an associate of Ortom as saying there was no going back in the decision of the five aggrieved governors to dump the party’s presidential candidate, adding: “Governor Ortom told him that Atiku had burnt his bridges. He also told him that there was nothing he alone could do and urged him to meet with the other four governors that make up the Integrity Group.
“The PCC knows the importance of the governors as far as elections are concerned and as chairman of that council, Udom Emmanuel took it upon himself to intervene. This is what took him to Port Harcourt.
“I can’t speak for Wike but Governor Ortom assured him that while he would not campaign for Atiku, he would also not campaign against him. He also promised not to stop anyone desirous of campaigning for the former Vice President in the state from doing so.”
Quoting another source frome Wadata Plaza, the PDP National Secretariat as saying that all the five governors had pledged their availability for the event, the report said: “You know they are more than colleagues now. Whatever affects one affects the others. They are in solidarity with whoever among them is celebrating or marking any special event. As usual, Wike, the leader of the group will be there alongside the others.
“Even though they are members of the PDP, they are going about their campaigns as if they have a different party. They are in a world of their own, riding on the influence of their executive powers to call the bluff of the party.”
A legal tussle is in the offing to determine the fate of the June 20 by-election to fill the vacancy in the Enugu North senatorial district at the National Assembly, following the decision of the Labour Party (LP) to challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to exclude it from participating.
INEC had approved the participation of only three political parties for the exercise to fill the vacant seat left by Okey Ezea, who died last year, to the exclusion of scores of others including the LP under whose platform the former Senator won the seat in 2023.
Ken Asogwa, spokesman of the party, who gave the update on the next line of action, said LP had already approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, to challenge the decision on the ground of wrongful exclusion, saying that the party was deeply disturbed over INEC’s action, especially the reason it gave for it.
Asogwa, who conveyed the decision through a statement on Monday, wondered how its candidate would made to pay for the ineptitude of INEC itself, which failed to carry out its constitutional responsibility.
Stressing that the party complied with all statutory requirements and procedural guidelines, but was still denied access to upload the particulars of its candidate on INEC’s nomination portal, the statement, added: “Up until the close of the submission window on June 2, the party made several efforts, including formal protests and correspondences to the commission, seeking the resolution of the issue, but these efforts yielded no positive result
“The party fulfilled every legal and administrative obligation required under the Electoral Act and INEC’s extant regulations in the nomination of its candidate. Labour Party finds it difficult to understand the basis upon which it had been excluded from an election in which it had a legitimate and undeniable stake.
“It is both disturbing and deeply concerning that the head of Elections and Party Monitoring (EPM) in Enugu State reportedly justified his refusal to transmit the report of the Labour Party’s primary election on the ground that he was out of town on the day the exercise was conducted.
“This excuse is untenable and raises serious questions about the discharge of official responsibilities. Labour Party cannot be made to suffer the consequences of an official’s absence, negligence, incompetence or dereliction of duty.
“Electoral processes and the constitutional rights of political parties cannot be subjected to the convenience or personal circumstances of individual officers. If the officer was unavailable, it is incumbent upon him or INEC in Enugu to ensure that appropriate arrangements were made for the monitoring and reporting of the exercise.
“INEC should not be penalising a political party that duly complied with all statutory requirements. The Electoral Act only requires political parties to duly notify INEC of their primaries. The party complied fully with this statutory requirement. The legality and validity of the exercise cannot be vitiated by INEC’s absence, as neither the Electoral Act nor the commission’s regulation made its physical presence a mandatory condition for the conduct of a party primary election.”
Expressing confidence in Joash Amupitan, INEC Chairman to do the right thing, he however called on the commission investigate the actions taken by its staff members in Enugu and take decisive action against anyone found culpable.
His words: “Electoral institutions derive their legitimacy from public trust and every effort must be made to protect the integrity of the electoral process. It would amount to a grave injustice for Labour Party to be denied the opportunity of presenting a candidate in an election convened to fill a vacancy created by the death of one of its serving senators.
“Such an outcome would not only undermine the rights of the party and its supporters but it tends to diminish the democratic choices available to the people of Enugu North senatorial district in the coming by-election.
“As the party places its confidence in the impartiality and wisdom of the Nigerian judiciary, it urges all its members and supporters in Enugu North and across the country to remain calm while the matter is being determined by the courts.”
A conciliatory Atiku Abubakar, in magnanimity with victory, extended the olive branch to Rotimi Amaechi and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, the pair he defeated on Wednesday night to clinch the ticket of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for next year’s presidential election.
He appealed to both men never to abandon the party ahead of the election, scheduled for January 2027, but to close ranks to ensure victory for both party, Nigeria as a country and the people currently under the bondage of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Extending the olive branch shortly after being handed the party flag, officially declaring him as the candidate, he said: “I therefore appeal to all those who feel aggrieved to come back to our party and close ranks with the rest of us. In particular, I invite Chief Rotimi Anechi and Alhaji Muhammad Hayatu-Deen to join me in this fight to save our democracy and our country.
“As I said previously, there are no winners and no losers. Our people look up to us for leadership and I am ready to lead,” he said.
He added that he would work with other aspirants and stakeholders to build the party ahead of the general election.
“I shall work with you all to continue to build our party. I will campaign with you and if Nigeria’s leaders demand it, govern with you to build a country that works for all of us.”
The appeal is coming hours after both Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State and former Minister of Transportation and Hayatu-Deen, former Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), rejected the result, even before it was announced, citing what they described as manipulation of the voting process, with Hayatu-Deen saying he would not attend the announcement of the result.
Regardless, Atiku, Nigeria’s former Vice President between 1999 and 2007, said he truly humbled and excited to lead the party into the next elections, adding that he was particularly excited by the party’s demonstration of internal democracy despite the position of naysayers.
Hear him: “I must state at this juncture that this is not the time to celebrate. No one was defeated because we are one party and we all need to recognise the fierce urgency of the moment.
“Therefore, we have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government.
“I thank the primary elections Committee for organising peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries. I thank the various leadership organs of our party, the various stakeholders, and volunteers for their hard work and dedication and all our party members and supporters for their efforts, patience and conduct during the process.
“With the primaries behind us, the real hard work is about to begin. We have to prepare to campaign hard to win the next general elections in order to begin the difficult process of rescuing our country and its long-suffering people from this government.”
“I will not be attending the announcement of the ADC Presidential Election Results today. I am concerned by reports from across the country of widespread vote rigging, some of which I myself observed, and will therefore be taking advice on my next steps.”
These were the exact words of Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, one of the presidential aspirants of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), with which he cast a slur on the ongoing presidential primaries of the party, hinging his position on reports of fraud trailing the exercise.
Hayatu-Deen, a second timer in the search for the nation’s number one job, ran against Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Vice President and Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, former Minister of Transportation.
In a statement on his assessment of the exercise which began on Monday, the renowned economist Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), used his X platform to convey his dissatisfaction with the process.
The ADC which said the collation for the exercise would take place in Abuja had urged aspirants, party leaders, delegates, and members to conduct themselves peacefully and uphold party unity.
Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, who described the exercise as a defining moment for both the ADC and Nigerians seeking a credible political alternative, maintained that it remained committed to internal democracy and a transparent leadership selection process.
“The ADC remains proud to stand today as the only truly democratic party in Nigeria because it is the only political party whose choice of presidential candidate is determined through open primaries,” he said adding that the conduct of aspirants and party members during the exercise would reflect the leadership culture the ADC seeks to promote.
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