I crave your indulgence to
clear the air on some misrepresentations of facts by Paul Osuyi in his report
with the above title (The Sun, May 19, 2013). First, the Democratic People’s
Party did not withdraw from the APC merger, as alleged by Osuyi. DPP is very
much part of the ongoing merger. This is what happened. The
National Executive Committee of DPP met on February 14, 2013 and a decision was
reached for DPP to be part of the emerging All Progressive Congress. Present at
that meeting were almost all the people that matter in DPP: Gen. Magashi(rtd.)
Chairman, Gen. Jeremiah Useni, former chairman; Sir Olisaemeka Akamukale,
Deputy National Chairman; Senator Pius Ewherido, only DPP senator in Nigeria;
Chief Great Ogboru, DPP governorship candidate in the 2007and 2011 elections;
Hon Austin Ogbaburhon, only DPP member of the House of Representative; Chief
Tony Ezeagu, Chairman, Delta State DPP; Comrade Frank Kokori, Hon Julius Okpoko
of Delta State House of Assembly among many others. Incidentally Ogboru and Ned
Nwoko delivered the DPP NEC resolution to the APC secretariat. Subsequently a
committee of 12, including Ogboru and Ewherido, was set up and given 21 days to
report back to NEC.
It was at this stage that some prominent members,
including Ogboru for personal reasons, became lukewarm towards the merger. But
Senator Ewherido and others continued with the task the party’s NEC had given
to the 12-man committee. After 43 days, rather than the 21 days within which
the committee was to report back, with Gen. Magashi, the national Chairman,
still incommunicado, then Deputy National Chairman, Olisaemeka Akamukali,
called the party NEC meeting where the report of the committee was adopted. At
that meeting too, a resolution was passed for Akamukali to become acting national
chairman, since the chairman, Magashi, was nowhere to be found to perform his
duties.
Thereafter, a Special Convention of DPP was called and it
was held on Tuesday, 30th April 2013 in Abuja. The statutory notice was given
to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and an INEC team led by
a National Commissioner came as observers and monitors. For a convention to
hold there must be proper delegates from 22 states of the country. The
Convention held on the April 30, 2013, was attended by delegates from 33
states. Among others, the Convention’s resolutions were:
1. That the DPP
be dissolved and merged with other Political Parties to form the APC.
2. That the
Acting National Chairman, Sir Olisaemeka Akamukali, become the National Chairman
for the remaining period of the Party’s existence, to oversee the proper and
effective entrance of the Party into the APC.
How then can anybody claim Akamukale proclaimed himself
chairman, when it was done at a special convention with INEC representatives in
attendance? Or how can you describe the convention as kangaroo when an INEC
commissioner led an INEC team to observe the convention? It was the same
scenario in the ACN, ANPP and CPC convention. What now makes DPP’s a Kangaroo
convention? Let those making noise organise a proper convention fulfilling all
party and INEC guideline so that the world can see them.
Mr Tony Ezeagwu, erstwhile
chairman Delta DPP is being economical with facts when he said that DPP’s
application was rejected by APC. At no time was the application rejected. What
happened was that APC told DPP to withdraw the application letter and expunge a
particular portion that portrayed DPP as not being totally committed to the
merger. This was done and DPP continued to participate in the merger talks. If
we are to believe Ezeagwu what now prompted his group to constitute another
merger committee and approach the same APC he claimed rejected DPP? Ezeagwu
also said his group is not interested in an unregistered APC. So, why the
sudden U-turn? APC is still unregistered. These people are hypocrites. Publicly
they tell the whole world they are not part of APC, but secretly, they are
begging for admission and concessions in APC!
Osuyi also said the leadership of DPP in Delta is unhappy
with Senator Ewherido because he is romancing APC while Ogboru’s case against
Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan is still pending at the Supreme Court. The questions
are: Was the case not pending at the Supreme when Ezeagwu, Ogboru and other
members of their group voted for the APC merger at the DPP NEC meeting of
February 14, 2013? Is it only the Delta State governorship election that is at
stake in 2015? What about the elections to the state and federal legislatures?
Is DPP all about Delta State only? What about other states of the federation?
Then they take their cheap propaganda further by claiming
they are lukewarm towards the APC merger because of President Goodluck
Jonathan’s ambition to go second term. They do not want to go against the
interest of a fellow Niger Deltan. Didn’t they know about Jonathan’s second
term ambition before they participated in the earlier merger talks. These
people should tell the whole world what their problem is and stop creating
avoidable crisis and confusion: they want automatic governorship ticket in 2015
and the emerging APC has refused to guarantee that.
One more point of correction, please: Ewherido did not
ride on Ogboru’s back to the senate. Senator Ewherido had won elections to the
Delta State House of Assembly twice before contesting the senatorial elections.
He was at various time the number three and number four citizen of Delta State,
as acting speaker and deputy speaker. He was a major political player in Delta
State even before Ogboru came back from exile. This was why Ogboru invited him
to join him in prosecuting the 2010 governorship rerun. It is instructive that
until Ewherido joined DPP it had no single elected member; not even a
councillor. He participated in building the party to its current height. Even
if you deny him any credit, you cannot deny the fact that it was only after he
joined DPP that the party produced a senator, a house of representative member
who incidentally is from Ewherido’s federal constituency and a third of the
state assembly members before the courts and decamping depleted the number. So
while I do not deny the fact that Ogboru, as a party leader, contributed to
Ewherido’s election to the senate, Ewherido did not ride on his back. Ogboru
contributed to Ewherido’s election like other party leaders and members.
Finally, I do not think the current situation portends
any danger for the opposition in Delta State. It is just a phase. Basically
some grains will die and out of them will spring fort a formidable opposition
capable of winning the 2015 elections in Delta State.
Justice Iyasere is the special
Assistant to Senator Ewherido on Media
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