Ahead of governorship elections in Anambra this November, the People’s Democratic Party is steeped in crisis with the emergence of two parallel chairmen in the state.
One chairman has called off party primaries this weekend, the other insists primaries will hold as planned.
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The emergence follows a federal high court ruling in Abuja which removed the current chairman, Ndubuisi Nwobu, and replaced him with Ejike Oguebego.
The controversial ruling comes two weeks before PDP in Anambra is due for primaries.
It has created apprehension among the 16 aspirants vying for the party’s ticket.
The PDP has seen a trend of crises every electioneering year in Anambra.
In the last 18 years, it has been struck with crisis when governorship polls are afoot.
Upheaval
The court-named chairman Oguebego has ordered immediate postponement of the ward delegate elections slated for this weekend even though the committee for the election has already arrived from Abuja to conduct the election.
Court-ousted chairman Nwobu called the judgement a mercantile ruling that cannot derail the party from focusing on taking power in the state.
Nwobu said the primaries would go on as planned, noting that a similar court of equal jurisdiction had ruled in their favour few years ago.
According to him, the efforts of enemies of PDP would be in futility, because the purported ordered was wrongly obtained when courts are on strike.
He also stated the plaintiff in the matter Chukwudi Umeagba and the National leadership of the party have long withdrawn from the matter.
He contended that there is a subsisting order of a Federal High Court, Abuja Federal Capital Territory which is a court of coordinate jurisdiction with purported judgment .
According to him, the recent judgement cannot vitiate the initial judgement of Justice A.O .Musa in 2017.
The Justice Musa judgement of 2017 read in part: “It’s hearby declared that the purpoted Anambra caretaker committee led by the Sir Chukwudi Umeagba as conveyed by the 1st defendant press statement dated 19th December 2017 is null, void and of no effect being constituted in breach of the extant provisions of the defendant constitution as amended.
“It is hereby ordered that the Executive Committee of the 1st Defendant Anambra state chapter having been duely elected in the state Congress held on the 4th December 2017 ratified by the National Caretaker committee at it’s 449th meeting held on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th December 2017 is valid and subsisting having regard to the fact that it’s tenure is unexhausted “.
According to him, the implications of the above is that there is a valid and subsisting judgement protecting the leadership of Hon Ndubuisi Nwobu led executive committee of the party and the judgement has not been set aside by any appellate court.
“It is binding on all until set aside by any Appellate Court,” Nwobu said.
According to the suit filed by Oguebego, he claimed that there was no validly constituted congress that elected Ndubuisi Nwobu as state chairman of the party.
According to his prayers before the presidential primary election of the party in Rivers State only the local government and ward congresses were conducted adding that Nwobu was sworn in as caretaker chairman of the party.
Deepening the confusion further the sixteen aspirants of the party are at sea over their fate in the June 26th Primary election if the exercise would actually take place following the recent judgment.
None of the aspirants offered to comment on the situation.
Since 2010 the Ejike Oguebego faction of the party has been laying claim to the chairmanship of the PDP in Anambra state when Kenneth Emeakayi was also insisting that he was the duly elected chairman of the party.
