For the past one year, the Senatorial slot of Anambra North has been vacant. Chibuzo Ukaibe, in this report, looks at the legal scuffle that has created this awkward situation.
The Anambra North Senatorial seat has been vacant, since the commencement of the 7th Senate. By implication, the Senatorial district had and still has no representation at the upper chamber.
This appalling scenario is as a result of the twist and turns in a legal war between Mrs Margery Okadigbo, wife of former Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo, and Senator Alphonsus Igbeke, in the 6th Senate unseated, (via a court ruling) Senator Joy Emordi who is currently the Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters to President Goodluck Jonathan.
The tussle between the two centred on an intense legal dispute on who was the legitimate candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the last senatorial primaries in April 16, 2011, which was caused by a split in the party structure in the state.
However, an end to the tussle seemed in sight last December, roughly six months into the 7th Senate, when the court of Appeal in Abuja declared Chuba-Okadigbo, winner of the Anambra North Senatorial District. The court declared her the legitimate candidate of the PDP.
After evaluating all documents relating to the primary election of the zone, the court declared her winner of the primary election having polled 168 votes. It further ordered her inauguration into the Senate.
But the battle, it will seem, is far from over. A new twist recently emerged as one of the affidavits said to have been sworn to and admitted by the High Court as Exhibit Number 1387 stating that Lady Margery Okadigbo won the election, was allegedly forged.
This allegation was brought to the fore after Sen Igbeke’s request in a letter to the assistant chief registrar/commissioner for oath, Chief Magistrates’ Court, Orumba north magisterial district, Ajalli (formerly assistant chief registrar/commissioner for oaths, Otuocha judicial division of the Anambra State High Court).
In the letter captioned: ‘Confirmation of affidavits of facts purported to have been sworn before Commissioner for Oaths’ dated April 25, 2012, Senator Igbeke had requested, “Kindly confirm whether the said affidavits of facts were sworn to at said Registry as appears on the face of the said documents and whether the signature that appears on the affidavit as that of commissioner for oaths is yours”.
The letter was addressed to Donatus Mbanefo Obadiegwu, said to be the then assistant chief registrar/commissioner of oaths.
Obadiegwu, in a reply to the request, dated April 27, 2012, submitted, “There is no receipt number on any page of the attached bundle of documents (each entitled “Affidavit of Fact”) showing that they were paid for, or where they were paid for. To qualify as affidavits duly sworn to by such individuals, they ought to be paid for and the receipt number written on them, but there is no indication on the face of the documents showing that this was done. Accordingly, there is nothing on the face of the document to enable me to confirm them as affidavits of facts sworn to at the Registry of the Otuocha judicial division of the Anambra State High Court”.
On the signature and the stamp that were inscribed on the document, Obadiegwu replied, “The signature and stamp that appear on the 183 page bundle of documents are not mine and are therefore forged. The dates appearing on the said documents tend to suggest that they were sworn to in January (11th), 2011 at which time I held office as the assistant registrar/commissioner for oaths in the Otuocha judicial division of the Anambra State High Court. I have gone through my records in that Registry and could not find any document of that nature as emanating from the Registry”.
Obadiegwu, in an affidavit he swore to on May 11, 2012, claimed that, “The signature on the documents is a forgery and not my signature and both the stamp and the signature on the face of the documents are forged and did not emanate from me or the Otucha Registry as the documents purport to show”.
He also claimed in the affidavit that he never authorized or delegated power to any officer working under him before whom any of the documents was sworn.
He also swore that, “The documents or affidavits of facts referred to in the affidavit as being forged are attached to this affidavit already numbered in Marker as numbers 1387 to 1568 and now further marked as EXHIBIT BUNDLE 1”.
Recall that the EXHIBIT 1387, which the court hinged its decision in earlier declaring Lady Okadigbo winner of the election, was sworn to by an alleged witness who claimed to have been a PDP delegate to the election.
The witness, one Nnaji Anwali, had claimed that the election in his ward held on December 28, 2010, “in respect of Anambra north senatorial election genuinely produced Lady Okadigbo”.
It also claimed, “That the PDP primary conducted on 8/01/2011 in the north’s senatorial district of Anambra state was well attended and very peaceful; that he was physically present as a bona fide delegate that took place in the PDP primary conducted in the Anambra north senatorial district on 8/01/2011… where Lady Okadigbo was elected as the PDP candidate for Anambra north senatorial district”.
Political analysts have expressed sadness over the matter, especially because time lost in the tenure of lawmakers, unlike the executive arm of government, is not re-awarded. By implication, if the 7th Senate runs its full course without swearing in any senator from Anambra north, the zone will go down in history as a zone that never produced a senator during the 7th Senate.
With the existence of several factions in the Anambra State chapter of the PDP, the national leadership of the PDP had set up a National Assembly electoral committee headed by Senator Joseph Waku to conduct primaries for the election of Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates of the party in Anambra State in the 2011 elections in line with the constitutional provisions of the party.
At the end of the primaries, on January 8 this year, Okadigbo emerged victorious with 168 votes. Her closest rival, Igbeke, had 23 votes. Prince John Emeka nicked 15 votes while Hon Celestine Ughanze polled 2 votes. Other contestants at the primary included Chief Dennis Odife who scored 29 votes, Chief Tony Nnacheta and Hon Okwudili Uzoka. Subsequently, the National Working Committee of the PDP at its meeting of January 30, 2011 approved the results of the Anambra North primaries won by Okadigbo and forwarded her name alongside other candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in accordance with section 31 of the 2010 Electoral Act.
However, following a judgment given by Justice Abdu Kafarati of the Federal High Court, Port Harcourt on March 17, 2011, INEC gave the Certificate of Return to Igbeke. Igbeke, relying on the judgement, called on the senate leadership to swear him in. But President of the Senate, David Mark, refused insisting that he would only do so after the determination of the case by the appellate court.
Okadigbo and the PDP appealed the verdict claiming that Igbeke had emerged winner from an illegitimate primary conducted by an unrecognized PDP faction in Anambra State, led by Benji Udeozor.
Still, the current scenario in the senatorial zone is a clear reflection of the party which has been a crisis spot for the national leadership of the party since 1999. The party has, since the days of Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju under the godfather era of Chief Emeka Ofor and subsequently, Sen Chris Ngige (then governor) and Ifeanyi Uba saga, failed to transcend into a stable platform.
Nonetheless, as the back and forth in the litigation follows and the end of the tussle still appears far from being in sight, the zone will continue to be deprived of its representation in the upper chamber.
What’s more, it is as amazing as it is appalling, that a senatorial zone that has produced, in earlier dispensations greats like late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, who was the first president of the Senate (1960), and Dr Nwafor Orizu, who presided over the Senate between 1960 and 1966 and the charismatic Chuba Okadigbo, would be enmeshed in a scuffle of constituency deprivation.
?
?