For many, the issues around Ehime Mbano / Ihitte Uboma / Obowo Federal Constituency of Imo State, remain confusing. Former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services, Chike Okafor participated in the general elections and was declared winner. He was issued a certificate- of-return by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). He joined the speakership race, but just as he was gathering momentum, the candidate for Accord Party, Emeka Nwajiuba was also issued a certificate-of-return by INEC in May and he was inaugurated alongside others, as members of the 9th House. This is courtesy of a ruling by the FCT High Court, which Okafor is now challenging in the Court of Appeal. Despite the rumored support for Nwajiuba, from President Muhammadu Buhari, to take the position of Speaker, the returning member wasn’t even nominated during inauguration with Femi Gbajamiamila recording a landslide victory. One of the key actors in the political drama in the Imo constituency, Chike Okafor, spoke with a select group of journalists on the genesis of the controversy and why he is headed to the Court-of-Appeal.
Many observers still don’t understand how it all happened and how Emeka Nwajiuba was inaugurated as the member representing, Ehime Mbano / Ihitte Uboma / Obowo Federal Constituency of Imo State?
Let me put in on record that, Emeka Nwajiuba was a member of the All Progressive Congress, (APC). He contested the APC primary for our constituency and I came first, while he came third and another guy came second. Thereafter, he moved to Accord Party to run against me and other candidates in the general election. I went out to campaign. But suddenly in February, we saw posts from his (Nwajuiba’s) social media handlers, that the APC candidate (my humble self),had been stopped by a court. It turned out that a ruling was made by the FCT High Court Kubwa, so, I sent my lawyers across. Reading the ruling, I discovered that one Maryanne Uzoma instituted a matter in that court on the 26th January, challenging the primary in my constituency. I am emphasizing that the date the matter was instituted because a candidate ought to challenge the outcome of a primary within 14 days, after which you are statute barred. The APC primary for my constituency was held on 6th of October, 2018. I also need to add that upon sighting the ruling, I noticed that I wasn’t a party to the suit. Rather it was INEC, APC and Nwajuiba, that were defendants in the suit. Like I said, I wasn’t a party to the suit instituted by Uzoma, I won the primary, I had the party ticket and by the time the ruling for the suit in February, it was four days to election. What I took out from what happened at that time was that, all that Nwajuba wanted was for me to be barred from contesting because he knew that there was no way he could win the election with me as a candidate. My lawyers wrote to INEC to make sure that things were clear and that the ruling was made based on the erroneous assumption that Nwajiuba was APC candidate or that he won the primary. Another issue from the ruling was that, it was made based on a non-existent constituency, Okigwe-South. Therefore, INEC agreed to position of lawyers that there is no way I was barred, as I wasn’t party to the suit and that there wasn’t any Okigwe-South constituency known to law.
So how come it was Hon. Nwajiuba, that was sworn-in as a member and not you?
I beat other candidates that contested, with Nwajiuba coming second. INEC presented me my certificate-of-return and I thought the matter was closed. I joined the race for Speaker, pushing the case for recognition of the South-East in the leadership arrangement at the national level. But by 12th May, my attention was drawn to posts on social media that Nwajiuba was issued a certificate-of-return by INEC. When I made inquiries, we found out that Nwajiuba approached the same court to say that, the ruling of February 12 was not complied to by INEC and he prayed the court to order INEC to issue him a certificate-of-return as the person who came second, alleging that APC didn’t have a candidate for the election. Amazingly, I wasn’t joined in the suit, neither was the APC joined in the suit. If my party and I were joined in the suit, we would have challenged the ruling on time. By the time he was presented the certificate-of-return, I and my party were statute barred to approach the Court of Appeal. I was advised by the legal team of my party and my lawyers to return to the FCT High Court Kubwa to argue my case and to activate a chance for appeal…. I have taken my case to the Court of Appeal, where I strongly believe that the people of Ehime Mbano / Ihitte Uboma / Obowo Federal Constituency, who freely elected me will get justice. My party will also get justice as they have stood by me, to ensure that the wish of the electorate is upheld and the culture of democracy sustained across the country.
There was a lot of talk around Hon. Nwajiuba after he was recognized by INEC, that he could spring a surprise in the contest for the office of Speaker. Now that Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila is the new Speaker, what do you make of the pre-election hype around the man representing your constituency?
Let me start from the foundation to say that Nwajiuba was supposed to a long standing member of the APC. But his actions have cost our party and its supporters in Imo and the South-East a whole lot. He just might have cost the South-East the opportunity to gain much in House. We heard a lot of false promises back home, things like President Buhari asked him to defect to Accord Party and then that the President promised him the he would be made Speaker. A lot of disaffection was created back home with all of the falsehood and the situation is worse now as its glaring that the promise of speakership was untrue. Honestly, if my brother Emeka Nwajiuba had been elected as Speaker or Deputy Speaker, I wouldn’t have gone on appeal. The election was shown live on TV and we saw how he (Nwajiuba) was anonymous. This is in great contrast to 2015, when as a new member I seconded the nomination for Hon. Yakubu Dogara, who eventually emerged Speaker. I came close to being a principal officer, but due to the fact that I was a first term lawmakers I was denied. You will recall that immediately I declared for Speaker, the South-East Caucus of the APC met in Enugu where they stated their support and I was applauded. So his actions dented the popularity of my party in my constituency, state and zone because we have suffered a setback with the loss of better placed candidate for the office of Speaker or Deputy Speaker.
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