The electoral tussle between Senator Chris Ngige and Prof. Dora Akunyili ended on March 26 with a verdict of the Court of Appeal, Enugu, which upheld Ngige’s election, EMMANUEL OBE reports.
Senator Chris Ngige was in far away United States on March 26 when the Court of Appeal in Enugu confirmed his election as the person to represent Anambra Central in the Senate.
But he came down April 1, to meet with his supporters in Awka, the Anambra State capital, after the court verdict and celebrate his final victory. The elated mood of the senator at the Sunday bash betrayed the story of apprehension and anxiety that hid behind the façade of confidence and grandstanding that he had exhibited all the while since April last year when the battle for the senatorial seat started.
To show how free Ngige now feels, he announced to the equally joyous gathering that he would now open his constituency offices in the seven local government areas that make up the senatorial zone, an indication that until he was saved by the Appeal Court last month, he had not been too sure of his seat in the Senate Chambers to the point that he could not open a constituency office.
“This marks a new era in the politics of the state,” Ngige had declared when he got the news of the Court of Appeal verdict. He praised God for the victory and for showing that “the truth triumphs over untruth at the end of the day.”
“I won the senatorial election twice but Akunyili through the instrumentality of the Anambra State Government decided to take a gamble at the election courts to see if blackmail and even intimidation could assist them to get what the electorate denied them in the field,” he lamented.
His opponent, Prof. Dora Akunyili, did not also have it easy while the struggle to unseat Ngige raged. Though she has accepted the verdict of the Court of Appeal as the final judgment in the case, she still rued about the injustice that she said was done to her by both the electoral commission and the judiciary.
Chiedu Okoye, a writer and an apparent admirer of Akunyili, had this to say of the Court of Appeal verdict; “The verdict didn’t serve the cause of justice. Akunyili was not defeated; the Appeal court and election tribunal didn’t strike out her case for lack of merit.”
That is why she has not thought it imperative to congratulate and extend a hand of fellowship to Ngige, who she once admitted is a family friend.
Akunyili is pained by the fact that she did not have any opportunity to prove her case at the tribunal, having claimed to have won the election in the field. Her petition was determined on technicalities, having failed to be determined within the 180 days required by the Electoral Act.
She said, “Aware that the election was rigged in his favour, Dr. Ngige did everything humanly possible to ensure that my petition would not be heard. His legal team employed delay tactics, using one crafty argument after another to frustrate the hearing of my case. Five times we went on appeal and five times we won, sometimes with fines against Ngige.
“Having done everything within our power to get justice, we must at this point accept the reality that our case will never be heard. It is a sad day for justice in our country because technicality has triumphed over merit.”
Ngige and Akunyili entered the race with intimidating credentials. Former members of the all powerful Peoples Democratic Party, which was controlling the Federal Government and had substantial influence in Anambra State, the two candidates opted to adopt new platforms to prosecute their ambitions.
The race indeed turned out to be an epic battle for the two of them. The huge presence of the candidates from the PDP, the Accord party and other major parties soon paled into insignificance as Ngige and Akunyili took centre stage.
Ngige, a former Governor of Anambra State, was backed by a cult following and a popularity that he achieved during his 33 months as governor of the state between 2003 and 2006. He joined the race on March 16, 2011, barely three weeks to the election and changed earlier permutations about the election. His party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, was built around him in Anambra State and therefore his hopes were all dependent on how well he could manage his party and his popularity with the people.
Akunyili was also very popular. Her gender disadvantage in a society that is patriarchal did not seem to come up at all as a factor. Flaunting impeccable credentials she earned when she served as the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, where she successfully fought Nigerian drug counterfeit rings, Akunyili relinquished her top flight job as the Federal Minister of Information and Communications, quit her party, the PDP that was controlling the Federal Government and opted for the regional All Progressives Grand Alliance.
Unlike Ngige, however, Akunyili had the benefit of joining a party that controlled the state government and had a wider support base. But from every indication, the two seemed equally matched and the world looked ahead to a fierce but exciting contest in Anambra Central.
Both of them well educated and obstinate to a fault, their late entry into the race pushed aside previous top contenders like the then incumbent Senator, Annie Okonkwo of the Accord Party, Chief Oguguo Okoye of the PDP, Chief Chudi Offodile and others.
In spite of their respective strengths and experience in politics, like gamblers, Ngige and Akunyili appeared to have staked their political future in that single race. And that raised the stakes higher; for in addition to Akunyili, Ngige saw the election as an opportunity to get back at Governor Peter Obi, who had humiliated him in two previous governorship elections.
Interestingly, Ngige and Akunyili each had big support bases in their local government area where it was certain that they would pull their weight to draw for themselves premium votes in the election. Even the dumb in Anambra State know that Ngige would not lose any contemporary election in the Idemili North and Idemili South Local Government Areas, where the effect of his road projects were most felt when he was governor.
On the other hand, Akunyili’s grip over Anaocha Local Government Area where she hails from along with Governor Obi was not in doubt. That left the four other local government areas of Awka South, Awka North, Njikoka and Dunukofia up for grabs.
Election Day finally came on April 9, 2011 and everything seemed to be going smoothly until the bubble burst when the election results were being collated.
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