PDP battles for soul of Jos North/Bassa constituency

JUDE OWUAMANAM writes on the controversy surrounding the rerun ballot to fill the Jos North/Bassa constituency in the House of Representatives amid a state of emergency

 One would believe that as the ruling party in Plateau, the Peoples Democratic Party ought to have the upper hand in any act of politicking in the state. Nigerian politics being what it is, where the winner takes all, the PDP, since the dawn of the new democratic dispensation, has had a strong hold of the state. Even the pioneer chairman of the party, Chief Solomon Lar, is a ‘son of the soil’ to the extent that important political positions in the party emerged from party conventions conducted in the state.

But today, the party is about losing its grip in the state going by the circumstances that have always surrounded the seat of the Jos North/Bassa federal constituency.

In fact, since 1999, when Mr. Lumumba da Adeh occupied that position till 2003, attempts by the ruling party and by extension, the native people, to clinch that seat had remained a mirage. In 2003, it became a big tussle between the Hausa/Fulani and the indigenous tribe and eventually, Alhaji Saleh Hassan won that position. He represented Jos North/Bassa from 2003 to 2007, under the All Nigeria Peoples Party. Hassan was edged out by Alhaji Samaila Mohammed in 2007 still under the ANPP. In 2011, it was a fierce battle between the PDP and the Democratic Peoples Party.

However, the party is about to lose the seat again as it is enmeshed in controversy since its candidate in the election, Mr. Peter Akuja, won the seat. One of the contestants, Mr. Suleiman Kwande of the DPP, felt that he was short-changed in the election process as he alleged that the votes he recorded in one of his constituencies, Dogo Agogo, were not recorded for him. The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared Akuja the winner of the election. The commission had claimed that there was a fracas in Dogo Agogo and so, no election was conducted in the area. But Suleiman stated before the court that election actually held and that he obtained 751 votes. He said the votes were not included in the overall results, which would have given him the edge over the PDP candidate. The tribunal, in agreeing with him, said that it was wrong for INEC not to have included the 751 votes Kwande got in Dogo Agogo. It said when the votes were added, he (Kwande) scored more.

Akujah was declared winner with 293 more votes after he had 163,518 against Kwande’s 163,225. Kwande’s grouse before the tribunal was that if the 751 votes he had in Dogo Agogo were added, the votes would have obliterated Akujah’s with a surplus of over 458 votes, enough to declare him the winner of the election.

The tribunal agreed with him and declared him the winner of the election. But this was to be upturned by the appellate court when Akuja disagreed with the judgement of the tribunal.

Justice Clara Ogunbiyi, who presided over the case, disagreed with the lower tribunal. She held that INEC erred in law by giving the election to Kwande. Her argument was that looking at the result sheet, a number was entered for Kwande, but in the column for PDP, no number was entered Instead, INEC put a dash. She held that by putting a dash, it presupposed that Akujah did not participate in the election and so, asked INEC to conduct a rerun within 90 days.

Now, here really comes the problem. Since the judgement was given less than three months ago, the PDP had been in a quandary on how to go about the election because the ward in question is the strong base of the DPP. Indeed, it is a no-go area for the PDP as none of their candidates dared go there to campaign. So, it could be a fait accompli for Kwande whenever the election is held. From the date the verdict was given, the PDP knew that it had lost that seat once again. And therefore, all intrigues were deployed to delay the rerun.

An opportunity presented itself with the declaration of a state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan in four local government areas of the state, including Jos North. The argument then was: Can any form of politicking take place in any emergency situation?

While hiding under this, the state government, citing security concerns, had approached INEC and the security agencies to postpone the rerun, especially as it had once been postponed. But with time running out, as the 90 days elapsed on Feb 15, what would be the position of the law. However, INEC, to beat the time frame, had last Saturday conducted the rerun where Kwande supposedly defeated Akujah by 423 votes to one vote, which gave the winner 163,648. Akuja had 163,519, losing the election with 129 votes.

Since the election, legal opinions have been divided. Even among security agencies, there was no unanimity of opinions on the security implication because some of the agencies did not participate it the rerun.

It was in this light that the PDP in Jos North LGA petitioned the Plateau Resident Electoral Commissioner over the activities of the INEC electoral officer for the council area, who the party leadership accused of playing antics to tarnish the hard-earned reputation of the commission.

The PDP official, Pius Gimba, in a petition entitled, Petition against INEC Electoral Officer (Jos North) Plateau State, alleged that his party reliably gathered and not informed that the rerun for Jos North/Bassa federal constituency had been fixed for 11th Feb, 2012.

e accused the electoral officer of plotting a grand design to doctor the result of the rerun and that, according to him, accounted for “why the process is shrouded in secrecy.”

Gimba said, “Certainly, our candidate cannot be expected to mobilise his supporters within 24 hours; so, we therefore make bold to remind INEC that the organisation of secret elections is not part of its mandate.”

He alleged, among other irregularities, that there were cases of under-age and multiple registration at the Dogon Agogo polling unit apart from the electoral body posting Muslim staff members to man the three polling units in the area, a community that is polarised along religious lines.

Mr. Sunday Odey, who represented Akujah in court, said the rerun was not normal under a state of emergency because it was in a bid to prevent any breakdown of law and order that such emergency was imposed in a given area and at a given time.

He said, “The rerun is already generating tension in the area that was supposed to be under a state of emergency and the situation may erode the gains of serenity, which the emergency situation was intended to serve.”

Moreover, Odey said his client was not aware of the new date for the rerun after it was postponed the first time, adding that the rerun should not have held because the same situation that led to the postponement in the first instance subsisted.

Another legal practitioner, Mr. Chesil Drenkat, agreed with Odey. According to him, from a legal point of view, any form of politicking is not supposed to take place in any emergency situation because it was in a bid to prevent a breakdown of law and order that such an emergency rule was imposed in Jos North. He said Akujah was supposed to continue to occupy the seat until the situation was normalised for a hitch-free rerun.

However, another lawyer, said that what a state of emergency meant was that more security should be mobilised to address emergency situations. “What it then means is that for such election to be conducted, more security must be deployed in such areas,” he said.

Plateau State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Edward Pwajok, would rather not be drawn into the controversy as according to him, the courts are there for aggrieved persons to address their grievances.

He said, “I’m the attorney-general and commissioner for justice and so anything I say could be misinterpreted to mean the opinion of the government. What the aggrieved people should do is to approach the court for proper interpretation.”