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Seeking to Succeed Senator Anyim:
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Dr. Ndukwe Azuewah's Senatorial Candidacy
Dr. Ndukwe Azuewah
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Many of you will recall that in 1999,
I contested the House of Representatives election under the ticket of All Nigerian People's Party (ANPP) to represent
Afikpo North and South federal constituency. That election did not go well but we accepted it and went ahead to
plan for the 2003 election. The plan was that come 2003, I will re-contest the election for the House of Representatives
since there was an understanding that the position will be zoned to Afikpo North Local Government Area. So when
I went home in December 2002, it was to contest the House of Representatives election. It was not until I got to
Afikpo that I found out that my party, the ANPP, had zoned the House of Representatives position to Afikpo South
Local Government Area. This meant that since I was an indigene of Afikpo North Local Government Area, I was ineligible
to contest the House of Representative position under ANPP. I was informed that since the People's Democratic Party
(PDP) had zoned their Senatorial position to Afikpo North Local Government Area, the ANPP felt that zoning the
Senatorial position to the North would be the best strategy for winning the election. Thus, the ANPP Senate position
was zoned to Afikpo North.
Upon discovering that the Senate position has been zoned to Afikpo North and the House of Representatives position
to Afikpo South, I decided to accept the plea of my supporters who urged me to run for the Senate. On January 2,
2003, I joined four other candidates in contesting the ANPP Senatorial primaries. After intense campaigning and
lobbying of the delegates, I won by a landslide. The breakdown of the votes is as follows: Ndukwe Azuewah (17 votes),
Nicholas Oyo (6 votes), Okechukwu Oti (1 vote), Hyacinth Ikpor (0 vote) and Sunday Azuewah (0 vote). Although all
the other candidates congratulated me and pledged to work for my success in the polls, Nicholas Oyo went to Abakaliki
and started writing petitions against me. All of the petitions were dismissed as frivolous and lacking merit by
ANPP's petition panel. Having won the primary election and fought off attempts to overturn my victory through petition
writing, I left Nigeria for the United States to prepare for the general election. While still in the United States,
the ANPP National Secretariat, in a letter signed by the National Chairman, Chief Donald Etiebet and the National
Secretary, Alhaji El-Katuzu, submitted my name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the duly
nominated candidate for the ANPP in Ebonyi South Senatorial District. The Ebonyi South Senatorial constituency
is the constituency of the former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim.
After my US trip, I returned to Nigeria to start campaigning for the election. When I got to Nigeria, I first went
to Uburu, Ohaozara to see our leader, His Excellency Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu to seek his advice on the election. I met
his absence but left a message for him. I then proceeded to Isiagu, Ivo to see the Senate President, Senator Anyim
Pius Anyim. My reason for going to the Senate President was to discuss my preparation for the campaign and to solicit
his guidance and support. Upon getting to Isiagu, I was met by the following people: Linus Okorie, Ray Akanwa and
Emma Kanondu (the Senate Presidents confidants in Ebonyi South). They took me to a room in the Senate President's
house where I was to stay and wait for the Senate President. After waiting for about thirty minutes, the Senate
President entered the room and sat down. Before I could request a private meeting with him, he asked the trio of
Okorie, Akanwa, and Kanondu if they had shown me the budget of fourteen million naira (N14,000,000.00) they prepared
for the Senatorial election. They informed him that they had and he asked me how much of the money I was prepared
to give to the trio.
The Senate President's question took me by surprise and I was not sure how to respond. After thinking for about
sixty seconds, I responded that I will make available one million naira (N1,000,000.00) to the trio for now and
that more money will be provided later. Shortly thereafter the meeting ended without much discussion of anything
else. When I got home, I summoned my campaign coordinators and we deliberated on the matter and decided that no
money should be handed to the trio. My coordinators felt that any money we will spend towards the campaign had
to be channeled through the zonal leadership of the party or our campaign organization and not through a three-man
self-appointed campaign overseers. While the discussion was going on, some of my coordinators wondered why the
trio did not summon a meeting of the party elders to discuss the budget. They wondered whether there was a hidden
agenda known only to the trio.
THE ATTEMPT TO REMOVE ME AS CANDIDATE
Having taken the decision not to give
any money to the trio, I proceeded with my campaign as if the meeting at the Senate President's house never took
place. The trio waited for the one million naira (N1,000,000.00) initial payment, and when they saw it was not
forthcoming from me or anybody in my team, the assault on my candidacy started. This assault was led by Emma Kanondu
and Ray Akanwa. They started it by going around to the party members and spreading their storyline i.e. that I
was not prepared financially for the election. They took the story to the Senate President who allegedly bought
into it. They also took the story to Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who refused to buy into it and infact proceeded to inform
the National Chairman of the party, Chief Don Etiebet who promised him that he will not support any change of candidate
in Ebonyi South. During the burial of Dr. Onu's mother at Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government, both Chief Donald Etiebet
and General Muhammadu Buhari assured me that nobody will remove my name from the ANPP list of Senatorial candidates.
As the controversy was developing, Emma Kanondu wrote a letter to the INEC at Abakaliki asking them to remove my
name and put in Nicholas Oyo's name. This was done on the 12th of March 2003, the last day for substitution of
candidates. The letter was then forwarded to the INEC office at Abuja where the request for substitution was rejected
on the ground that only the National Party Secretariat had the authority to remove a senatorial candidate's name.
When the final list of candidates screened and cleared by the INEC to contest the election came out on March 14th
2003, my name was the name on the list. (See attached). Having failed in their attempt to legally remove my name
from the list of candidates, they proceeded with the assistance of some highly placed individuals at the INEC to
attempt an illegal removal. They went to the National Secretariat and alleged that I have withdrawn from the race
and that my name should be replaced with Nicholas Oyo's name. This, of course, was not true and there was no letter
from me indicating that I was withdrawing from the race, a key requirement of the Electoral Act. The letter was
taken to the National Chairman of the party, Chief Donald Etiebet, who refused to sign on the grounds that there
was no letter from me indicating that I was withdrawing from the race. The Oyo group went ahead anyway to pressure
INEC to remove my name even without the letter from me indicating my intention to withdraw from the Senatorial
race and the National Chairman's signature. Sometime during the last week before the election, they succeeded in
getting my name off the list. When this was discovered by Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, he quickly confronted Chief Donald
Etiebet who denied knowledge of the removal and stated that any removal effected without his signature would be
null and void. He instructed the Administrative Secretary of ANPP to write INEC and instruct them to restore my
name as the candidate of the party. That letter was written and sent to INEC who proceeded to restore my name as
the Candidate for Ebonyi South Senatorial constituency. Having achieved this restoration, we proceeded home for
the election.
On the eve of the election, we held
a meeting with our supporters where we discussed the election activities and provided them with resources they
needed for Election Day work. On Election Day, voting was supposed to start at 8am and end at 3pm. At about 8:30am,
I sent one of my campaign workers to the voting center at Ukpa village to see if voting had started. They went
there and came back to report that voting had not started and that the INEC officials were yet to arrive with electoral
materials. At about 10am, another campaign aide was sent out to go and see if voting had started. He came back
at about 11am to report that voting had not started and that electoral officials were yet to arrive at the polling
center with the electoral materials. At that point, I got in my car with some of my aides and went to see what
exactly was going on in town regarding the election. As we were driving around town, we noticed that while eager
voters were standing in line waiting for the voting materials to arrive, a lot of the PDP guys were hanging out
at various local bars (beer parlors) drinking and looking like they were already celebrating their electoral victory
even before the voting started. We got really concerned and decided to visit some of our party elders. We learned
from talking to some of them that some of the electoral materials had already been provided to PDP members who
were already at some secret locations thumb-printing the ballots for PDP. That information sort of explained the
delay in commencement of voting and the lack of anxiety on the part of PDP people who were already celebrating
their victory before the election started.
When at 3pm the electoral officials finally showed up with their materials at the polling center, our people demanded
to know how many ballot papers were available to ensure that the officials had enough materials to ensure that
every eligible voter that wanted to vote had the opportunity to vote. The polling center where I was registered
to vote had about 960 registered voters. This meant that the electoral officials should have brought about 960
or more ballot papers to the center. The electoral officials informed us that they had only 400 ballot papers.
This meant that once 400 eligible voters had voted, the remainder of the eligible voters will be unable to vote
due to unavailability of voting materials. Because our people suspected that the missing ballot papers which constituted
the majority of the ballot papers intended for the polling center may have been given to the PDP to ensure that
no matter how the people voted the PDP will win, they insisted that voting will not start until all the 960 ballot
papers were produced. This led to a heated argument between our people and the PDP people who were insisting that
voting should be allowed to commence with the available materials. As the argument continued, PDP thugs came to
the scene and started shooting into the air obviously to intimidate our people into allowing voting to start on
their own terms. When our people would not budge, a fight broke out between our people and the PDP people and in
the midst of the confusion, somebody picked up the ballot box and smashed it on the floor. This caused a lot of
the people who have been waiting for the voting materials to arrive to leave the polling centers since it became
obvious to them that the PDP was not willing to allow normal voting to take place.
From the polling center at Ukpa village, we left to go to the Deputy Governor's house to report to him what had
just happened at Ukpa polling center. While we were at his house, we learned that about two PDP thugs who went
to Ndibe to disrupt voting had been stabbed to death by Ndibe youths who were standing guard at the Ndibe polling
center. On getting the news we got really concerned that there might be a retaliatory attack on ANPP people. Using
our two-way radios, we got in touch with most of our people and advised them to avoid any sort of confrontation
with the PDP thugs. While still at the Deputy Governor's place, we got reports from our people in the field that
the PDP people were overrunning the whole place. They were driving around in their campaign vehicles, showing up
at polling centers with their thugs and police officers intimidating people and picking up ballot boxes. This is
obviously a function that is supposed to be performed by the electoral commission officials. But the electoral
officials looked helpless while the whole thing was going on. In one reported case where an electoral official
challenged the action of the PDP, she was taken hostage by the thugs. She later told our people that she was taken
to the home of a PDP chieftain where all the ballot boxes were being brought for review by PDP before being taken
to the collation center at the local government headquarters. It was at this individual's home that all the thump-printed
ballot papers were now stuffed into the ballot boxes to ensure PDP victory before the materials were moved to the
collation center.
Having seen how the whole thing was proceeding, it became clear that there was no way we were going to make it
in an election where the electoral officials, the police, and all the other government agencies involved in organizing
the election were working with PDP. We did not even bother going to the collation center to observe the collation
process since we already knew what the outcome will be. We stayed at home and waited for situation reports from
the other four local government areas that make up Ebonyi South Senatorial District. At that point we were still
hopeful that we will win the election assuming that normal voting was allowed to go on at old Ohaozara which was
our main stronghold. But when the reports started coming in, detailing how voters were intimidated by thugs and
security forces, it became clear to us that what we witnessed at Ukpa was not an isolated incident. We knew then
that PDP had succeeded in thwarting the will of the people of Ebonyi South Senatorial District.
Following the election, I convened a
meeting of my campaign aides and we discussed and reviewed our options. Some thought we should go to the tribunal
and challenge PDP's victory. Others thought it will not make sense since the PDP-controlled government will be
the ones to constitute the election tribunal. In the end, we decided to not go to the tribunal and to leave everything
to God. Having taken that decision, we proceeded to wind up our campaign operations. We spent the week following
our election doing just that. Upon completing the process, I thanked my people for giving me the opportunity to
run for the Senate. I then left for Abuja from where I spent one week holding meetings with ANPP national officers.
Subsequently, I took off to Lagos from where I took off for the United States.
Dr. Ndukwe Azuewah
Bladensburgh, MD
Seeking to Succeed Senator Anyim: Dr. Ndukwe Azuewah's Senatorial Candidacy
Dr. Ndukwe Azuewah holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree
from the University of Iowa College of Law, and a Bachelor degree in Political Science from the University of the
District of Columbia.
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