Barring any timely intervention by Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, the people of Awhum community in Udi Local Government Area of the state, are set for showdown with the Commissioner for Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Matters, Mr. Okey Ogbodo.
Ogbodo has reportedly slated Saturday, 14 December 2024 to elect -by-delegates, which the incumbent executive and most people in Awhum firmly described as strange and foreign to the Awhum Town Union Constitution of 1985. Section 28 of that constitution states that “election shall be by raising of hands at the assembly of the General Assembly or standing in line behind candidates of choice of each member/voter”.
The conmunity wondered where Ogbodo was bringing his election-by-delegates from since their Constitution had a position which had run from time immemorial or about the era before the Nigeria–Biafra war and the 1970s.
The problem of the incumbent executive of Awhum Town Central Union started in early July this year when it formerly wrote and notified the Ministry of impending end-of-tenure on 15 September 2024.
According the union’s President General, Comrade Ralph Ochubelu, “the letter notifying the government was to first raise awareness on the approach of end of tenure, and secondly for a date to be fixed and announced for new elections before the expiration of tenure”.
The Ministry, it was learnt, had formally received the memo, stamped and acknowledged it, but strangely, the document got missing until an alarm was raised. The incumbent executive and members of the community soon developed fears that something unbecoming was being hatched as there was still no word from the Ministry.
Their fears were confirmed last 4 September when the commissioner summoned the President-General; members of his executive council; Chairmen of Village Assemblies and some stakeholders announced that he had powers to set up a “Caretaker Committee” or appoint a “Sole Administrator” for the community.
He was challenged by one of the stakeholders, a former commissioner, Barrister Igbonekwu Ogazimorah, who told Ogbodo that he was departing from the path of peace if he allowed some manipulators to lead him into such thing as the Caretaker Committee of Sole Administrator. Ogazimorah said: “There is no emergency, whatsoever, to warrant a Caretaker Committee or Sole Administrator. The tenure of the present executive is still running and even if it exceeds by a few weeks, it was not going to be the first, as the immediate past administration had nine months in excess of the tenure. The one before that ran for two extra years. So, why the hurry to talk about Caretaker Committee or Sole Administrator”?
He added that only crisis or breakdown in law and order would necessitate the appointment of Caretaker Committee or Sole Administrator, and none of such was in place.
Ogbodo was said to have then members of the community to go back to the village and await his announcement on radio. This, the community felt, was unusual. Even as there had been attempts by government officials to help candidates in town union elections, this appeared pointing in a scary direction.
Unsettled by the development, Ochubelu, his executives and some stakeholders retained the services of BackBond Law Firm, which outlined the legal implications of the commissioner’s move, and reasons for him to intervene.
Ogbodo soon called the town executives and stakeholders to announce that the governor had directed that an election be conducted, according to the Constitution of the town union. He announced the setting of an Electoral Committee, and named the members, without the input of the community, except those for whom he appeared to be working for, to install a Caretaker Committee or Sole Administrator.
The union’s Deputy President General, Comrade Okey Ngwuagu said that Ogbodo Ogbodo just “announced an Electoral Committee, all by himself, without reference to the community or their leaders, himself not being from the community” but believed to be manipulated by some minority elements who are scared of general elections.
He set 9 November 2024 as the date of election but the Electoral Committee, and later moved it to 16 November, without informing the community.
The election produced less than 10 per cent of expected results as voting was had only for the office of the President General, largely due to the incompetence of Ogbodo’s Electoral Committee and seeming connivance of the officials of the Ministry, on ground. “Counting of votes was not well-coordinated”, a Ministry source disclosed.
Chairman of the Electoral Committee, Mr. James Ugbor was said to have “started the counting from the four-and-half lines formed by the supporters of the incumbent PG, Comrade Ochubeku, in favour of whom he recorded and announced 671 heads/votes”.
In the case of the opponent, Mr. Okey Okolo, he was observed to be lax with measures to control the crowd or prevent double appearance on the line, “and that was what finally marred the election. People were caught on camera voting multiple times. Some were seen using fuel and other chemicals to remove the ink-marks on their fingers so that they voted again and again. From the two-and-half lines formed by Okolo’s supporters, the Electoral Committee scored him 633 votes/heads. Election into that post alone, against several experiences in the past, lasted over seven hours. Ogbodo however refused to announce Ochubelu (the incumbent PG) the winner. He then denied the community any further communications.
He was also reported to have ignored all the letters written by various lawyers, asking him to act quickly to stem any unbecoming development from his seeming curious interest in installing a Caretaker Committee or Sole Administrator in the Community; or to be guided by the Constitution of the Community in question before he embarked on his “strange” election-by-delegates.
Last Saturday, the President of the town’s Youth Association, Prince Tyla Onoduenyi, led a demonstration of the youths in the old Nkwo market square, where they sang their disapproval of the election-by-delegates, amid brandishing of placards.
He said: “Elections in the Town Union Executive Councils are always by general elections where voters stand in line/s behind their preferred candidates where they were counted, ever so since the 1970s or before, till date”.
The placards bore such wording as ‘Delegates election is strange to our Constitution’, ‘We have never heard of such election before’, ‘Who will select the delegates’? ‘By what criteria would the delegates be selected’? ‘Commissioner, do not bring confusion into Awhum’, and ‘It is General Election or Nothing’.
But what has suddenly made a quiet, sleepy community as Awhum so attractive to the Commissioner and officials of his Ministry to throw every caution to the wind to interfere in election of mere executives of the town union?
Sources attribute this to deft moves of operatives of mineral explorers in the vicinity who are said to be discomforted with independent locality administrators wherever they operate, There is no evidence to back up this claim.
Other sources believe that these interferences arose from the absence of – and the tussle for the vacant stool of the traditional ruler of the community. The last Igwe passed away in June 2018, and the incumbent Town Union Executive Council had almost completed the process of a new one emerging, having narrowed the selection process to one candidate following the withdrawal of one of the two frontrunners.
Some members of the community, especially believed to have had stints in government, are said to be opposed to the 1976 Igweship Constitution of the town, already published in Government Gazette of 2010, and which amendment can only be undertaken “if approval by the Governor is first had and obtained”.
