From Chijioke Agwu, Abakaliki
The Court of Appeal recently declared Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi as the authentic senatorial candidate of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Ebonyi South, thus, setting the stage for the real political battle for the coveted seat in the election by February next year.
Though Umahi’s initial interest in 2023 was to be president of the country but the turn of events made the governor change his mind and went for the senate slot.
When the senatorial bid filtered some circles after his failed presidential contest, not a few persons dismissed the governor’s chances of getting the ticket given that party primary elections had ended.
However, it became interesting when his younger brother, Austin Umahi, who held the ticket prior to the governor’s surfacing on the scene, withdrew from the race to pave way for him.
Following the development, the national leadership of the APC swiftly rescheduled the Ebonyi South APC primary on June 9, 2022, where the governor emerged unopposed and subsequently picked the ticket.
Yet, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in its first publication of names and particulars of senatorial candidates left the Ebonyi South APC space empty.
The governor, then approached a Federal High Court in Abakaliki and prayed it to order INEC to publish his name as sent by his party.
But the court in its ruling ordered for a fresh primary. The APC organised the election and Umahi, again, won the ticket.
Surprisingly, a runner up in the first primary election, Mrs. Ann Agom-Eze popularly called Nwanyibuife, meaning a female is priceless, opposed the ruling of the court, and approached Appeal Court to declare her candidate of the party.
Agom-Eze’s position was that David Umahi was not part of the original primary of the APC for the senatorial zone, so, should not benefit from the quitting of the contest by the winner of the exercise, Austin Umahi. She further argued that if another primary election was to be conducted, the governor was not qualified to partake since he was not part of the original process.
But in a judgment delivered on September 30, the Appeal Court upheld Umahi’s nomination as the authentic candidate of the party, thereby, clearing way for him to face the poll squarely.
He will be slugging it out with the current occupant of the seat, Micheal Ama Nnachi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the former member of House of Representatives for Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency, Linus Abaa Okorie of the Labour Party (LP).
Other contenders for the seat include Ifeanyi Inya Eleje of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Kelechi Nnachi, Social Democratic Party (SDP), Akpa Nweze Innocent, African Democratic Congress (ADC), Reuben Uche, Action Alliance (AA), Ogbonna Idam of New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and Ibeabuchi Ajah (NRM).
A cursory review of the candidates shows that it would be a quartet involving Umahi (APC), Nnachi (PDP), Okorie (LP) and Eleje (APGA). With the contest zeroed to these four candidates, voters in the five local government areas of the zone will be making their choice from the four.
Meanwhile, some salient factors would determine who emerges victorious at the end of the day. Each candidate is expected to show some strength in his local government as they come from Ohaozara, Afikpo South, Onicha and Afikpo North.
Of the five local government areas, only Ohaozara where Umahi hails from, and Okorie’s LGA, Onicha, are yet to produce a senator for the zone since 1999.
In 1999, Ivo local government area started the representation with Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, who later became President of the Senate. It moved to Afikpo North in 2003 with the election of Chief Emmanuel Azu Agboti; and in 2007, it went back to Ivo in the person of Senator Anyim Ude.
In 2011, Chief Sonnie Ogbuoji from Afikpo South was elected, and later re-elected in 2015. He remains the first person to be re-elected into the Senate from the zone. The seat was however, retained in the local government in 2019 but by another person, Chief Michael Ama Nnachi. It is worthy to note that all of them were seamlessly elected under the platform of the PDP.
The 2023 race passes for an epic battle with stakeholders and leaders of the zone who were hitherto in PDP now scattered in other political parties especially the APC, LP and APGA. Besides, Umahi, whose second tenure ends in May next year, is poised to break a record to become not only the first Senator from Ohaozara local government area, but also the first governor of the state to move from Government House to the red chambers.
One of his predecessors, Sam Egwu, who is now in the Senate, did so eight years after leaving office.
But the governor will prepare to contend with the immediate past lawmaker for Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo Federal Constituency, Linus Okorie (LP), the incumbent, Micheal Ama Nnachi (PDP) and Ifeanyi Eleje of the APGA.
On their prospects, Umahi as a sitting Governor with undeniable evidence of performance and support base and structure, is the man to beat. And coming from Ohaozara, one of the two LGAs yet to produce senator for the zone, Umahi stands strong as a leading candidate for the race.
For Okorie, widely seen as another major contender, apart from having a strong and reliable political structure in Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo political bloc of the zone, the LP candidate hopes to benefit from the burgeoning support movement for the party because of its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi.
And for holding the PDP ticket, and being a serving senator, Nnachi appears confident that it will end as usual where PDP had always won.
Then, Eleje believes that he would pocket his Afikpo North LGA and stretch out to other communities in the zone, including Ohaozara where the APGA deputy governorship candidate, Dr. Nkata Chuku, hails from to grab votes.
The way things are, everybody is hoping to grab his LGA. In all, the race promises to be a titanic one, and whoever finally wins may have done so at a very heavy cost.