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I stumbled on one online publication by Bola Owa titled ”Kogi West Senate, Karimi’s PDP, ADC Tickets and Desperation” who claims to be resident in Yagba Federal Constituency Kogi State. The submissions contained therein are not just totally false, they are desperate attempts by a paid attack dog of some unscrupulous politicians in Kogi State to justify injustice and their Machiavellian quest for power.
It is a further attempt by political sycophants to destroy the image of Hon. Karimi, a man who has at the expense of his selfish interest to take automatic ticket back into the House of Representatives, has in the spirit of fairness asked that all Aspirants for Elective offices in 2019 on the platform of PDP be subjected to Primary Elections.
Unfortunately for the writer and his sponsors Hon. Karimi Sunday remains a bonafide PDP member, without any intention to leave the Party for another.
Since we are in the days of the rush to purchase nomination forms writers of this defamatory post can verify whether Hon. Karimi Sunday has purchased any nomination form from ADC or any other Party at all.
Only last week, the sponsors of these article falsely alleged that the easy going Karimi was romancing APC for the Senatorial ticket of the Party. Upon realisation that their false stories about his romance with APC did no damage whatsoever to his daily growing political profile, have they now conjured this script that they have handed over to Bola Owa.
It is clear beyond crystal that we are in a democratic dispensation and the Rule of Law and not that of might, impunity or the zest for power without consideration for equity and fairness is sin qua non to democratic Rule.
It is no longer news that Democratic Dispensations are governed by the Constitution, in our case the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which has enshrined therein Fundamental Human Rights providing for the freedoms of man.
Political Parties and Elections in Nigeria are therefore governed by the Constitution, the Electoral Act and respective Constitutions of the Political Parties. Therefore, the issues of Primary Elections are governed by these laws. A Party cannot conduct its Primary Election or other internal party issues whimsically, it has to be done in consonance with its own Constitution, the Electoral Act and the Party’s Constitution.
In order to lay to rest the unnecessary hullabaloo about the forthcoming Primary Election in the Peoples Democratic Party, especially the Primary Election into seats in the National Assembly, it is important to recourse to the Law. There have been insinuations that the Party at the National Level entered an unholy and invisible Memorandum of Understanding with decampees from R-APC into the Party which gave the said decampees an automatic ticket in the Party. The question is where is this Agreement? Who signed it? on whose behalf? what was the legal basis for such an agreement? Does such an agreement not conflict with the Constitution, Electoral Act and PDP Constitution? If it does, can it be enforced just because some people in the National Working Committee woke up on the wrong side of the bed and signed the said agreement? Is the Agreement legally enforceable? isn’t it void ab initio? who are the beneficiaries of this agreement?
It is crystal clear that by virtue 228 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999(as amended), that the Constitutions and the Rules of a Political Party, including its laws on Primary Election, Party Congresses and Conventions shall ensure internal party democracy. Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010(as amended) also provides that a political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections shall hold primaries for the purpose of nominating candidates. Section 87(3) provides that Political Parties shall ensure that all aspirants are given equal opportunity of being voted for by members of the Party. The extant Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party, provides in Article7(g) that the party shall promote an egalitarian society founded on freedom, equality and justice.
The question now is, based on the ground norm of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, can the invisible MOU purportedly signed by the National Leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party be said to be valid in law? does it not contradict the Constitution of the Party? is it not null and void? All these answers are in the affirmative. The Memorandum of Understanding Purportedly signed to give automatic ticket to decampees or anybody at all is totally void ab initio.
No enlightened mind, including a National Assembly Member, a Lawmaker, would even attempt to sign an agreement that is void. I doubt whether that agreement in fact actually exist. in any case if it does it is void.
Assuming that the Agreement actually exists, how come the same Party is now selling Expression of Interest Forms and Nomination Forms to Aspirants for such offices? Is it a fraudulent fund raising exercise to lure them into a Primary? No, it is only an evidence that no such agreement exist and even if it does, the sale of Expression of Interest Forms or Nomination Forms by the Party has completely repudiated the unholy MOU on automatic ticket.
Who are the people behind this automatic ticket? persons who are perpetually scared of democratic institutions and contests. Persons who want impunity, injustice and imposition. Persons who left their Party alleging lack of internal Party democracy and now want to import the very thing they complained about into a great Party like the PDP. Why the Double Standard?
Based on empiricism, imposition leads to implosion, injustice and defeat at general elections. It is alleged that the Leader of the R-APC and Kingpin behind the automatic ticket is Senator Bukola Saraki, the question that comes to my mind is, why did he not ask for an automatic ticket for himself to be nominated as President candidate of the PDP being a seating Senate President? why has he decided to subject himself to Primary Election? in his home State, why is his Governor, Fatai Ahmed, contesting for Senate against Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, a serving Senator of Kwara State and a member of the R-APC that one would expect to benefit from the unholy MOU? It is therefore crystal clear that only those who are in the habit of stealing the peoples mandate are interested in automatic ticket in Kogi West Senatorial District and in Kogi State. I remember vividly how Senator Dino robbed the likes of Hon. Samuel Bamidele Aro and other Yagba Men of the APC ticket in 2014 by stealing the ballot materials meant for the Primaries, and how no Primary Election was conducted in 2014, thanks to connivance of INEC at the Election Petition Tribunal in 2015.
Morality and Law have a conflation, and this is seen in the Letters and Spirit of the extant Constitution of the Peoples Democratic Party. The Party provides in Article 7(c) thereof that the Party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of Party and Public Office in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness. The implication is that Zoning is a paramount consideration in the Party. Therefore speaking specifically for Kogi West Senatorial District, Ijumu Local Government and indeed Kabba/ Bunnu Federal Constituency cannot be seen to be agitating for Senate Position, same having being Zoned to Yagba and Kabba Bunu having enjoyed same for an unbroken period of 12Years, commencing from 2007 at the expense of Yagba Federal Constituency.
The MOU purportedly signed with Dino Melaye, an Ijumu man to give him automatic ticket to run for Senate clearly falls on its own head because it negates the Party’s Constitution again on this score. This is because all politics are local. A few National Working Committee Members cannot determine the intricacies of the Local Politics in Kogi West Senatorial District, especially that the Party’s Constitution embraces zoning.
The Will of the People should be allowed to prevail. In the past one week, the Chairman and Key members of the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party has been meeting with the Stakeholders of the Party in the Senatorial District, begging them to agree to give the Senatorial Ticket Automatically to Senator Dino Melaye and allow all Serving Federal Legislators to return without Primaries in the spirit of the ungodly invisible MOU. The Leaders in Lokoja/Kotonfare as well as in Kabba/Bunu have refused bluntly saying they stand by the Party Constitution, legality and Fairness and that the Party should conduct a Free and Fair Primary Election.
A meeting with the Yagba Federal Constituency stakeholders is now re-scheduled for Wednesday, 19th September 2018 and the outcome can be reasonably inferred, a blunt rejection of imposition and automatic ticket.
How can people who have remained steadfast in the Party and now aspiring for office be precluded from running because of a purported ungodly agreement. It is not just morally unjustifiable it is illegal and void. in my opinion it may rob the Peoples Democratic of the much awaited victory in 2019, we in Kogi West Senatorial District should learn from Benue State, where due to such undemocratic tendencies, Senator Gemade has decamped to SDP.
What then is the offence of Hon. Karimi Sunday, Rt. Hon. Clarence Olafemi, Alhaji Ganiyu Salaudeen and other aspirants vying for Elective Positions into various seats in Kogi State? Why has the Author earlier referenced, decided to disparage Hon. Karimi Sunday because he is simply asking the Party he belongs to adhere to the Laws of the Land. The answer is simple, the writer has been paid to do his work. The question is should he sacrifice the truth for paltry sums of money, I will leave that to his conscience.
In reactions to allegations that Hon. Karimi has collected the vehicle bought for Eric Fiki because the later has decided to follow his Party’s Unholy Agreement. I am sure Hon. Karimi would not respond to that, but I hope the said Eric Fiki has the decency and honour to tell the World that no such thing happened and that in fact no car was ever bought for him by Hon. Karimi not alone collect it back because of his political choices.
In sum the question is how does the exercise of the basic rights especially the right to franchise i. e a right to seek to be voted for through lawful means by Hon. Karimi Sunday become a show of desperation. Is it because Hon. Karimi is contesting against the writer sponsors? or cause he is seeking his peoples mandate lawfully?
– Ekundayo Makanjuola writes from Lokoja.
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