Kogi East: The battle for Igala/Bassa senatorial seat

THE Kogi East senatorial district is one that has been unfortunate when it comes to representation in the red chamber in the last four years. The district, populated by the Igala/Bassa extraction, has had about four people declared as the senators representing them either by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) or the various courts in the country.

After the 2015 general election, Abubakar Abdulrahman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared winner by INEC and subsequently issued the certificate of return. He has barely settled down for the business of law making before the Court of Appeal ruled that the primary election that was claimed to have produced him was fraudulent and was not conducted according to the provisions of the constitution and that of the regulations of the APC. The court ordered a fresh election in the district.

However, prior to that election, the primary election of the PDP in the area was also a subject of litigation between Senator Attai Aidoko and a former Chief of Air Staff, Issac Alfa (rtd). The party had presented the name of Aidoko to INEC for the 2015 election following which Alfa went to court to challenge the development and was able to secure a judgment in his favour. So when the rerun election that was ordered by the court was held and the result declared on July 24, 2016, INEC declared Alfa as the duly elected senator for Kogi East.

But the embattled Aidoko again proceeded to the court, where he prayed the court to declare him as the authentic candidate of the PDP and after the legal battle at the lower court, he was victorious and INEC issued him a certificate of return, which made him to be sworn in by the Senate president, Bukola Saraki.

Alfa, however, proceeded to the Court of Appeal to challenge the judgment of the lower court, the appellate court ruled in his favour and ordered a retrial of the matter by the lower court. The matter thereafter proceeded to the Supreme Court and the apex court upheld the ruling of the court of appeal and sent back the case to the Federal High Court for retrial.

On June 13 2018, the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Gabriel Kolawole, ruled that Alfa was the duly elected senator of Kogi East, having been lawfully elected at the primary of the PDP. With the development, Kogi east senatorial district has three senators in one term, with none of them being able to settle down to give the people quality representation for which they were elected.

Therefore, as the preparations for the 2019 election hot up, the major issue paramount to the people is how to have a senator that will be their genuine representative. They lamented that the last four years have been a waste as they were unable to have somebody to speak for them in the Senate because most of the time was spent by the candidates fighting legal battles.

Already, candidates of major political parties have emerged and are expected to crisscross the nine local government areas that make up the senatorial district canvassing for votes. But the emergence of some of the candidates was not with the hullabaloo associated with such exercise.

Aidoko again emerged as the candidate of the PDP, a former governorship aspirant of the PDP,  who later defected to the APC, Jubrin Isah, popularly known as Echocho, is the candidate of the ruling party, while a former banker and a former senatorial aspirant of the PDP, who later moved to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Victor Adoji, emerged as the candidate.

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One of the most controversial primaries in Kogi state was that of the PDP for Kogi East, where Aidoko was said to have emerged. Contestants for the ticket, including Adoji, had already bought forms and were expecting the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to send representatives to conduct the primary election. The aspirants and delegates were said to have converged on Idah, the venue of the primary and stayed till midnight without seeing any official and electoral materials.

It was, however, later gathered that Aidoko was one of the sitting lawmakers of the PDP that were granted automatic ticket to contest the 2019 election. The development led to outrage among leaders and members of the party, who vehemently rejected the arrangement. The two former governors of the state from the district, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris and Capt Idris Wada, were said not to be at home with the decision to give an automatic ticket to Aidoko.

Although, Aidoko presently has the ticket of the PDP in his kitty, the belief among stakeholders is that it will be difficult for him to win for a third term in the red chamber. Many of the continents believed that he had not adequately represented them in the last eight years and therefore there is the need for a fresh breath from the area.

The controversies over the emergence of Aidoko led to the defection of Adoji and some other leaders of the PDP to the ADC, who later gave him the ticket to contest the senatorial election. Unconfirmed reports had it that notable leaders of the PDP in the senatorial district supported Adoji’s defection to the ADC and were already mobilising their supporters for him with understanding that he would return to the PDP after he might have won the election.

The entrance of Adoji into the ADC has however made the party more popular and formidable in the eastern senatorial district of the state.

His major strength lies in the people of the district that are said to be clamouring for change because of the experience of the last four years. But his albatross may be the platform on which he is contesting as the party is relatively unknown to the people of the district, particularly those in the rural areas.

Also, the candidate of the APC contested the primary election with some aspirants, among whom was a younger brother of the late former governor of the state, Yahaya Audu.

Jubrin Isah, a former executive director of  Afribank Plc, was no doubt the candidate of the state government and his emergence was predictable  as virtually all machinery of the state worked for him.

Isah scored 2, 469 votes to defeat his arch-rival, Audu who polled 308 votes. It would be recalled that the late Abubakar Audu, who was the leader of the APC in the state had, towards the 2015 election, dangled the same senatorial ticket before Isah for him to defect from the PDP. But he rejected the offer, preferring to contest the governorship ticket of the PDP with the immediate  past governor, Wada. He lost the primary to Wada and joined the APC immediately.

Echocho, as he is fondly called in the state is a household name in Kogi East, having been in political limelight since the 2011 governorship election in the state. He is also said to have helped many Igala people while he was in the banking industry. Another major factor that may work for him is the presence of the Chief of Staff (COS) to the governor, Edward Onoja, in the senatorial district. Onoja, who is believed to be the chief strategist of the administration had always been in the fore front of the desire for Echocho’s emergence as the senator from the district.

But the APC’s candidate will have to contend with the perception of the people about the present administration and the party in the senatorial district. Many people from the area, particularly those that worked for the victory of APC and Audu in the last governorship election are still aggrieved over the turn of events in the party since the demise of Audu.

A new twist was, however, introduced to the contest when the elders’ council from the zone put in place machinery to analyse the candidates and come up with a consensus among them. The council set up a political sub-committee to interact with the senatorial candidates after which it adopted Adoji as the acceptable among the candidates.

The eleven-man committee, headed by Professor Sunday Opanachi, according to the council, was put in place to facilitate a “viable and smooth political transition and development in the zone.”

The committee said it interacted with the candidates with a view to know their motivations for seeking the senatorial seat, their vision,  mission and development agenda.

“Candidates were specifically asked to identify what they considered the greatest developmental needs of Kogi east and proffer solutions. Indeed, they were asked to tell the committee their individual contributions so far to the socio-political, economic, cultural and other developmental needs of the Igala/Bassa people and land.

“The issue of vulnerability to legal and other harassment also attracted the attention of the  committee. The committee sought to know how each person emerged as the candidate of their respective parties. This was to evaluate the degree of their vulnerability to legal actions capable of bogging down the eventual winner to the neglect of the people and their aspirations.

“The capacity to generate high-impact campaign, stem thuggery, hooliganism and violence also formed the subject of interaction with the candidates “, said the report.

The committee stated that the outcome of the interaction showed that Adoji scored 88.8 percent and was recommended for adoption as the Igala/Bassa senatorial candidate for the 2019 election.

The report said: “The committee found in him focused, dynamic, clear-headed and patriotic young man whose antecedent coupled with his vision will propel the Igala/Bassa people and land to heights that could be the envy of other in no distance future”.

Developments in the senatorial district, in the last few weeks, have shown that the election will be a three horse trade among the PDP, ADC and APC. The outcome will, however, be determined by the efforts put into the electioneering campaign by the parties to convince the people to vote for their candidates .