•Okorocha, APC blackmailing judiciary, PDP alleges
By Rotimi Akinwumi (Abuja) and Emmanuel Nzomiwu (Enugu)
Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State
Two rival parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), are now locked in a fierce battle for the support of the Presidency in the build up to the November 16 Anambra State governorship election.
Daily Independent gathered at the weekend that the latest development was prompted by last week's judgment of the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt which restored Tony Nwoye as candidate of the PDP for the poll.
Nwoye and the APGA governorship candidate, Willy Obiano, are from the same Anambra East Local Government area in the Anambra North Senatorial District.
Before the court declaration of Nwoye as the PDP candidate, APGA had been hoping on securing a block vote from Anambra North Senatorial District, but the whole scenario has changed since the judgment of the court.
The APGA camp is now said to be afraid that with two other seemingly serious candidates – Ifeanyi Uba of (Labour Party) and Ezeemo of Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) – coming from Anambra South, Nwoye and Obiano coming from Anambra North, the coast was being cleared for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Chris Ngige, who has appeared to be the most popular candidate in the governorship race.
An informed source disclosed to Daily Independent that Governor Peter Obi's pilgrimage to Jerusalem with President Goodluck Jonathan and other Governors, with the election about three weeks away depicts his desperation to woo the President to APGA's side.
But the PDP camp in the state is not also resting on its oars.
It was said to be mounting pressure on the President through the National Chairman of the party, Bamangar Tukur, to ensure that Nwoye gets the President's support.
Signs that the PDP may be making an inroad into the President's heart emerged on Friday when Nwoye's major financial backer, Arthur Eze, a close ally of Jonathan, returned to Enugu on Friday to a tumultuous reception, organised by members of Anambra PDP.
The return of Eze caused anxiety in the camp of the ruling APGA.
Some APGA chieftains who pleaded anonymity wondered why Obi, a man whose house was on fire, should embark on pilgrimage with the President at the this time.
One of our sources said the APGA campaign has been suffering so much with the Campaign Director of Obiano, J.J Martins Uzodike, doing all the talking with virtually nothing to show for it.
The source disclosed that Martins, who hails from Idemili North Local Government with Ngige, was appointed to lead the campaign, not because of strategic reasons but as compensation for the consistent manner he attacked APGA National Chairman, Victor Umeh, in the media during the crisis.
It was further gathered that the appointment of the Information Commissioner as Campaign Director was to keep the National Chairman at bay.
Another APGA chieftain who also pleaded anonymity said it was worrisome that less than three weeks to the election, nobody has sighted any of the campaign materials anywhere in Anambra State.
"As I speak with you, we have not seen Obiano's T-shirts or caps, but our campaign directors are busy marketing Ngige who does not need anybody to market him while our own candidate who needs marketing is not being marketed.
"And we all know the antecedents of our politicians, and tomorrow if Ngige wins, we will see them going to him and telling him that he is their brother, so that they will be re-appointed into government," one of the party sources said.
Meanwhile, PDP has accused Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, and the APC blackmailing Justices of the Supreme Court as it prepares to deliver judgement in the contest for the seat occupied by the Governor.
The PDP at the weekend said accusation by Okorocha that President Goodluck Jonathan was influencing the Supreme Court Justices as the apex court gets set to make its final pronouncement on the Imo State governorship seat, was a strategy to whip up sentiments.
The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said the accusations of undue interference in the activities of the judiciary by the Governor was a test run of the mindset of the APC as the 2015 elections draw near.
The alleged negative comments on the integrity of the Supreme Court Justices by Okorocha, the PDP said, was an attempt "to hoodwink the Supreme Court and divert its attention from the substance of the case ahead of October 31, 2013 ruling on his unlawful emergence as Governor of Imo State."
The statement said Okorocha "has always been jittery that justice will prevail against him at the Supreme Court for stealing the people's mandate in 2011, hence his recent deployment of blackmail and attacks on the judiciary and the Presidency ahead of the apex court's ruling on the case.
"The PDP and indeed all Nigerians have noted the on-going antics of Governor Rochas Okorocha and the APC wherein they have been issuing threats, sponsoring fabricated stories in the media and organising phantom protests against the office and person of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Supreme Court.
"This Governor has been living in morbid fear of having justice prevailing against him at the Supreme Court for stealing the mandate of the people in 2011.
"As such, he now seeks to use the instrumentality of blackmail and political subterfuge to divert the attention of the Supreme Court from the substance of the case against him ahead of the apex court's ruling on October 31, 2013.
"By sponsoring fabricated reports in the media alleging that the Presidency was influencing the Supreme Court to remove him from office, Governor Okorocha is merely trying to whip up sentiments to ultimately sway the Supreme Court by portraying himself as a victim of attack by the Presidency," the party added.
