Following the outstanding performance of the Labour Party in Enugu in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, a number of bigwigs in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have abandoned their party.
They are moving to the Labour Party (LP) in droves together with their supporters.
“They are even seeking to contest the forthcoming Enugu East senatorial election next Saturday on the LP platform”, according to Professor Paul Nnamchi of the University of Nigeria Nsukka, who is also a visiting scholar and researcher at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT).
The Enugu East senatorial election is holding on Saturday because of the assassination of the LP candidate, Oyibo Chukwu, a former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) chairman in the state, on February 22 at Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu South Local Government Area on his way to Enugu City from a meeting at Agbani, headquarters of Nkanu West LGA.
Among the erstwhile PDP members running for the LP senatorial nomination are Dr Chinyeaka Ohaa, a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, and Emmanuel Uchenna Ogbodo, a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the outgoing Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, who lost his senatorial bid during the last National Assembly election to Okey Ezea of the Labour Party by a wide margin of 104,492 to 46,948 votes.
A third aspirant, Captain Evarest Nnaji, an aviation professional, is reported to have developed cold feet due to the Supreme Court judgement against him on February 22 in the suit he brought against Chief Chijioke Edoga’s nomination as the LP gubernatorial candidate in the state.
“The Labour Party is now not just a party but a movement”, declared the LP State Chairman, Chief Casmir Uchenna Agbo, a lawyer, to party supporters in Enugu after the party won the Presidential and National Assembly votes overwhelmingly.
But there are fears in some quarters that some of the LP joiners “may be seeking to reap where they did not sow”, as Professor Nnamchi, who was elected into the House of Representatives on the LP platform on February 22, told journalists.
“I have yet to see any evidence that Mr Ogbodo has resigned from the PDP or from office as Governor Ugwuanyi’s aide.”
Chijioke Ogbodo, a former Radio Nigeria broadcaster and now a communication consultant in Enugu, has said that “I have yet to know that Dr Ohaa is no longer with the PDP”.
Governor Ugwuanyi is frequently accused by opponents like Barrister Ugochukwu Agballa, the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Enugu State, of sponsoring persons in different political parties to destabilize them.
“But my main worry”, according to the famous broadcaster, “ is that both Dr Ohaa and Mr Ogbodo did not see eye to eye politically with Chief Oyibo Chukwu up to the point he was mowed down by political opponents, yet they want to benefit from his tragic end.
“Their ambitions raise grave ethical and political concerns”.
Professor Silk Ugwu-Ogbu, Dean of the Postgraduate School of the Pan-Atlantic University in Lagos who once ran for the Enugu East senatorial election, is of the opinion that the LP ticket for the zone should be given to any of the three brothers of the late Chief Chukwu whom he described as highly accomplished.
He named them as Professor Arthur Chukwu who is the head of the Department of Professional Ethics and Skills of the Nigerian Law School, Yola Campus in Adamawa State; Chief Lucky Chukwu, a lawyer, too, and former Commissioner for Science and Technology in Enugu State; as well as Sir Kevin Chukwu, a member of the Knights of St John International, lawyer and miner with business interests in Enugu and Ebonyi states who is highly respected for his humility, integrity and devotion to the public good.
Professors Nnamchi and Ugwu-Ogbu as well as Mr Chijioke argue that the popular sympathy is strong with the Chukwu family because of the callous manner their son was killed, together with his personal assistant, Sunday Igwesi, and their vehicle burnt.
Fielding any of the Chukwu brothers will enable the LP to win the senatorial vote more easily and by a wider margin, observes Professor Nnamchi who describes himself as being in the same trenches with “the late Oyibo Chukwu to save Enugu people from 24 years of PDP’s hegemony and destruction of the lives and assets of Enugu people”.
Professor Ugwu-Ogbu counsels the Labour Party in Enugu State and elsewhere to “be conscious of the judgement of history and remain an authentic vehicle for the Nigerian people at all times” by fielding the right candidates.
