PDP Chairmanship: Jonathan In Crucial Meeting With South-East Govs

Written by Lanre Adewole, Abuja Saturday, 05 June 2010

President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday night held a crucial and possibly the final meeting with the three South-East governors and some party elders from the zone on the choice of successor to erstwhile National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, and this is authoritative.

The governors at the meeting were said to be Sullivan Chime of Enugu State, Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State and Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State.

The meeting, which took place at the Presidential Villa, Aso Rock, Abuja, reportedly started at about 9.00 p.m.

Ogbulafor had resigned over the alleged N238 million scam case brought against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), with the South-East zone where he hails being asked by the party leadership to produce his successor.

Sources close to the meeting disclosed to the Saturday Tribune that the meeting deliberated on who would be the choice of the zone between the former national vice-chairman (South-East) of the party, Mr. Fidelis Ozichukwu and a former national secretary of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo.

It was gathered that the job had been narrowed to the two, with Nwodo said to be the choice of the Governors’ Forum and front-runner who reportedly had a dip in his fortune after the National Identity Card scam involving him and former Internal Affairs Minister, late Chief S.M. Afolabi, and which became an issue among the stakeholders.

The dip in the fortune of Nwodo, according to sources close to the meeting, had enhanced the chances of Ozichukwu who was said to have been having the support of former President Olusegun Obasanjo until lately when the alleged infractions in the handling of Anambra’s political debacle during the supremacy contest between former Governor Chris Ngige and his estranged godfather, Chris Uba, were made known to the former president.

Saturday Tribune can reliably reveal that the Obasanjo’s camp had not totally dumped Ozichukwu, with a source saying that “they decided to go for the lesser of the two devils,” adding that Ozichukwu succeeded in retaining the confidence of the camp after “Baba was persuaded to back him all the way, with a promise that he would not be found wanting.”

Apart from the ID card scam issue, the alleged instability in the politics of Nwodo, who was accused of jumping from political parties in search of relevance after being reportedly kicked out as the scribe of the ruling party following his indictment in the ID card scam was said to have been cited.

Though he was not convicted for the scam, with the trial losing steam after Afolabi’s death, the stakeholders were said to have argued that it would not augur well for the party to choose another person with corruption case controversy hanging on his neck, when the person he would be succeeding, also bowed out unceremoniously over alleged corruption case.

The stakeholders also reportedly pointed to his tenure as the party’s secretary which was said to have been blighted by allegations of corruption in the handling of the party’s finances, culminating in his alleged indictment for corruption by the ICPC which accused him of participating in the bribery scandal that rocked the National ID card project.

They further contended that with Ogbulafor’s case and another one involving the acting national chairman of the party, Dr. Haliru Mohammed Bello, who had been fingered in the alleged Siemens bribery scam, it would be better for the party to go for somebody with a better record and make a clean break from the rotten past.

It was gathered that with the presidency’s shift in support, it might have to get the Governors’ Forum to back Ozichukwu, while Nwodo might be compensated with a board appointment.

President Jonathan is said to have been more concerned about the integrity of Ogbulafor’s successor, reportedly insisting on someone without any skeleton in his cupboard.