In this report, Alphonsus Agborh examines the intrigues trailing the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC)’s role on the dissolution of some state PDP executives committee.

The issue of the dissolution of the executive committees of some state chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dominated the political arena in recent times. The controversy trailing the purported non-recognition by the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) of the affected executives has also been a source of concern to different persons or groups of interested parties.

The states, where the executives are under contention, include Delta, Bayelsa, Enugu, Abia, Ogun and Imo states. So, it is not news that some of the PDP’s State Executive Committees (SEC) came to office in 2008, amidst protests in some states. But for others, results were accepted because it was glaring that nothing appeared to be hidden.

It was obvious that during the conduct of the elections, officials of the INEC were present observers. The INEC had kept mute on the issue until recently, when it continues to insist that its position on the affected states remained unchanged. But this does not come as a surprise because its chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, has been described as a man of rules.

“It is not as if the INEC has the powers to dissolve state executives of political parties, you must get this right. What the INEC insists on is that the various laws and constitutional provisions guiding the conduct of party primaries must be followed. “Anything short of that is illegal and remains so until the right thing is done,” Mr Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman,  declared recently.

The PDP, whose executives in most of the states seemed to be in the murky waters, on its part, berated the INEC saying it does not have the power to dictate to parties on their internal affairs. The party was obsessed with the idea that the INEC was meddling into its internal matters, stating that the role of the commission is merely observatory, just as it ought not to declare such states illegal.

There appears to be confusion in the party and that is why some states have gone to court to stop any action meant to dissolve their executives, while others are moving fast to get order of the court to dissolve the existing executives.

In Delta State, the centre cannot hold anymore. An elderstates man, Chief Edwin Clark, suddenly made a U-turn over the election of the Barrister Peter Nwaoboshi-led executives of the party.

Before the election took place in the open at the Cenotaph, Asaba, the lines between the E.K Clark-led faction of the PDP and that of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, which germinated from the Chief James Ibori camp, was thick. The foremost Ijaw leader had always been a critic of the administration of former Governor Ibori, but with time, the lines became thinner and there appeared to be a sort of mutual understanding as regards the election of party executives at that time.

Nevertheless, the two groups agreed to work together after Governor Uduaghan reached out to all the stakeholders of the party. It was that agreement that produced Barrister  Nwaoboshi, who later emerged as the state chairman. In fact, he was said to have emerged from a coalition between the Clark and Dr. (Mrs) Marian Alli camps.

Governor Uduaghan was believed to have conceded the chairmanship position to the coalition as a way of resolving the impasse in the party then.

Soon after the election, Nwaoboshi changed gears and remained resolute to work for the interest of the party. He was said to have repented and resolved that the only way to forge ahead is to work with his former ace opposition, Governor Uduaghan, so as to maintain peace and understanding towards the development of the party. To him, the PDP was sacrosanct.

However, it was when Clark saw the turn out of events that he raised another dust by taking the matter to the INEC office in Abuja, seeking the dissolution of the state party executives on the ground that the members were not properly put place.

While Clark filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Asaba and the matter was receiving attention, chairman of the party in the state, Nwaoboshi had obtained an order of the Federal High Court, Abuja, restraining the INEC from investigating and/or calling for dissolution of the executive committee of the party in the state.

The presiding judge, Justice Abdu Kafarati, ruled on the exparte motion filed by Nwaoboshi and the Secretary of the SEC, Chief Solomon Ogba, that the INEC should not prevent the executives committee from performing their functions.

Also, the court banned the INEC from refusing to accept and recognise candidates to be sponsored and or nominated from Delta State as a result actions and decisions of the state executive committee of the PDP.

But the question is, does the INEC have the judicial or any other constitutional power, apart from its observatory role, as regards the internal matters of political parties?

Though there appeared to be some new twists to the PDP crises, as both camps are already thinking towards one direction to forge ahead, it is the expectation of the public that the executives, as presently constituted, be poised to rules and committed to the forthcoming primaries of the party.

If the recent visit of Chief Clark to the president towards seeking the way forward on the Delta and Bayelsa PDP crises is anything to go by, there is the need to allow the status quo to remain for peace to reign.

President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have, in the case of Delta State, merely referred the team to the national chairman of the party, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, who himself displayed a non- committal posture on the issue, while he specifically told the delegates from Bayelsa State to go home and work with Governor Timipre Sylva. The implication of this is that everybody is trying to be careful not to rough up still waters.

The self-acclaimed largest party in Africa, the PDP, is already losing some states as a result of court actions. While many of its staunch members have insisted that the party is determined to consolidate its grip on the political affairs of the nation, the hullabaloo of the SEC dissolution could, however, spell doom, if not properly handled.

Some political watchers of event have equally insisted that the party can only forge ahead if only the warring factions should sheath their sword and allow peace to reign. But if individual interests continues to prevail, the future of the party, especially during the 2011 elections, may record an unprecedented bleakness.