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A few politicians who defeated incumbents in the just-concluded
primaries of the People’s Democratic Party might not have had the last laugh
yet, as the battle for who represents the party in April’s general election
remains open according to sources within the party.

NEXT investigations reveal that following the removal of
Okwesilieze Nwodo as the chairman of the PDP, the new leadership of the party
plan to use a two-pronged approach to prevail on some candidates to drop their
ambitions in favour of a certain line up of contestants who hitherto failed at
the primaries.

The plan includes capitalising on some petty larcenies at the
primaries and utilising a window in the 2010 Electoral Act that gives the
opportunity to replace candidates either by death or voluntary withdrawal.

The Electoral Act gives parties up to February 14 to withdraw
and replace contestants under section 35(1) of Electoral Act, 2010, an
opportunity the party plans to utilise either by persuading or coercing
unwanted contestants to back out. The Electoral Act demands that candidates can
withdraw voluntarily or be replaced if they die before the deadline.

A couple of senators and House of Representatives members could
be the intended beneficiaries of this plan, which is already causing rancour
amongst party members. Some of the lawmakers likely to benefit from the plan
include senate spokesman, Ayogu Eze, whose ticket was initially sacrificed for
the truce between Sullivan Chime, the Enugu state governor and Mr. Nwodo.

Mr. Eze recently said that it was preposterous at this point to
conclude that any candidate has won or lost because the nomination process of
candidates in the parties is still ongoing, till January 31, 2011. The
Independent National Electoral Commission fixed January 31 as the deadline for
parties to submit the list of candidates they intended to sponsor for the
forthcoming general election.

“Until that list is submitted, no candidate is assured of
victory,” an official of the party said.

Fighting for his right

Other planned beneficiaries of the plot include the Senator
Teslim Folarin from Oyo state and Annie Okonkwo of the Anambra Central
senatorial district, who was initially reported to have lost the election to
Chudi Offodile, a former House of Representatives member who was earlier
declared winner based on a parallel congress result.

Dino Melaye and his main antagonist in the House, Eseme Eyibo,
the chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs,
would also benefit from the scheme.

While Mr. Melaye lost to Shaba Ibrahim, Mr. Eyibo lost to Bassey
Dan Abia. Mr. Melaye is said to have been favoured by the new scheme after
officials recounted the votes and found some previously invalidated votes
bearing inscriptions like “Duno,” which is thought to be intended for him.

He had petitioned the National Working Committee of the party
over the irregularities of the primaries claiming that a fake delegates list
was used for the election, instead of the one certified by the PDP National
Secretariat.

“If the votes are ascribed to me as I contend they should, it
will change the result,” he said. Mr. Abia, who will likely lose his ticket to
Mr. Eyibo, on Tuesday vowed to defend his mandate after receiving the
intelligence about the plan.

“I can and will never surrender the ticket that was massively given to me by
the people of Eket Federal Constituency,” Mr. Abia said.