By BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia

The stage is set. Tomorrow, Saturday 27, 2021, four political parties, namely, the Action Alliance (AA), All Peoples Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will go for the kill in the bye-election for Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency seat.

The seat became vacant following the death of Hon. Ossy Prestige on February 9, this year. Prestige had won the seat in 2019 which provided him the opportunity to represent the people of Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency for the second time, having won the seat in the 2015 general elections on the platform of APGA.

His unexpected death paved the way for tomorrow’s election, the seventh for the Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency since 1999. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had in late February, fixed March 27, 2021 for the poll.

The quartet that would be contesting for the coveted seat are: Okey Prestige (AA), Mascot Uzor Kalu (APC), Destiny Akaraka Nwagwu (APGA) and Chimaobi Ebisike (PDP).

Already, hustings by the political parties in their quest for victory in tomorrow’s poll have set Aba on high tension.

The palpable tension is understandable, given the unique position of Aba in the economy and polity of Abia State.

Aba is the commercial centre of Abia State. When Abia state was created in 1991, Aba was divided into two local government areas namely; Aba South and Aba North. Aba south is the main city centre and the heartbeat of Abia State, The two local governments are the capital of Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria, courtesy of the relentless efforts by the Okezie Ikpeazu administration. This explains the scramble for Aba. It is a cash cow.

In their individual standing, the candidates of the parties are popular in Aba. Destiny Akaraka Nwagwu’s popularity earned him the ticket of APGA, as he defeated his opponent, a sitting member of the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Obinna Ichita. If APGA still has the political muscle it has been wielding in Aba since the 2015 general elections, then destiny may coast home to victory while APC and PDP are busy quarrelling. However, there is a feeling that Nwagwu may be fronting for Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as both hail from Obingwa Local Government Area.

Okey Prestige, the AA candidate, is an American returnee and brother of the late Ossy Prestige. He may be seeking to replace his brother in the Lower Chamber of the National Assembly. There is the feeling that he may win sympathy votes that would sway victory to his side since the people of Aba loved his brother. However, since he is not running on the ticket of APGA, not many believe that he has the charisma to repeat his brother’s magical feats in the federal constituency.

Mascot Uzor Kalu was not prominent in political circles until his emergence as Chief of Staff to Governor Theodore Ahamefula Orji in 2007. He went into oblivion after his resignation from the CoS position and emerged in the political scene again in the run up to the Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency bye-election. He is popular and has his own followership. But he may ride to victory on the back of the popularity rating of his eldest brother, the Deputy Chief Whip and Senator representing Abia North, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu.

The Senate Chief Whip is personally leading Mascot’s campaign in Aba. Two reasons may account for this. As APC leader, his presence may attract other notable Abia APC bigwigs who may help to sway votes for the APC candidate. The second is that people from Abia North Senatorial Zone form a large chunk of the Aba population.

It may be to counter this move that the Abia State Deputy Governor, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu, also personally mounted his own campaign for the PDP candidate, during which he addressed different people from Abia North from various communities at separate venues.

However, there appear to be murmurings in Abia APC over Mascot’s candidacy. Many are accusing the Senator of accusing the Senator of imposing Mascot on the party as they allege that the APC primary that produced the party’s flag bearer in tomorrow’s election was anything but controversial. Reports say that Mascot was victorious in the primary with over 47, 000 votes but his opponents’ say there were no more than 500 party faithful that participated in the primary election.

Secondly, many APC faithful are protesting what they feel is an attempt by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu of trying to dominate the party. According to them it does not make for fairness for him to be the Senator for Abia North and his younger brother will occupy the House of Representatives seat for Aba North/Aba South.

They recalled that when the Senator was governor of Abia State, his immediate younger brother, Nnanna Uzor Kalu, represented Aba North/Aba South for two terms, elected first in 2003 on the platform of Alliance for Democracy. Residents of Aba adjudged him not to have done well as many allege that he did not even move a motion during his time. Many are contending that Aba would not want to slide into that eraof what they refer to as “deaf and dumb” representation again. However, the argument is that Mascot is different from Nnanna.

Chimaobi Ebisike is the immediate past Commissioner for General Duties in Abia State and the candidate of the ruling PDP. A former boss of Aba South local government area, he is a son-of-the-soil. The cry of the Aba la Ohazu man today in Aba is that an indigene be elected to represent them. For them, they have been standing by since the dawn of the current democratic experience in 1999. For them too, this is the time to end what they have termed “marginalization” in their own ancestral land. For them, Ebisike is it!

The fate of the indigenes of Aba’s may be predicated on the cosmopolitan nature of the commercial city where stranger elements have outnumbered indigenes.

Agitations by the indigenes to have one of their own occupy the Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency seat gathered momentum in 2018.

Coordinator of Aba North/Aba South Forum, Chief Chukwudi Dike then said: “No indigene of the two council areas has represented Aba federal constituency. We are determined to take our rightful place in the position that has eluded us for over 20 years now. We will join hands to ensure that an indigene of Aba North or Aba South is elected to represent Aba federal constituency in 2019. They (stranger elements) have taken what should be our right.” By the end of the general elections, the Abiriba-born Ossy Prestige punctured that dream.

This time around, they have equally come out in full force, hoisting the campaigns for Ebisike election on the flag of indigenous candidacy. They are appealing to the stranger elements to join hands with them to ensure Ebisike’s emergence.

Secondly, the PDP, which plans to reassert its authority in Aba, having lost four of the Aba federal House elections, is anchoring its campaigns on its performance in the business enclave.

Of late, the party has increased the tempo of its urban renewal efforts in Aba, coupled with the economic advancement programmes/policies of the government which have taken economic and commercial activities to new highs.

The Okezie Ikpeazu-led administration has been able to fix critical but dilapidated roads in Aba and is still continuing in that direction to the point that the APC is claiming that some of the road projects executed in Aba were done by the APC-led federal government.

The controversy generated by this claim, said to have been made by Senator Orji Kalu, has stirred and steeped the ongoing, high-tempo electioneering into deep controversy.

The controversy has dovetailed into accusations and counter accusations, particularly by APC and PDP, of plots to rig the election.

Few days ago, government spokesman, Chief John Okiyi Kalu, accused the opposition APC of importing and lodging hoodlums in a location in Aba. APC is also being accused of sewing fake army uniforms for its alleged thugs. The APC, on its part, said it has uncovered a plot by the PDP to rig tomorrow’s election. AA, on its part, has called on the federal government to withdraw operatives of the Counter terrorism Unit of the Police from Aba till the election was over.

The security situation in Aba has become very tensed, no thanks to the killing of about 11 youth by the army last Tuesday night. The army is claiming that those they routed were allegedly gunmen who came to attack them. The killing is coming on the heels of a claim by PDP that hoodlums have been imported into Aba by the opposition.

To take the election out of the shores of riggers, INEC should adopt the system it used in the Edo Governorship election where poll results were transmitted directly to the umpire’s server.

On PDP’s serial loss of Aba federal constituency’s elections in the past, infrastructural decay may have accounted largely for the party’s electoral misfortune in the area.

Now that Ikpeazu has revved up infrastructural rebirth in Aba, tomorrow’s election would be largely seen as a referendum on Ikpeazu’s infrastructural renewal. The question on the lips of many is: “Will the people of Enyimba city reciprocate Ikpeazu’s Aba urban renewal gesture.”