OGBEH KEPT AS PDP CHAIRMAN, NGIGE AND UBA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 000014 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2014 TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM NI SUBJECT: OGBEH KEPT AS PDP CHAIRMAN, NGIGE AND UBA SUSPENDED, NO RESOLUTION TO ANAMBRA VIOLENCE REF: A. ABUJA 2075 AND PREVIOUS ¶B. LAGOS 2592 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Tom Furey for Reasons 1.4 (D). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: President Obasanjo's effort (Ref A) to fire the ruling PDP's National Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, failed at least temporarily January 4 with the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) keeping Ogbeh, an ally of VP Atiku, but suspending Governor Chris Ngige and his self-styled godfather Chris Uba for one month over their role in the protracted Anambra crisis. A 9-man committee headed by PDP Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State was set up to investigate the crisis and report back to the party within 14 days. The NEC meeting was set up as a test of wills between proxies for President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku, but the two worked out a solution before the meeting. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (U) The anticipated face-off between President Obasanjo and PDP National Chairman Audu Ogbeh reached an anti-climactic conclusion yesterday as the ruling People's Democratic Party's (PDP) National Executive Committee (NEC) met without addressing the issue. The duo surprised party members and reporters when they arrived at the venue of the meeting in the President's vehicle and immediately departed together at the end of the meeting for a private lunch at Ogbeh's residence. No mention was made of whether Ogbeh would continue as the PDP National Chairman. ¶3. (SBU) When the meeting convened, a delegate from Imo State raised the reported corruption charges against Ogbeh and the party's NEC, but President Obasanjo cut him short, maintaining that the matter "has been settled." Farouk B.B. Farouk, a member of the NEC commented to us that it appeared Ogbeh would remain as party chairman until the 2005 PDP convention in December, when a new executive is expected to be elected. ¶4. (U) Instead, the NEC members were surprised to learn that the issue would be the fate of the PDP members embroiled in the ongoing Anambra crisis. PDP Publicity Secretary Venatius Ikem told reporters that Ogbeh had never been on the agenda. Rather he said, "We had one agenda at the meeting and it was on the Anambra state crisis. As a step towards resolving the crisis, NEC resolved that the two principal (Anambra PDP) actors, Governor Chris Ngige and Chris Uba, be suspended from the party for 30 days." ¶5. (U) Additionally, a 9-man committee headed by Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun State was set up to investigate the crisis and report back to the party within 14 days. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) also was asked to submit a report on the Anambra State gubernatorial elections to the committee. ¶6. (SBU) The meeting was really a test of wills between the PDP's two biggest public figures, the President and his Vice President. Farouk told us that "the two opposing camps have stockpiled their arsenals and were ready for a showdown when we received the news that a compromise has been reached." Only then was the Anambra crisis introduced, he said." ¶7. (SBU) Acting as Atiku's cat's-paw, Ogbeh was able to gain the support of a majority of the PDP governors and reached out to other interest groups within the party opposed to President Obasanjo, including Dr. Alex Ekwueme (the man who twice challenged Obasanjo in the PDP presidential primaries leading to previous elections),Abubakar Rimi (former Presidential aspirant and Governor of Kano state) and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Ghali Na'abba. Along with the NEC, Ogbeh appealed to the assembled members and convinced them that collectively rebuffing Obasanjo's attack would serve their interests. "All of you here hold party positions now. However, if you allow Obasanjo to use you to remove us from office, you may lose those positions, too," Ogbeh reportedly told his colleagues during a private meeting. ¶8. (SBU) Farouk said that Atiku held private talks with Obasanjo over the impasse and advised him against removing Ogbeh at this critical period when the nation is faced with other crises. He argued that Ogbeh's ouster would further divide the party's rank and file and endanger the PDP's survival. Sources said Vice President Atiku, some state governors, and President's Chief of Staff, General Abdullahi Mohammed were involved in brokering the truce. ¶9. (C) According to sources, President Obasanjo decided to shelve the planned sacking of Ogbeh and his executive committee when he learned that Ogbeh had more supporters within the National Working Committee (NWC) than Obasanjo's men initially thought. On their pointing out that Ogbeh's tenure would be up at the end of the year, President Obasanjo relented. ¶10. (C) Another source said that Obasanjo retreated after being advised that his insistence on Ogbeh's removal might snowball into another "political embarrassment" for him. Obasanjo's associates were concerned that Ogbeh's supporters would attempt to "disgrace" the President at the meeting and if he was unsuccessful in removing the party chairman, Obasanjo's prestige, status and ego would be damaged. ¶11. (C) COMMENT: Although the ruling PDP has now set up a committee to investigate the Anambra crisis, that is not quite the same thing as arresting/prosecuting the perpetrators of the past months' political violence there -- let alone dealing with the PDP's rigging of the 2003 gubernatorial election that all there now admit. APGA's candidate was the putative winner (Ref B). It is also curious that the ruling PDP is asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to report to the party, not the courts, on the 2003 gubernatorial election in Anambra. INEC is a defendant with Ngige in APGA's court case against that election, and has vigorously argued in defense of all its 2003 elections. FUREY