Ogbulafor’s son, Ambassador Ugokwe in Guber ticket deal

Vincent Ogbulafor, PDP National Chairman

As haze mounts on the political firmament in Anambra State over whether governorship elections would or would not hold in February 2010, indications have emerged that scion of the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) national chairman, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, Obioma, has positioned himself to decide who gets the PDP governorship ticket in the state.

The Supreme Court had set April 20 for judgment on a suit brought before it by Dr. Andy Uba, asking the court to determine the propriety of Mr. Peter Obi continuing as governor of Anambra State, when, according to Uba, the suit on which the court relied upon to remove him from office for Obi to continue, was fundamentally defective.

But while the political gladiators in Anambra State await the legal ding dong in the Supreme Court, light-skinned Obioma has reportedly entered into a deal to deliver the Anambra PDP governorship ticket to the Nigerian ambassador to Austria, Hon. Jerry Ugokwe, who, in return, is to secure for Ogbulafor’s son, the Nigerian dealership of a choice Austrian wine.

Sources close to the brawny Obioma told Pointblanknews.com that the chairman’s son, whose society wedding last April caused a stir in political circles, is not allowing the fact that he is from Abia, and not Anambra State, get in the way of his determining who emerges the Anambra State governor next year.

According to these sources, Obioma has, since the beginning of the year, been consorting key political figures interested in the Anambra governorship race on the PDP platform, before finally settling for Ugokwe.

Ugokwe, who has flooded Anambra State with his campaign posters, has made two major attempts to govern the state. It was the emergence of Andy Uba in 2007 that reportedly made him subsume his guber ambition for the third time, for a senate seat, before Senator Annie Okonkwo bludgeoned him politically. Thereafter, Andy Uba helped secure his current ambassadorial posting to Vienna.

“Yes, Obioma met with Honorable Ugokwe. As a young man who has cut his teeth in business, Obi (Obioma) came with a proposal for Ambassador Ugokwe to help him secure a Nigerian dealership from one of the leading Austrian winemakers. In exchange, Ugokwe gets the Anambra PDP ticket,” the source told Pointblanknews.com, gloating, “This is politics, where there are no permanent friends but interests.”

The source explained that Obioma’s was encouraged to demand an Austrian wine dealership from Ugokwe following the result of their inquiries which indicated that Austria, apart from being the 17 th largest wine producer in the world, is home to Riedel, makers of the finest wineglasses.

“Even though we would have preferred Ambassador Ugokwe to help us out in OPEC, Vienna, we were made to understand that he has no say as far as Papa Rilwanu Lukman, the petroleum minister, is concerned,” added the source.

Ugokwe, a two-term member of the House of Representatives, represented Idemili north/south federal constituency, and supported the third term bid of former President Obasanjo. A trained Architect, Ugokwe, who is fluent in Hausa, has a Doctorate Degree in Public Housing Policy and Implementation.

The envoy, who threw an elaborate bash on his father’s 70 th birthday, recently, used the occasion to subtly dust up his governorship campaign. Curiously, his campaign posters bear no party logo, suggesting he may ditch PDP whenever it becomes convenient to do so.

But interestingly, Ugokwe may have to contend with politicians from the Idemili axis, who begrudge him for allegedly shortchanging them when he served as a lawmaker.

Ugokwe was alleged to have exploited his closeness to Uba and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, to starve members of the Anambra State chapter of the now rested Obasanjo Solidarity Forum (OSF) of funding from Abuja.

“We hear Sunny (Ugokwe) is running for governor. Those of us he shortchanged in OSF are patiently waiting for him. He must, first, pay up all the money budgeted for us before embarking on such wild goose chase,” a former OSF chieftain declared.

Ugokwe’s nomination as minister had generated ripples in the Senate, causing the three Senators Joy Emordi, Ikechukwu Obiora and Annie Okonkwo, to fire a petition to President Umaru Musa Yar’aAdua, seeking the president’s withdrawal of the nomination.

Among Ugokwe’s “sins,” the senators penned, was that the former lawmaker allegedly made a mockery of the Nigerian judicial process by “appealing” to the ECOWAS court after the Court of Appeal, the final arbiter in electoral matters for members of the National Assembly, passed judgment asking Ugokwe to vacate his seat in the National Assembly.

Following the intervention of prominent political and traditional rulers from Anambra State, Ugokwe was later confirmed a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.