The erstwhile secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), Chief Ojo Maduekwe, has? warned his party to eschew the politics of handpicking candidates for various positions, instead of letting voters’ decision prevail.
The ex-minister of foreign affairs and a chieftain of the PDP, said that President Goodluck Jonathan’s efforts to sanitise the electoral sector can only succeed if free and fair choice of candidates becomes the norm.
Maduekwe spoke at the launch of two books written by the former Rivers State governor, Celestine Omehia, in Abuja yesterday.
The books; “A Right to be Wrong” with a foreword by frontline constitutional lawyer, Prof. Ben Nwabueze (SAN), and “Dismissal in Nigeria Labour Law” with a foreword by former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Muhammad Uwais, were about the events which led to the October 25, 2007 Supreme Court judgment that sacked Omehia as governor of Rivers State and declared Chibuike Amaechi, the serving governor, the authentic candidate of the PDP in the election.
Present at the event were former president Olusegun Obsanjo represented by Mr. Dotun Olaifa; President Goodluck Jonathan represented by the Attorner-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed B. Adoke (SAN); Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha represented by his Senior Assistant on MDGs, Charles Onuoha; Governorship candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Rivers State? and former transport minister, Abiye Sekibo; ACN governorship candidate in Kebbi, Kabiru Turaki (SAN); Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, Abdul-Waheed Omar;Ojo Maduekwe and others.
Maduekwe said that: “If the people decide to choose a rogue, let them pay the price, and let the people go to the poll next time and choose a better person”.
He also described Omehia’s experience as “an accident which should be compared with the controversial 2/3 judgment of the Second Republic.
“The judiciary wanted to poke their fingers in our eyes. What happened in Rivers ought to be a lesson,”he said.