This Government is a Fraud!

At the moment, Josef Umunnakwe Onoh, former member of Enugu State House of Assembly and second son of late Chief C.C Onoh, former governor of old Anambra state, is in hiding.

The Onoh junior, recently, granted an explosive interview to a Nigerian daily, viciously attacking the government of Barrister Sullivan Chime in Enugu state. (Picture shows Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu state; Right is Hon. Josef Umunnakwe Onoh)

The late Chief C.C Onoh’s family has been on collision course with Chime government over allegations bordering on corruption and looting of the resources of Enugu people.

The Onohs nurse a deep seated animosity against the government of Chime for allegedly abandoning their father in death. And at the fore-front of the on-slaughts against the government is Josef who, in the talked-about interview, hauled multi-pronged allegations of corruption against the government.

“At the beginning, yes, I agreed that he (Chime) had great potentialities of a governor in the making but in the course of running his administration, the government was a fraud and I have decided to expose that same government because everything that is going on in that government is a fraud and the greatest kind of fraud is the one done under the act of deception”, Hon. Onoh thundered.
Part of the charges is that Chime government had concluded plans to collect N50 billion bonds from a commercial bank in Enugu, claiming that the government uses the bank to divert some money.

Onoh junior maintains that the government hides under road reconstruction in Enugu metropolis to loot the resources of the people, saying: ‘This is the first government I have seen that the public are cheering, while their hard earned money is being looted and they are still clapping for them to do more. It is robbery with applause from the masses.”

He, further, claims that the fraud, which is enormous, starts from fraudulent appointments involving allocation of vehicles at outrageous costs to the appointees. He accuses Governor Chime of carefree attitude in the running of the state, alleging that, two years after, Chime is yet to inspect projects being executed by his government.

The former legislator, particularly, takes the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo, to the cleaners, accusing her of having hijacked the government, thereby reducing Governor Chime to a puppet.

Onoh alleges that Mrs. Nwobodo scrutinizes every contract to be awarded in the state, with a view to enriching herself and members of her family. Part of his claim is that incumbent local government chairmen in the state have been chasing the Chief of Staff with money so as to facilitate their second term bids. Enugu state’s local government election would hold on December 5 this year.
The Chief of Staff, Hon. Onoh also alleges, is too overbearing in government, and goes about with about six mobile policemen in contrast to the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Martin Ilo, who has only two.

“On the purchase of environmental trucks, nobody has given any account, yet everybody was clapping and at the end of the day, she (Mrs. Nwobodo) purchased these poorly built waste bins that cannot even carry a weight of two complexes and up till today no account has been rendered to members of the public that pay taxes”, Onoh charged.

The erstwhile state legislator threatens that he would, using incriminating documents in his possession, send Governor Chime to prison- “I can assure you that I will send Sullivan to jail…I have incriminating documents, which will shake the foundation of this government. I am, also, writing a book where all the frauds will be documented and these are documents I will submit to EFCC”.

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the outbursts of Josef against Chime government. Mrs. Nwobodo has, in particular, slammed a one billion naira suit on Hon. Onoh for libel and defamation. Mrs. Nwobodo, to this effect, issued a seven-day ultimatum to Josef to retract all the allegations he levied against her. The N1 billion she is claiming is for damages.

Writing through her lawyer, P.M.B Onyia Esq, Mrs. Nwobodo alleges that the comments made by Onoh had severely injured her reputation and exposed her to ‘grave embarrassment, odium, contempt and ridicule’ in the eyes of the public. She thus demanded a full paged apology from Onoh retracting the false and disparaging statements against her.

The young Onoh is believed to have slipped into hiding in order to evade a possible disastrous consequence of the controversial interview, such as the impending service of the libel suit on him. While his mobile telephones were not going as at press time, his whereabouts remain unknown.

But how long would the Onoh junior remain in hiding?