Onoh Junior: A Serial Criminal?

Josef Umunnakwe Onoh, one time member of Enugu State House of Assembly and second son of late Chief C.C Onoh, former governor of old Anambra State, is embroiled in certificate and fraud scandals.

Josef Ken Umunnakwe Onoh, former honorable member of Enugu State House of Assembly and second son of late Chief C.C Onoh, one time governor of old Anambra State, is in trouble over his alleged criminal past deeds. The legislator is, at the moment, undergoing prosecution for multiple forgeries, fraud and stealing.

Josef’s troubles began in the second week of this month when he was arrested by Enugu state police command in connection with a plethora of petitions accusing him of criminal activities.

One of such petitions, dated September 10, 2009, and signed by one Raymond Agu, accused Josef of securing admission into Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) in 1996 with a fake/forged result from Lorita School, London. The petition insisted that academic results being paraded by the young Onoh are ‘forged and need to be investigated to know whether they exist or not’.

Entitled: PETITION AGAINST ONOH, KEN JOSEF IN A CASE OF FORGERY, IMPERSONATION OF DIRECT ENTRY QUALIFYING RESULT TO ENUGU STATE UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (ESUT), ENUGU-LORITA SCHOOL, LONDON, the petitioner, equally, accused Josef of forging a birth certificate bearing 31 August, 1969. The petition contended that the legislator’s actual date of birth was 14 February, 1977, and not August 31, 1969.

“These forgeries”, Agu’s petition insisted, “helped him (Onoh, Ken Josef) to obtain an exemption certificate from NYSC, dated 9 July, 2000”.

Records available to this medium showed that Josef, with the alleged forged certificates, graduated from the Psychology Department of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) in the 2000/2001 academic session with a Third Class Honors Degree. And his Registration Number is listed as ESUT/96/12909.

Although the university’s management says it is still investigating the said Josef’s degree certificate, with a view to deciphering its veracity or otherwise, not a few of his traducers maintain that it was forged.

From the allegations, the young Onoh seems to have a knack for forgeries, as he stands similarly accused of having forged the certificate of Lorita School, London on the basis of which ESUT gave him a direct entry admission to study Psychology in the first instance. There are revelations that the Lorita School’s certificate belonged to his deceased elder brother.

Also, our checks at the Mother of Christ Specialist Hospital, Enugu proved Josef’s birth claims false, as records show that he was born on 14 February, 1977 as against 1969 he had claimed in his nomination form for the 2003 House of Assembly election.

The contention of Josef’s accusers is that he was under-aged as at 2003 when he contested and won the election to represent Enugu North Constituency in the state Assembly. Thus his real age then should have been 26 as opposed to his 30 year-old claim. What this means, therefore, is that Josef added four years to his real age just to qualify for that election. Of note is the fact that the Nigerian constitution and, of course, the electoral law, prescribes a minimum age of 30 for aspirants to the Houses of Assembly seats.

Even Josef’s West African Examinations Council (WAEC) Senior School Certificate result, dated December 1994, is not spared of the forgery controversies. The certificate, numbered NGSP 0.159092, contains seven results: English Language 8; Literature in English 7; Christian Religious Knowledge 6; Government 8; Economics 6; Biology 7 and Commerce 5.

Josef’s accusers allege that he, also, forged the WAEC certificate, as, according to them, he did not complete his secondary school education. In fact, they claim that he dropped out at Class 2. Even at that, it is argued that such a result, which did not contain any score for Mathematics, ought not to have qualified Josef to be admitted into the social science course of Psychology.

Another area of discrepancy in Josef’s academic claims is, of course, his NYSC discharge certificate, which he procured in 2000. Curiously, he procured the NYSC Exemption Certificate before his purported graduation in 2000/2001 academic year.

Similar discrepancies occurred in the names contained in Josef’s alleged forged documents. While the WAEC certificate contains Onoh Ken, that of NYSC exemption is Onoh Kennelly J. Yet, another Doctor of Science (Ph.D) certificate which was awarded to him by a certain British Society of Commerce, dated 27 August, 2005, has his name written as Josef Umunnakwe Onoh.

As it were, the foregoing instances of forgery constitute just one aspect of Hon. Josef Onoh’s current travails. The embattled legislator allegedly refused to repay a loan he took from Harvard Trust (Mortgage Bankers) in 2004. The N2.5 million loan transaction was conducted in the bank’s Enugu regional office. Interestingly, the young Onoh took this loan, which has presently yielded N25 million interest, when he was a member of the state Assembly. In particular, he was Chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation.

Sadly, the controversies that trailed the loan award to Josef led to the sacking of the bank’s General Manager, V.C Opara, as well as the sanctioning of other officials of the financial institution.

Josef, also, grapples with allegations of fraudulent land deals across Enugu metropolis. One of his alleged victims in this wise is Uchechukwu O. Ezuma, an indigene of Arochukwu in Abia state. Ezuma, in a petition to the state police command, accused Josef of reselling an expanse of land sold to him by his late father, Chief C.C Onoh.

It is noteworthy that C.C, in his life time, was a ruthless estate and property giant, with his estates sitting on more than half the capital territory of Enugu state. Onoh’s properties, also, dot the landscapes of Nigeria and beyond. Thus the Ngwo High Chief had developed and undeveloped properties in major Nigerian cities, including Lagos, Abuja, Port-Harcourt, as well as in Germany and England.

Ezuma had purchased the said land from Onoh for N12 million, but Josef was, shortly after Onoh’s death, said to have sold it off for a whopping N20 million. Josef reportedly plotted out the land, and resold it to three buyers.

Indeed, KlinReports is in possession of a letter to ‘The Registrar, Ministry of Lands and Housing, Enugu’, dated 7 November, 2008, signed by Chief Dr. C.C Onoh which consented to the registration of the land in favour of Ezuma. The letter, entitled: ‘Re: Registration of Deed of Lease in Favour Mr. Uchechukwu O. Ezuma’, affirmed that Ezuma had liquidated all required financial involvements as regards the purchase of the land.

Ezuma, therefore, called on police authorities to intervene in the injustice and fraud meted out to him by the young Onoh.

In fact, Hon. Onoh’s ‘sins’ seem limitless! Part of the accusations against him is that he had stolen a Toyota Corolla car, with registration number ENSG 2355, which Governor Sullivan Chime, on assumption of office, donated to his late father to facilitate his movement.

Josef, according to his traducers, stole the car, and all attempts to retrieve it from him while Onoh was alive failed. As a result of this development, Chime’s government, in December of 2007, donated a Lexus Jeep to Onoh, as a replacement to the alleged stolen car. Police operatives, it was learnt, recovered the vehicle during Josef’s recent arrest, of course, to be used as an exhibit to prove the case of stealing against him.

Several efforts to get Onoh to react to the avalanche of allegations against him to no avail. Apart from not picking calls from our correspondent, Josef never responded to text messages suggesting an interview appointment with him.

The erstwhile legislator is, among other things, being tried for forgery, stealing and obtaining money under false pretences. And these are criminal offences which punishments attract several years of imprisonment.

Will the junior Onoh be submerged in his present travails? Or, will he come clean of the legion allegations of criminality against him? Only time will answer these posers.