National Assembly as National Embarrassment

Every society is governed by laws and law making is a higher calling and not a business for derelicts, and economic opportunists. Many years ago, George Santayana asserted “those who despise history are condemned to repeat it”. Again there is no judge as upright and crude as Mr. History. In the words of Leopold Von Ranke “…history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. In Nigeria, history repeats itself at a supersonic speed than many would have imagined. Since democracy resurfaced in 1999, the National Assembly has been transformed into a hallowed chambers of unending scandals and chimney emitting toxic vapours of corruption. (Picture left shows Oladimeji Bankole, Speaker, Nigerian Federal House of Representatives)

Looking back in time, in 1999, the first symptom of legislative high handedness at the National Assembly was manifested in the demand for the outrageous “Furniture Allowance” when legislators boasted that they were not in Abuja to spread poverty. The legislators displayed affluence without regard to the prevailing poverty in the land. The furniture allowance debate was their most profound achievement in their first 100 days in the office. The same group of self-aggrandizing legislators supported the tenure elongation project of the Obasanjo administration and unashamedly sought re-election to the National Assembly. This dishonourable tendency permeated the hallowed chambers.

The Senate was also enmeshed in profound scandals. Late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo –the hard smoking Senate President raced to Ogbunike to hide the mace of the Senate, ostensibly to stall his impeachment. He was eventually impeached, even though he asserted that he never came to Abuja to spread poverty. His tenure of his successor Rt. Hon. Senator Wagbara was also cut short by allegations of corruption. The volcano of corruption has made the wise men susceptible to cheap blackmail and corruption. Because of this trend, the NASS has diminished the respect hitherto accorded it. The general perception is that members desecrate every known ounce of civilized principles, as they are self-serving. A National Assembly that is insensitive to the plight of the masses has inadvertently deleted legacy and stewardship from their perverted lexicon. They have demonstrated that the NASS is inundated by overzealous legislative proselytes who put their parochial pocket interest before that of the Nigerian State.

The ex-Speaker Patricia Etteh epitomizes the meanness with which an average Nigerian law maker can desecrate the temple of law making, and the rapacity with which an average Nigerian can loot the commonwealth and still display superlative bravado. Nasty as it may seem, some people are beginning to embrace the idea that psychiatric test should be used as a pre-condition for electing representatives at least to avoid the supplanting of pugilism for law making. What happens at the National Assembly demonstrates that the concept of representation in the country is bereft of its meaning.

The Speaker, House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, is alleged to be at the centre of the N5.2 billion Rural Electrification Agency scam. Revelations emanating from impeccable sources seem to have indicted the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Nicholas Ugbane and his House of Representatives counterpart, Ndudi Elumelu in the lucre. In what is referred to as “fake contract bazaar” it is alleged that Bankole and his father, Alani Bankole, benefited massively from contracts. The criminal aspect of the scam is that contracts were awarded to unregistered companies – some of them purportedly referred to them by the immediate past chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Vincent Ogbulafor. The question is: if members of the Lower House knew all these irregularities, why was the House persecuting Barr. Festus Keyamo when he raised the issue of corruption sometime last year? Why is the NASS so vulnerable to the sin of stepping on banana peels?

In other progressive nations where laws are respected , lawmakers legislate to protect the interest of the people. They do this through regular and periodic consultation with the people. Law makers do not contemplate embezzlement of public funds. On the contrary they get involved in issues like tax cut, increase in tariffs, pursue trade liberalization, tackling unemployment; and other crucial domestic policies issues. It is devotion to legislative duties based on integrity and ability of law makers to protect the interest of the masses that distinguish law makers from others. The NASS is a direct antithesis of what obtains in other countries. It is a Legislature that has lost its core values of representation, honesty and transparency


The behaviour of members of the National Assembly suggests that Nigerians are yet to imbibe civilized values in the art and science of law making. The general impression is that if the NASS can be bribed to mutilate the constitution. Since democracy is majority rule, majority of the NASS members can be patronized to turn the constitution up-side-down. The attitude of law makers in matters concerning State interest is far below the expectation of the Nigerian masses. Taking the oath to make laws is more like a spiritual testament to serve the people because the soul of a nation is inextricably linked to the soul of a nation.


In Nigeria, there are many knotty issues to address as a nation. The level of insecurity is frightening. The monster of insecurity of lives and property metaphorically walks the streets of major towns and cities. Most of our roads are shorthand for death traps, while the educational system is in dire jeopardy, as standards are fast fading with no one to the rescue. There is need to re-position of Nigerian Police Force; the electoral reforms are have not made a head way; critical sections of the constitution need to be reviewed. There are power sector reforms, which have been on the front-burners. Why are National Assembly members active only when it comes to matters affecting their welfare such as upward review of their allowances?

The former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory alleged that Senators Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu and Dr. Jonathan Zwingina demanded a bribe of 54 million Naira in order to confirm him. The Senate President Adolphus Nwagbara and members of the lawmaking body quickly cleared the accused persons. The health-care corruption scandal brought down former Heath Minister, Prof. Adenike Grange, and led to the temporary disappearance of Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello. She later appeared and resumed her duties in the National Assembly and was left of the hook because of the ‘rare blood’ flowing in her veins.

In a separate incident, a bribery scandal in the Federal Ministry of Education led some Senators to tender their resignation as either committees Chairmen or members on the floor of the Senate. Those who resigned include Senators John Azuta Mbata (Chairman Appropriation and Finance), Abdulazeez Ibrahim chairman, Education Committee), Emmanuel Okpede (Vice Chairman, Upstream Petroleum Resources) and Badamosi Maccido, a member of the Education Committee. The hurricane also swept off the then Minister of Education Prof. Fabian Osuji and the youths wondered aloud as to who they should look up to for leadership and succour.

There were allegations of the MTN bribery. Prior to the alleged scam, MTN gave N4.4 million worth of free recharge cards to members of the National Assembly. However the three lawmakers were given a clean bill of health by the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges. The matter was not given serious attention on the ground that there was no convincing evidence of culpability in the alleged scam by the accused NASS members. In other climes, the mere fact that allegations have been made against people of such a high calling would evoke a gale of resignation.

Last year, there were allegations that the House of Reps. spent a whopping N51 billion on overseas travels. There was the N2.3 car scam in the Lower House. That was before the Rural Electrification scandal that is threatening to swallow Hon. Dimeji Bankole. The level of budgetary indiscipline exhibited by the National Assembly is alarming., and no amount of leadership induced free-for-all fight or intimidation would satisfy Nigerians. The behaviour of law makers in matters concerning State interest is far below the expectation of the Nigerian masses. There exists a very wide gap between lawmakers and their constituencies, as most members seldom visit their constituencies.

Quite unfortunately, the National Assembly is fast becoming a discredited House of people who desecrate every known atom of civilized principle because of the mad pursuit of primitive accumulation. What the younger generation of Nigerians and the masses have learnt from them is that the business of law making is no longer the remit of mature, intelligent and honourable men, but one of the designed for those who engage in criminality. If the watchmen of society are corrupt, then who will watch the watchmen?

Three cardinal lessons can be derived from the unending scandals rocking the NASS. Firstly, the NASS has created the impression that Nigeria does not have people who are above board in public offices, and this is a disaster for the countries rebranding efforts. The up coming Nigerian youths have nothing positive to learn from the so called law makers at the chambers of corruption. If the NASS were the American Congress, then all members would have resigned. Secondly, members of the NASS are a negative influence on the State Legislatures to the extent that the State Assemblies derive inspiration from the NASS to loot with impunity. Thirdly, by failing to investigate glaring cases of corruption, the Federal Government has inadvertently entrenched the vice at the highest level of government. In a nation where deceit is acceptable as the norm, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act and that seems to be the lot of change agents in Nigeria, even the few who dare to speak the truth at the NASS. That is why of the 360 members of the Lower House only ten could smell the rot in Bankole’s leadership.

It was Mahatma Ghandi who said ‘Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today’. No corrupt nation can attract Foreign Direct Investment, which would have formed a basis for our partnership for development. With the present crop of people in the apex Law Making Body, it would take any leader the wisdom of Solomon and the bravura of Napoleon Bonaparte to keep the ship of state above the rough seas of national disaster. With the of characters in the NASS it is difficult for Nigeria to break the jinx of poverty and achieve the lofty objectives of vision 20:2020. For now, the public perception is that the National Assembly is not only a theatre of the absurd but a huge national embarrassment.

Idumange John, wrote from Yenagoa

End of Road for Fake Army Officer

82 Division of the Nigerian Army has, at last, nabbed one Godwin Awawe, who has for several months running, paraded himself in Enugu and Ebonyi states as an officer of the Nigerian Army. (Photo shows Awawe)

Awawe was moving round the two neighboring states asking for financial help for families of army officers who lost their lives in Darfur and Sudan during the peace-keeping missions. Awawe, also, claimed that some of the soldiers were involved in a ghastly motor accident in Makurdi shortly after they returned. Awawe operated and assumed the name of Abraham Musa in his fakery business, and he had been deceiving unsuspecting members of the public that their donations would be paid into a charity scheme for the bereaved families.

Consequently, a lot of people, including top government officials, donated generously to Awawe’s charity program. Luck ran out on 41 year old Awawe on June 17 this year, when Major-General Mohammed Isah, General Officer Commanding [GOC], 82 Division, Nigerian Army, Enugu, paraded him before journalists in Enugu. Awawe launched his illegal charity program last February, and he operated in Army uniform, used fake Army identity cards and charity appeal cards which he printed.

Awawe ran into trouble when he went to the Ebonyi state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party [PDP], Dave Umahi, seeking his donation to the scheme. Umahi was about to make a hefty donation when he thought twice, and decided to call the Army on phone to find out the authenticity of the program. Awawe confessed to duping members of the public, saying he was led into committing the crime by one Gabriel Agbo from Enugu state. He said he made about N5, 000.00 on daily basis from his illegal charity program.

Plot to Impeach Imo Deputy Governor: A Critique

The recent demonstration and protest by a group of women in Imo State against the Deputy Governor,Dr Ada Okwuonu, on the grounds that she did not facilitate the success of the women in the PDP secret primaries for the August 7 local government elections has made it necessary to amplify the fact that in Nigeria, a deputy governor as well as a Vice President is a spare tyre. It is trite that a spare tyre is the most useless accessory in a car as long as the main tyres are functioning efficiently and effectively. However, there is a need to cite a few instances to validate the fact that deputy governors/vice presidents are mere spare tyres/rubber stamps. Since charity begins at home, let’s take off from Imo State. (Photo shows Governor Udenwa)

In the 1999 – 2007 periods, the Deputy Governor was Engineer Ebere Udeagu. Perhaps, unknown to many people, the relationship between the then Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, and his Deputy was not as smooth as many people were wont to believe. It will be recalled that Chief Achike Udenwa was accused of looting the fund of Imo State within the first 100 days of his tenure. This allegation was made by a legislator, Hon. Jasper Ndubuaku, a kinsman of the then Deputy Governor, Engineer Ebere Udeagu.Chief Udenwa who made a brief tour of some foreign countries was confronted with the allegation of buying a 100 million Naira house in U.S with money which he laundered during his overseas tour. Hon. Noel Agwuocha, the then Speaker of Imo State of Assembly, set up a panel to investigate the veracity of the allegation. The panel was headed by the leader of the minority parties, Hon. Emeka Ukaegbu. That was when Imo State had an effective Legislature. Achike Udenwa was summoned to appear before the panel. He did and even pledged to resign, if found guilty. But the Hon. Member, Chief Jasper Ndubuaku, who accused him, could not summon the courage to appear before the panel. He ran to Chief Achike Udenwa where he pleaded for forgiveness. The rumour doing the rounds was that what Hon Jasper Ndubuaku said was a deliberate fabrication,a set up, which purpose was to impeach Chief Udenwa in order that his kinsman, Engineer Ebere Udeagu, would become Governor. He could not appear before the investigative panel because he knew that his allegation could not stand the test of judicial scrutiny. It is unfortunate that these are the sort of politicians that belong to Governor Ohakim’s inner caucus of today.

Although the scenario painted above was picked from the grapevine, most people accept it as an incontrovertible fact. It is also on record that on several occasions, Hon. Kennedy Nwagwu, the then Speaker of Imo House of Assembly (IMHA), would act for Governor Udenwa whenever he travelled out of the country. In order to deceive the unwary, the Deputy Governor, Chief Ebere Udeagu, would be sent on an official duty outside Imo State. Did any body observe this abnormality? Analysts should take keen interest in observing events instead of merely looking at events. The uneasy relationship between the then governor and his deputy crumbled in the twilight of that regime when Engineer Ebere Udeagu eventually defected to Democratic People Party (DPP) where he was the Vice Presidential Candidate. This defection was a conspicuous evidence that there was no love lost between Chief Achike Udenwa and his deputy. Furthermore, Chief Udenwa did not consider him suitable to take over the government at the end of his tenure. He preferred an outsider, Hon. Ike Ibe, a resourceful politician who also hails from Okigwe Zone.Of course, the street fight between President Obasanjo and the Vice President, Alhaji Atiku, is so well known that a rehash is unnecessary. In Anambra State, when Governor Peter Obi was illegally impeached on 2nd Nov, 2006, the then Deputy Governor, Dame Virgy Etiaba,was sworn in as governor on 3rd Nov,2006.Within the brief period she served as Governor, she was allegedly very unfaithful, disloyal, and indifferent to the travails of Governor Peter Obi. She was alleged to have engaged in profligate and prodigal spending of funds.

It was on account of this that Governor Obi dropped her as his deputy in the FEB 6 election. The current Deputy Governor of Anambra State is DR Emeka Sibeudu. In Akwa Ibom State, the then governor, Chief Atta, could not work in harmony with his deputy, Engineer Obong Chris Ekpenyong.The Deputy was impeached and later asked to resign after the Wadata House (National Head Office of PDP) intervened on his behalf. In Lagos State, Governor Bola Tinubu and his deputy, Madam Bucknor Akerele, could not work in harmony. In the twilight of their tenure, Bucknor Akerele resigned when it became clear that she might be impeached. . In Abia State in 1999-2007, Governor Orji Uzor Kalu was not able to work in harmony with his Deputy, Dr. Enyinnaya Abaribe. He later resigned from the government. Chief Nwafor who replaced him had more problems with the governor. He was later impeached by the State Legislature. Above all, the man later died, perhaps, on account of shock. Even now in Abia State, Governor Theodore Orji and his deputy, Comrade Chris Akomas, are in a do or die battle for the Abia Government House in 2011.The heat is on and it promises to be a titanic battle for the Abia Government House in 2011.

In Bayelsa State, the Deputy Governor, Peremobowei Ebebi, has just been impeached. This is the culmination of a fierce battle between him and the State Governor,Timipre Sylva. In Anambra State in 1999, the relationship between Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju and his Deputy, Chief Emeka, was like the IRAQ / U.S relationship. On one occasion, a policeman attached to the Deputy Governor was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire between the factions. Both the governor and his deputy fumbled and wobbled until they were sacked at the end of their tenure in 2003. Dr Mbadinuju failed to secure a second ticket for the governorship race.

This brief profile shows that Deputy Governors in Nigeria have never worked in harmony with their Governors. It therefore becomes necessary for every governor to be vigilant and take proactive steps to checkmate the vaulting ambition of the Deputy Governors. Furthermore, it shows that if Lady Ada Okwuonu had refused to sign the “vote of confidence” document by the State Executive Committee that would have been enough to impeach her, more so, since what we have in Imo State now is a Legislature that simply carries out the biddings of the State Governor. if Lady Ada Okwuonu had declined to sign the document of vote of confidence on her boss, that would have been enough reason to commence impeachment proceedings on her, albeit on trumped up charges. The Imo House of Assembly of today is a rubber stamp House that is ever willing to do the bidding of the State Governor. Today, Imo does not have a Legislature that is serving the people. The last time Imo State had a vibrant legislator was in 1999 when the Speaker Emeritus, Barrister Noel Agwuocha, was in charge. Under Speaker Agwuocha and his team, Imo State had a Hallowed House as against the Hollow HOUSE of today. So, it’s unfair to castigate Lady Ada Okwuonu for signing a document that did not have any significance; a document that did not pose any threat to the public good.

There is need to state that in a presidential democracy, a vote of no confidence is inconsequential because it is of nuisance effect. Even if a vote of no confidence is passed on a Governor, it is of nuisance value since he cannot be removed from office on that basis. However, in a parliamentary system, ‘a vote of no confidence’ means much because it can be used to effect a change of government by calling for a fresh election. There is no such thing in a presidential system of government. Impeachment is the only legitimate way of effecting a change of leadership in a presidential system of government.

Those who derided Lady Okwuonu for signing that document were only brandishing their ignorance of the nitty-gritty of a presidential system of government. We are unable to know why so much fuss should be made over a document that did not subject the state to any financial loss. At a time when she is surrounded by sharks, she must act with caution in order to cover the crevices through which her enemies may use to launch an assault on her office. This elegant woman should be allowed to be. Those who feel marginalized in political appointments in this administration should take their grievances to Governor Ohakim who on one occasion said:”I hold the knife and the yam”. Is DR Ada Okwuonu the reason that women do not have 35 per cent in the State Executive Council, Heads of ministries Agencies and Parastatals. Why has Lady Oluchi NNANA Okoro turned a blind eye to such glaring display of dichotomy, male chauvinism, and discrimination meted out to the womenfolk? By the way, Barrister Oluchi should be reminded that this 30 per cent has since been raised to 35 per cent. Now that we have seen through the veneer of her subterfuge, it behooves her to step aside from the quicksand of a perilous idea and present a vote of confidence on the Deputy Governor. As a young, well educated and smart lawyer, her time will eventually come.

The malaise of deputies being treated as spare tyres is not restricted to Nigeria. It’s a global phenomenon. The decision of George Bush (Snr) to choose Dan Quayle as his running mate in the presidential election of November 1988 did not go down well with a cross section of U.S. electorate especially the members of the Fourth Estate (i.e. the press). They said that in choosing Quayle, President Bush had disobeyed the 11th commandment of Presidential politics: “Never pick someone who could hurt the ticket”. This admonition should be a food for thought for all governorship candidates. Unlike her peers in the scenario adumbrated above, Lady Ada Okwuonu has not manifested any undue radicalism that is capable of jeopardizing the office of Governor Ikedi Ohakim. With Lady Okwuonu, Governor Ohakim can sleep with both eyes closed. It is my opinion that whoever emerges as the Governorship candidate of PDP should see her as a good material for a running mate. However, in view of the hostile disposition of her brethren in the Mbaise clan coupled with the unfolding sabotage from Owerri clan, I wish to suggest that, in case of any eventuality, the office of the Deputy Governor should be moved to Orlu zone.This will defuse the ongoing tension and even enable Governor Ohakim to weaken his opponents in Orlu Zone.

In spite of everything, Lady Okwuonu has been a good ambassador of Mbaise clan. She has never exhibited the fabled primordial serpentine proclivities of the Mbaise.She has acted with caution, foresight and moderation. She is an asset to Nigerian women in politics.

If actually Barrister Oluchi Nnanna Okoro was an effective leader, she would have intervened in the travails of Hon. Ukachi Amaechi who was forced to resign as the majority leader of Imo State House of Assembly. Was Barrister Oluchi Nnanna not on Planet Earth when Hon. Ukachi Amaechi stepped aside “as a result of the mood of the House”? She would have asked why Lady Catherine Okpalaeke was humiliated when she was demoted from the status of Commissioner of Finance to Commissioner of Special Duties. What were her offences? The demotion of Lady Catherine Okpalaeke from a Commissioner of Finance to that of Special Duties diminishes us all, especially those who still have conscience. She was the former National President of the prestigious Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). Although she was a very effective and prudent Commissioner, she was frustrated out of the Government because, as a hardcore technocrat, she refused to keep the Imo State treasury ajar to all manner of unprofessional transactions. Furthermore, the leader of the PDP women in Nwangele LGA, Ezinne Eunice (Lolo) was assaulted, harassed, and even physically assaulted by a prominent politician in Nwangele Local Government Area during the Democracy Day Celebration. Her offence was that she was insisting on the 30 per cent share for the women in the so-called secret primaries of the PDP for the much hyped Local Government ‘election’ scheduled for August 7, 2010. This assault was reported to Barrister Oluchi Okoro and there is no record of her intervention. Since the leader of the PDP women in Nwangele was hospitalized as a result of the beating she received, did Lady Oluchi Nnanna Okoro pay a get-well visit to the woman? What efforts did she make to get a waiver for the women in regard to the exorbitant fee for registration as an aspirant? Although the fee for the councillorship ticket was N65,000, impeccable sources revealed that the forms were actually being bought in the parallel (black) market at between N75,000 to N80,000. How many women have the financial capacity to pay N65, 000 or N100, 000 fees for councilors and chairmen respectively? Can Barrister Oluchi Nnanna Okoro say, in conscience, that the purported Local Government primaries can stand the test of judicial scrutiny, more so, taking cognizance of the cacophony from the political parties and the subsisting court injunctions? Pease, we can no longer wait to hear from our IRON LADY,Barrister Ugochi Nnana Okoro, the Margaret Thatcher of Igbo land. Once again I ask:” How many women in Imo State can raise this amount (N65,000 to over N100,000) for a Local government election, more so when the exercise appears to be of doubtful integrity?”

The protest by the rented crowd of women against the Deputy Governor is beyond depravity. It’s a betrayal, blackmail, and sabotage which cannot stand. Those who still doubt that Deputy Governors are spare tyres should ascertain why only one out of the 36 Deputy Governors eventually emerged as Governor in the 2007 elections. That deputy governor, Alhadji Sani Ahmed, is now the Governor of Zamfara State. Even now his relationship with his former boss, Senator Yarima, the pedophile senator, is under intense stress. Those who aspire to become Deputy Governors should do so in a formal manner. We cannot accept any stratagem which intent is to capture the Deputy Governor’s Office by ambush, intrigue or perfidy. This “Pull Her Down” (PHD) syndrome, even from the womenfolk, is an ill wind that blows no one any good and the imperatives of nipping it in the bud cannot be overstressed. It’s a cheap blackmail which will crumble like a house of cards. Irrespective of the zone that produces the Governor as well as the Deputy Governor, both offices belong to us all. We cannot turn a blind eye while a few overzealous political demagogues and desperados make frantic overtures to diminish the integrity of the offices, more so, when there are no genuine and convincing reasons for such dangerous incursions. It was Dee Sam Mbakwe (PhD) who said: “Oke anagh eri ihe onye mu anya” (the rat does not eat what belongs to a man that is awake.

Written By: John I. Mgbe, Owerri, Jun 27 2010 05:26pm
Culled from UkpakaReports

2011 Poll: OAU Onyema Replaces Ekweremadu

From all indications, Sir OAU Onyema, Enugu State Coordinator of Industrial Parks Development, as well as Chairman, Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the state, may take over from Chief Ike Ekweremadu as Senator representing Enugu West District. Deeming Onyema a result-oriented personality capable of bringing development to the senatorial District, unlike the incumbent second-term-serving Ike Ekweremadu, who is reportedly busy building personal houses and hotels in Enugu metropolis and suburbs, Onyema’s constituents and a crowd of political friends had, recently, approached him to run for the plum post. Even when Onyema is yet to declare to contest the position, the strident calls of service from his kinsmen have refused to abate. Onyema, in an exclusive interview, said his running for the post or not will depend on the outcome of his consultations with his boss, Governor Sullivan Iheanacho Chime, the PDP stakeholders as well as his fellow constituents. Curiously, Onyema has been subjected to intense deadly threats from some quarters since the call on him to declare to run for Enugu West Senatorial District. Who is, then, after OAU Onyema’s life? Picture left is OAU Onyema; Right is Senator Ekweremadu. Excerpts:

Can we have a peep into your past?
Right from the secondary school and university days, I have been in politics. I was one time President of our Students’ Union Institute of Medical Laboratory Science. I held many positions, including Director of Sports and Financial Secretary among others. In the partisan politics, I in 1999 contested for the House of Representatives seat in Jere Federal Constituency in far-away Borno state on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) when I had an encounter with Baba Goni and others. After gathering that experience, I chose to return home to my state of origin, Enugu. I came down, and was made the secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and I was able to get some leverage, and I was able to contest election under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2003 election. Unfortunately, we had an understanding and I had to step down for the incumbent member of the House of Representatives, Udi-Ezeagu constituency (Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi). We struck an understanding.

What was that understanding?
The understanding was to the effect that in the next election, I might stand a chance. Then, in 2007, I came out for the House of Representatives election and there were multiple conspiracies. At the end of the day, I could not secure the nomination despite the earlier agreement. Ultimately, I learnt some bitter lessons, but I felt it is one of the ways one forges ahead. That was the time I felt I should quit politics. But after that, I started having relationship with people. People started coming around me; I was eventually elected the Chairman of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and the Governor of Enugu state, Barrister Chime, was magnanimous enough to recognize me by appointing in his own office as Coordinator of Industrial Parks Development. We kept on moving until just recently in January 31 this year when a group of friends and my fellow constituents came to appeal to me to come and contest for senate in Enugu West District. I made them understand that they were not in the capacity to tell me to run or not. Having had the previous experience, I had learnt to relax; if it’s the wish of God, I would run.

Why did you tell them they didn’t have the capacity to ask you to run?
I told them being under PDP, I could not just start contesting election if it is discussed and approval given. I promised to start making consultations with the party hierarchy and the authorities, because I am serving under someone. It is only when the party hierarchies decide that I am worthy to fly that senatorial flag that I can contest. That was my response to my people who came to me. That remains my position, but I am aware that some of my friends have been moving round since then. Sometime in February, another group wanted to come to me, but I stopped them. The situation was trying to heat up the polity which I don’t want.

All in all, have you declared to run for Enugu West Senatorial seat come 2011?
No, I have not declared.

For now, it is no longer a rumor that you are one of the strongest contenders to the senatorial slot of Enugu West District? How would you assess the performance of the senators from Enugu state so far?
Well, I cannot say they are doing badly. And I can’t say they are doing fantastically well. It all depends on one’s perception. From which dimension do you want me to look at the performances?

Let’s zero into your own senatorial district. Assess Ike Ekweremadu’s years of representing you?
The answer is simple! I am one person, but I believe that if things have been excellent, if things had been very fantastic, all those constituents of mine and friends that let their homes to come to me to appeal to me to come and contest for the senatorial seat of Enugu West would not have come.

If you eventually emerge the senator of your people, what will be your focus?
That is, if my Governor and the people- the party stake-holders and the hierarchy endorse me. If I become the senator, which I pray to be, I will ensure that I deal with my constituents the way it should be done. I will strive to make due consultations with my constituency on critical issues of the nation. I will not distance myself from my constituents, and I will ensure that legislative duties in the national assembly are given due attention. Also, any over-sight function assigned to me will be handled with the seriousness it deserves. I know the responsibility of a senator. When I get to national assembly, I believe that it is the wishes of the people that I will be projecting, not mine.

What is your current relationship with Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu?
Very cordial! Cordial.

Ekweremadu would not have been unaware of the prodding on you to run?
The prodding is coming from my friends. It is their view that I should run. That is the beauty of democracy.

What have been Ekweremadu’s dispositions towards you?
Well, I work under the Governor of Enugu state, and I rarely had time to interact with other people. I concentrate on my duties; I never have cause to see his countenance in recent times, whether it changed or not. But mine haven’t changed. You can see that we are neighbors.

Yes, but have you experienced any threat on your person in your yet-to-be declared ambition of yours?
Honestly, I have received multiple threats from different identified and unidentified wings. The threats are non issues as far as I am concerned. Having you understand that I contested House of Reps across twelve years, across three elections, you should have known that threats are non-issues to me.

Are such threats in the form of text messages or what?
I wouldn’t want to answer that.

Now that you have not yet declared to run and some people appear jittery, when you fully declare your full intension, what do you expect?
Do I know? I don’t know (prolonged laughter)

There is this talk that Udi is yet to produce a senate for over thirty years while others have been severally producing. How do you look at this?
Principally, my friends want Governor Sullivan Chime to go for second term because of his works. The issue of urging me to go to senate is secondary, because they noticed that Udi had never been to the senate for over 30 years. They feel that it is a right for the Udi people to produce senator this time around. That is just one of the considerations.

But there are arguments that Udi has, in the person of Governor Sullivan Chime, produced a Governor. Such people wonder how a kinsman of the Governor would, at the same time, be running for the senate. Let’s have your view on this?
Why should people be treacherous? People should not be treacherous. If the yam tuber of a farmer splits into three, is it because his neighbor’s own did not yield anything that will make him, by he harvesting, he takes two leaving one so that his neighbor will not be envious. Saying that Governor Chime is from Udi, and as such Udi should throw away their democratic chance is neither here nor there.

Could you expatiate on this aspect of Udi not being fairly treated in the distribution of the senate slot across the five local government areas that make up the District?
Out of five local government areas that constitute the senatorial zone, Udi has never produced a senator across 30 years whereas others have produced two or three times. They are saying that the Governor is from Udi, therefore, Udi people should forgo their right. But there are worse scenarios: Ekweremadu is a senator, as well as Deputy Senate President, yet his own blood brother was elected, for a second term, Executive Chairman of their Aninri LGA. Both are from the same family, born of the same mother! If that is the case, why didn’t the Senator prevail on his brother to allow others take a shot at the position, which his family colonized? Chime was elected because he was a credible candidate and everybody in Enugu state supported him. Okay, now that Goodluck Jonathan has emerged the President of Nigeria, will anybody prevent either a senator or member, Federal House of Representatives from coming from his area, especially, if it is the turn of his immediate people to produce the position? Never!

There are insinuations that you are just being sponsored by Governor Chime. Is it true?
If someone knows my antecedents, he should know I am not being sponsored by anybody. You know I have not even started. I have not declared and people are agitating because they are watching the human traffic to my house.

Some pro-Ekweremadu elements believe that it is because he (Ekweremadu) has been stealthily nursing governorship ambition in the state that led to the prod on you to start warming up for his seat. You may wish to react to this?
They are speculating. It is a speculation, and we leave it at that.


Culled from: Insider Weekly Magazine of June 28, 2010

Udi People Cry Out Against Marginalization

Despite the fact that Governor Sullivan Chime is one of their own, the people of Udi in Enugu State still claim that they are marginalized in the scheme of things in the state.

Last Christmas festivities, the kinsmen of Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State treated him to a banquet. (Pix left is Governor Chime; Right up, OAU Onyema; Right down, Ike Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President; Down down left respectively is Ossy Rockefeller Ogboso and incumbent Ozomgbachi)

Chime did partake in the jollification (eating and drinking of Udi palm-wine, a.k.a ‘Aneke-Achime) that usually characterizes such get together. Thereafter, Chime’s kinsmen gave him his own share of the slaughtered ram, and then proceeded to counsel him as regards his plum position as governor of Enugu State, and how the Udi man is marginalized under his administration.

Noted for his curt responses to issues of that nature, Governor Chime told his kinsmen that he is Governor of Enugu State, not that of Udi people alone. Thanking them for the feast, he told his bemused kinsmen that he was going back to the seat of government in Enugu to do the work for which they, alongside other communities of the state, elected him. Governor Chime, subsequently, cruised back to his office in his usually modest convoy.

Although Governor Chime seemed to have handled the situation with the ‘wisdom of Solomon’, the cry of marginalization of the Udis in the present political dispensation, especially, in top elective political positions is a song being sung by almost every Udi man. This alleged marginalization is hurting even against the background of their son being the Governor of the state.

Part of the complaint is that the Udis have, for the past 30 years, not produced a Senator from their Enugu West Senatorial District, even when their contemporary council areas have produced senators for two or three times.

Enugu West Senatorial District is made up of Aninri, Oji River, Awgu, Ezeagu and Udi Local Government Areas. It is germane to reason that except Udi and Awgu, the three other council areas of Aninri, Ezeagu and Oji River have produced senators from the District. Such senators include Ben Collins Ndu (Ezeagu); Hyde Onuaguluchi (Oji River) and the incumbent second term serving Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu (Aninri).

It is, therefore, on the basis of this that Udi people, advocating equity and fair-play, have called on the other council areas to allow them to produce the Senator representing Enugu West District this time around.

For sure, the Udi people are not kidding over this pursuit, as they have already asked one of their own, Ogochukwu Agapitus Umunnakwe (OAU) Onyema to throw his hat into the ring for the senate job in the forthcoming elections.

Understandably, the feeling of not a few is that Ike Ekweremadu, having traversed the length and breadth of the office of Senator for two terms of eight years, should willingly step aside for a candidate from another local government that is yet to occupy that position.

Granted that Ekweremadu has the constitutional right to take a third shot at the senate seat, his chances of emergence in the current situation, appear bleak and, perhaps, hopeless going by his profile of perceived non-performance in Enugu West Senatorial District.

OAU Onyema (Akpaagu Ikenga), Chairman of Ohanaeze Ndigbo (Enugu Chapter) and a tested politician, has been under intense lobby by a group which called itself ‘Friends of Sir OAU Onyema’ to run for the senatorial job.

For now, there is nothing to suggest that Ekweremadu is going back to the senate. The position Ekweremadu had, before now, angled for was that of the Governor of the state, but he and his campaign hirelings got overwhelmed by the popularity of Governor Chime whom Enugu state people have given his good governance and unparalleled hard work a pass mark.

Apart from Chime’s historic urban renewal project which has seen the hitherto pot-hole ridden roads in Enugu metropolis undergo complete renovation and, at times, reconstruction, Chime’s caterpillars of development still trudge on inside the hundreds of rural areas in the state.

This is in addition to Chime’s feats in other areas of development such as provision of pipe-borne water, housing and electricity across the state.

In the opinion of many, Ekweremadu, largely perceived as a ‘lack-lustre’ politician, cannot match these feats, hence he, swiftly, dropped his governorship quest to beseech Governor Chime to allow him to return to the senate for the third term.
But Chime is said to have bluntly snubbed this request, ostensibly, following superior logic that another council area which has not produced a senator before should be given a chance.

Although a few supporters of Ekweremadu had argued that it would be incongruous for Udi Local Government Area to produce Senator for Enugu West District when the Governor (Chime) comes from the council. But this logic, many say, does not hold any water because the two positions have two different conditions for their attainment.
Chime, it is argued, emerged from a state-wide elective process, which made him governor of the whole Enugu State. In the case of a Senator, he (the Senator) emerges from the Senatorial zone, and each local government is expected to produce a senator over time to represent the District.

Perhaps, as a balance of the argument, supporters of ‘Udi for Senate’, quickly, cite the present situation where Ike Ekweremadu is the Senator representing Enugu West, and his blood brother, Bernard Ekweremadu, hitherto a northern based businessman, is the second term serving Chairman of their Aninri Local Government Area. What this specifically means is that while Ekweremadu superintends over the affairs of the people of Enugu West Senatorial District at the national assembly, his brother, from the same mother, takes charge at the council level. Many have, indeed, queried: ‘Is this not inordinate ambition?’

The Udi people are not only marginalized in senate representation. The marginalization is, also, felt in the people’s representation in the Udi/Ezeagu Federal House of Representatives.

At the moment, Chief Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi holds sway as the federal legislator on behalf of the two councils. Ozomgbachi, also, a second-term serving member of the House of Representatives, seems to be looking for a third term ticket, even when he could not give a credible account of his steward for the eight years he has ‘entertained’ himself in the House.

It is, therefore, not surprising that other candidates have emerged to give Ozomgbachi a run for his money in the forth-coming election into Udi/Ezeagu Federal House of Representatives seat in the state.

Just last weekend, Hon. Ozomgbachi, maybe, for the first time in his past eight years of representing the constituents of Udi/Ezeagu, distributed to them some items for their ‘empowerment’.

The items included 40 pieces of motorcycle; 120 pieces of Tiger Generator (popularly called ‘I Pass my Neighbor’); 120 pieces of clipper; 40 pieces of drier; 40 pieces of refrigerator; 40 pieces of video camera; 40 pieces of grinding machine and 40 pieces of complete public address system.

Others were N200,000.00 per ward (40) wards for identified indigent students; N20,000,00 per ward (40) wards for identified indigent widows, as well as 400 pieces of ‘agbada’ for women (to promote efficient processing of garri.

It is clear that, with this largesse, the honorable member (Ozomgbachi) is asking both his constituents and the PDP high command in Enugu State of a third term in the Federal House of Representatives. Both his utterances and body language indicate that, by this sudden generosity of his, he wants the masses of his constituency to return him to the Federal House of Representatives for another four whole years!

‘It’s all politically motivated. He wants to go to the House for the third time. But it won’t work. Another person should go and represent us at the House. It must not be Ozomgbachi always’, an agitated constituent told Insider Weekly.

Yet, the people of Udi Local Government Area insist that it is their own turn to produce member of the House of Representatives this time, Ozomgbachi, an Ezeagu man, having served two terms of nigh-inactivity in that office.

Hon. Garry Eneh, an Udi man, had served in that capacity before Ozomgbachi. The House of Representatives office having been rotatory between Udi and Ezeagu, the Udis maintain that Governor Chime, being their son or not, ought not to hinder them from running for the office in the coming poll.

With the kind of democracy prevalent in the PDP, many politicians who harbor the ambition to replace either Ekweremadu or Ozomgbachi are still reluctant and, maybe, afraid to do so simply because they are waiting on the Governor and the party to anoint them.

But a few personalities from Udi have been observed to have interest in the Udi/Ezeagu Federal House of Representatives seat. And one of such personalities who, if God permits, will be taking over from Ozomgbachi is Rockefeller Ossy Ogboso, an indigene of Umuabi in Udi Local Government Area.

Apart from being Chairman of Enugu State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ogboso, a career journalist and second term serving Chairman of the union, has other antecedents to sustain him as a federal legislator representing Udi/Ezeagu. Ogboso was, in the late 1990s, Chairman of Enugu State Chapter of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN). During the FIFA World Soccer Youth Championship in 1999, Ogboso, superlatively, served as Member, Publicity sub-committee in the Enugu Sub-seat. At the moment, apart from NUJ chairmanship, Ogboso is a Member, Board of Directors, Rangers International Football Club, Enugu.

There is no gain-saying the fact that Ogboso’s feats in the administration of No. 4 Rangers Avenue, Independence Layout, Enugu secretariat of NUJ, remain non-descript. Unlike in the past when the premises of the NUJ Press Centre used to be a play-ground for squirrels and lizards, as well as other animals, the Centre presently bubbles with life, with developmental projects dotting the entire landscape.

Apart from being a consummate grassroots mobilizer and dedicated and fearless leader of men and women, Ogboso’s diction, eloquence and perspicacity will serve as his armor in representing his Udi/Ezeagu brethren in the Federal House of Representatives. Let it not be forgotten that Ogboso, apart from being a card-carrying member of the PDP, is a good and obedient party man.

All in all, the people of Udi are worried over their alleged marginalization in the politics of Enugu state. Udi, they maintain, is the oldest Local Government Area among the four others that make up the senatorial district. Udi Division was so vast that all the local governments in the old East Central State used to be under Udi Division. Udi should, ideally, be the most civilized of all the councils east of the Niger, having produced eminent personalities in all spheres of life.

For instance, Dr. Ezievuo Onwu and Justice Daddy Onyeama (both from Udi) are readily cited as the first Igbo Doctor and the first African Justice at the International Court of Justice, Hague respectively. Still, at a time during the Iran/Iraq war, the United Nations (UN) appointed a 19-man weapon inspection team, who were mainly physicists, to carry out some studies on the weapons being deployed in the war by the two warring countries. It is a known fact that Professor Benson Agu, an indigene of Umuabi Udi, was one of the UN appointed Physicists. Other instances abound.

Will Daniel, then, come to judgment for Udi people?

Culled from: Insider Weekly Magazine, Issue of June 28, 2010

CLO Demands Justice Over Attacks on Journalist ‘Obenta”

Anambra chapter of Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) has called for investigation into the attempt on the life of a journalist with the Source Magazine, Mr Okechukwu Obenta of The Source Magazine by the Deputy Governorship candidate of the Hope Democratic Party in last governorship election, Barrster Mike Okoye.

Okoye who is in the election court to contest the reelection of Mr Peter Obi had on 24th May told the Anambra State Election Petition Tribunal that unknown persons had in the early hours of the morning set fire on his Toyota land cruiser jeep. He also expressed optimism that it may not be unconnected with his contest of Obi’s reelection as he has been receiving threat messages in that regard.

Obenta, the journalist, had the next day set out to the Nsugbe Catholic Monastery venue of the incident, armed with his digital camera and other gadgets with the hope of taking shots of the burnt car when he ran into trouble.

In a press release signed by CLO, Comrade Aloysius Attah, State Chairman, said the organization is demanding for the investigation of the matter in which Obenta had accused Okoye of inciting his thugs to molest and physically assault him, while accusing him of being one of those who set his jeep ablaze.

Attah said CLO views the attack on Mr. Obenta as a dangerous dimension to the politics of desperation and ‘operation-eliminate-every obstacle–dead–or-alive’ which some politicians just introduced into the Anambra polity.

Attah added that for the alleged mastermind of this attack on Obenta to openly brand him a government paid agent and dare him to do his worst speaks volumes of the boldness of some politicians to perpetuate evil because of the climate of impunity pervading the land.

‘It is unfortunate that journalists have become endangered species in the hands of the society which they strive to make a better place by performing their legitimate duties of reporting.

‘We ask, for how long should we fold our arms and watch how journalists are treated like the dregs of the society, humiliated, assaulted and even in extreme cases killed arbitrarily for no just cause?

‘Coincidently, Mr. Obenta was nearly maimed on the very day Nigerians are celebrating 11 years of democracy in Nigeria.

‘Democracy is endangered and bastardized when the citizens and the mass media are not free to air their views, express themselves and expose the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, Attah regretted.

Culled from: Ukpakareports (but editor according to KlinReports House Style)

O foolish Uduaghan! Who has bewitched you?

It is no longer news that Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, the incumbent governor of Delta State is a confused man. Since the forced exit of his cousin and benefactor, James Ibori, the governor has gradually lost grip on his office and his popularity within the state has continued to plummet. He is the chief security officer of the state, yet he can’t guarantee his own safety. Afraid of being stoned by Delta indigenes, who say he has not delivered on his campaign promises, Uduaghan now commissions state projects at night, usually during the wee hours of the morning.

Uduaghan is so dysfunctional and out of touch with his aides, that he took visiting governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State with him to commission a hospital that had not yet been supplied with any equipment. After cutting the tape, he proceeded to lead his guest into the hospital for an official tour, but was quickly stopped by his aide who embarrassingly informed him that the hospital had no equipment to show.
Uduaghan’s public Tirade.

The governor recently warned one of his commissioners at a public function in the presence of other Delta State government cabinet members to desist from bothering him with calls and text messages. “I hope you realize that I am the executive governor of this state. I do not want you to call me again. I will call you when I need you”, he arrogantly cautioned the commissioner.

Some commissioners, who preferred to be anonymous, have complained of their inability to meet with the governor on numerous occasions, whom they said has no time for any of them. “We hardly see the governor, except when there is a public function somewhere within the state. You dare not book for an appointment when he does not need to see you. He seems not to trust anyone. The Ministries are run without adequate funding but we dare not say it aloud because it’s better being ‘in’ than ‘out’”, they complained.

On another occasion, at an enlarged meeting of the executives of the Delta State Elders Council, led by Chief Gabriel Sefia, an enraged Gov. Uduaghan said to the chagrin of his host, "I have refused to be pushed away. Mr. President needs the Governor of Delta State and the Governor of Delta State needs Mr. President. I have easy access to Mr. President because Mr. President recognizes that I am the Governor of a critical state in Nigeria."

Against public knowledge Uduaghan insists he inherited a full treasury, yet Uduaghan has refused to pay many contractors for the past three years. To be paid for job done in Delta State, a contractor must be an Uduaghan sycophant, which in his mindset means loyalist. The selective payment system, huhuonline.com learnt is to ensure that money does not get into the hands of Delta indigenes suspected to be non-loyalists or those who have opposing views. This goes against the concept of a democracy which means a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Now Uduaghan is at war with his commissioners over loyalty and allegiance. It is agreed that no one can serve two masters, and within hierarchies loyalty has to be given to authority. But loyalty must be to the country, the state and its people, not to its office holders. Paranoid and embattled, Gov. Uduaghan opined that to continue to be part of his cabinet, commissioners must not be seen openly fraternizing with opposition.

To this end he has engaged the services of a biased and untrained spy network, led by his brother-in-law to monitor the activities of his aides suspected to have ties with the opposition.

In the same vein, Dr. Uduaghan, has threatened to sack disloyal public office appointees, and has issued them a two-week ultimatum to retrace their steps or be removed from office. “Your loyalty must be 100 per cent to this administration. I am giving you two weeks to resign, if you feel you cannot be loyal anymore”, he stated.
Uduaghan affirmed that he would take a decisive decision on those officials whose loyalties were in doubt. Hear him: “For those of you who are neither here nor there, l will take a decision and choose those we can work with. You cannot break or abandon the oath of allegiance you took.”

It could also be recalled that early this year the state governor sacked six of his commissioners whom he alleged had pursuits that were contrary to that of his administration. He has also relieved some of his aides who were said to have betrayed his trust.

Battle for the soul of Action Congress

Unsure of their job security and political relevance within the polity, some commissioners who have already being blacklisted by Uduaghan are fraternizing with key opposition leaders and governorship aspirants, thereby posing political threats to the Governor, who is facing tough times ahead in the 2011 general elections.
In his bid for survival, Uduaghan is said to have made frantic attempts to secure a truce with the Action Congress (AC) party in the state and has allegedly spent an undisclosed amount of money on the party which is seen to be the only vibrant party throughout the South. But he is also said to be lamenting the ordeal of seeking recognition with a new party.

Huhuonline.com has discovered that the former AC governorship candidate in Delta state, Mr. Peter Okocha abandoned the party after he discovered the romance between the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and leadership of the AC party. Others say he was urged to jettison his membership by some strong PDP chieftains within and outside Delta state. Okocha resigned from AC along with his supporters.

Since this development, the AC has had no governorship candidate for the forthcoming 2011 governorship election in Delta state. “The AC cannot have a candidate for now because it was founded by PDP. We have to determine what happens there. We are one family”, a PDP chieftain had boasted.

The governor had approached the party as a last minute option in case his candidacy in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faced any problems, but now to his chagrinDC 20037. The properties were purchased at the cost of US$1,180,000.00 and $3,250,000.00 respectively.

Little wonder then that Uduaghan inherited a state treasury from Ibori depleted to the tune of N40 billion!

Emmanuel Emeke Asiwe is an Alumni of Harvard Business School, and can be reached @ publisher@huhuonline.com

Oruku Kingdom (of Enugu State) on Trial

Following unending land conflicts between his community and Umuode people, Cornelius Nomeh, monarch of Oruku community, remains a guest of many detention camps, and currently faces kidnap trial, which conviction attracts death penalty in Enugu State. Importantly, the Igwe’s ordeals are in addition to police invasion of his community in search of alleged stock-piled arms and ammunition.

Wonders, they say, will never end!

The monarch of Oruku Kingdom in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu state, Igwe Cornelius Nomeh, was, recently, alongside his wife and son, Ngozi and John, paraded before journalists in the state as kidnap suspects. (Pictures show remanded Igwe Nomeh and wife)

The Igwe, together with four others and members of his house-hold, was accused by the state police command of kidnapping a third year medical student of the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC), Miss Ifeoma Azubuike.

Ebere Amaraizu, Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), told newsmen that the victim, Ifeoma, was kidnapped in the New Haven area of Enugu city last month, May 14, and was, eventually, rescued at the Igwe’s palace following a tip-off from some concerned members of Oruku community on May 19.

The Igwe’s son, John, a first year Psychology student of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), confessed to the crime by narrating that it was his cousin, Chukwunonso Anigbogu, who actually brought the female kidnap victim, Ifeoma, to be ‘remanded’ in his room for a while.

On her own part, the Igwe’s wife, Ngozi, became an accomplice in the crime because, in the logic of the police, rather than contacting her husband who was away as at the time of Ifeoma’s unlawful detention in the palace by her son and his gang, she (Lolo Ngozi), inexplicably, chose to conceal the ‘evil’ act. However, Lolo Ngozi, in an interview, denied knowledge of her child’s escapade, saying the whole thing was a set-up.

The four other paraded members of Prince John’s kidnap gang were listed as Williams Oriaku, Friday Ezeh, Ugochukwu Amadi and kenechukwu Ossai. Amaraizu (PPRO) disclosed that the suspected kidnappers would, soon, be charged to court for the offence.
Insider Weekly gathered that the suspects had lured Ifeoma, an indigene of Nnewi in Anambra state, into a Toyota Camry car in the New Haven area of Enugu metropolis on the fateful day and sped off. The bemused kidnap victim, Ifeoma, recollected that the hoodlums blind-folded her, tying her up with a cloth, as a result of which she could not recognize the face of any of them. Ifeoma added that while she was still incarcerated, she always overheard five different voices of members of the gang while they were holding their meetings. Ifeoma was, however, silent on whether the hoodlums sexually exploited her throughout her hostage period or not.

Ifeoma, said to have a rich family background, was, ostensibly, kidnapped for ransom purposes by the miscreants. Ifeoma’s father is reported to be an affluent Lagos based businessman.

The suspects, the police claimed, initially demanded a ransom of N100, 000,000.00 (One Hundred Million Naira only), from their victim’s father, but were to later review it downwards, thinking that the business mogul would, eventually, ‘play ball’. But the Azubuikes did not before police operatives swooped on them on the fifth day, and rescued the ill-fated victim, Ifeoma.

Notwithstanding the fact that Ifeoma was rescued in his palace, Igwe Nomeh, vehemently, denied involvement in her alleged kidnap. Igwe Nomeh who averred that he was staying in his Enugu residence at the period in question, seemed of the opinion that his son, John, in whose room the alleged kidnapped Ifeoma was locked up ought to be held responsible, and not him and his wife. The Igwe’s response might have derived from a constitutional provision which stipulates that, at age 18 and above, a citizen takes responsibility for his actions and in-actions.

’I am innocent and should be treated with reverence. There is no reason I, as Igwe of my people, should be given this kind of degrading treatment, parading me about, and messing me up like a common criminal. John is, quite alright, my son, but he can be anybody else’s son; let him answer for himself’, Igwe Nomeh blurted, as his eyes got covered with tears.
For the well-fed looking, but troubled monarch, it has really been ‘One Week, One Trouble’, especially, with the unending conflicts between his Oruku and their sister Umuode community. The conflicts which revolve round the ownership of Agu-Efi land, an attractive massive expanse of land in the area, have defied several years of intervention by past and present governments of Enugu state. The crisis dates back to 1995.
Remarkably, the Igwe was still fresh from Enugu prison custody where he and 14 of his subjects were remanded since April 6 this year over a renewed hostility that broke out on April 2 between them and the Umuodes when the latest trouble (alleged involvement in kidnap) came upon him.

Igwe Nomeh was, exclusively, granted bail on health grounds on April 21, that is, after almost three weeks in prison remand. And among the prominent Orukus still languishing in custody over the April 2 conflict involving Agu-Efi land is Chief Theophilus Okechukwu Adeyi, the community’s Town Union President-General.
Although eleven out of the incarcerated Orukus were, penultimate week, released on bail by an Agbani High Court, Adeyi and a few others still remain in prison custody for reasons that, rather, look foggy. The magazine learnt that Adeyi has, twice, fallen sick in prison, a situation which seriously threatens his life, but the appropriate court sees no reason in releasing him on bail. Especially, as the offence(s) for which Adeyi remains incarcerated in a bailable one.

Igwe Nomeh, apart from alleged involvement in the current kidnap saga, also, has a case of assassination of two boys from the rival Umuode community hanging on his neck like the sword of Damocles. An Enugu Magistrate Court had ordered the remand of the Igwe and his co-accused subjects on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, malicious damage, arson and promoting native war among others.

Although Igwe Nomeh and his Oruku people have continued to shout themselves hoarse over what they describe as the partisan role of Police Inspector-General, Ogbonna Onovo, and Enugu state government in the quarrel between them and the Umuodes, there does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel for them, at least, for now. The Orukus have always stridently accused IGP Onovo who is, incidentally, of the Umuode stock of supporting his kinsmen in their perennial conflicts with them.

The latest crisis that led to the hauling of tens of the Orukus, including Igwe Nomeh, Adeyi and ‘some consecrated men of God’, into prison custody was as a result of alleged plans by the Umuodes to erect structures, such as schools and markets in the disputed Agu-Efi land in spite of several pending court suits concerning ownership of the land.

Among the suits in which the internecine Oruku, Umuode conflicts have formed a subject matter include: HAGB/6/08 – suit against acquisition of Agu-Efi land by Government of Enugu State; E/271/09- suit against government white paper on Oruku/Umuode Crisis and E/84/2010 – suit against government and Umuodes on the legality (or otherwise) of Umuode autonomous community among others.

This crisis seemingly reached a crescendo with the publication of a white paper by the government of Barrister Sullivan Iheanacho Chime on the report of a committee it set up to inquire into impasse. In the main, the white paper directed the more populous and dominant Orukus to vacate the disputed Agu-Efi land for their minority Umuodes.

The Orukus, understandably, swiftly, opposed the white paper, accusing the committee of tilting its report in favor of the Umuodes. Thus the Orukus dared Chime government, saying the implementation of such a white would be over their dead bodies.

And recently, the people raised an alarm over a police station which, they claimed, is being surreptitiously citing on the disputed Agu-Efi land. The Oruku people, presently, allege moves by IG Ogbonna Onovo and Enugu state command to set up a Police Station in the hotly disputed Aguefi land.


In a statement, signed by Chiefs Nnamani Nworji and Uwakwe Ani (for the elders) and Mrs. Amaka Igwe and Veronica Nnamani (for Oruku
women), the Orukus maintained that Onovo’s action is aimed at forcefully implementing part of the Enugu State Government White Paper on
Oruku, Umuode crisis despite the pending cases against it.

Contended the Orukus: ‘We wish to state that the establishment of a police station is among the recommendations of Barrister C.J Aneke-led panel on Enumeration of
Houses in Oruku/Umuode.

‘It is one of the subject matters in our numerous suits. We strongly condemn the plan to establish a police station at the disputed Aguefi land because such will be prejudicial to our pending court cases against the government s white paper’.
The statement added that Oruku people had never requested for the establishment of a police station in their community before now, adding that it is, therefore, ‘very
unfortunate that Mr Ogbonna Onovo (IG), who hails from Umuode stock in our neighboring Akpugo community, has been assisting the Umuode of
Oruku to forcefully implement the said white paper in spite of pending court cases on the matter in order to avenge the outcome of the war
fought by Oruku and Akpugo in the 1970s incited by the Umuode stock of
Akpugo.’

Oruku, equally, raised an alarm that IGP Onovo, in order to emasculate Oruku
people in his current plan with Professor Barth Nnaji (a prominent
Umuode man), recently, deployed hundreds of mobile policemen to all
nooks and crannies of Oruku community’, even in areas outside the disputed Aguefi Land of Oruku community.

‘By this move, IGP Ogbonna Onovo has thereby restricted the movement
of our people (and even strangers) in and out of oruku community.
‘It is a type of forced imprisonment on the entire law abiding citizens of the community. It is on record that IGP Ogbonna Onovo and his cohorts
could not establish a police station in his own community of Akpugo in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, a large community than ours’.
Since Akpugo community, despite her vastness, still report to the
Police Station in Agbani town in Nkanu West council area, the Orukus say they are at a loss why the Inspector-General of Police is trying to set up
a police station in Oruku/Umuode.

The people remonstrate that a more appropriate place to site such a Police Station, if need be, is ‘Idodo Court’, to which both the Orukus and Umuodes belong rather than the disputed Aguefi Land.

‘We have instructed our team of Lawyers to take appropriate legal action against this clandestine move aimed at implementing the government white paper through the back door. We, therefore, request the Presidency and Enugu State Government to prevail on IGP Onovo and Enugu State Command to stop forthwith, any action which will further escalate the present Oruku/Umuode conflict’, pleaded the Oruku statement.

For now, Igwe Nomeh is back to detention, waiting to undergo trial for alleged kidnap among other crimes the natural ruler would have, also, been fingered in. Instructively, kidnap is tagged a capital offence in Enugu state, and the implication of this is that anybody, no matter how highly placed, found guilty of the crime, will be sentenced to death, as passed into law by the state House of Assembly.

In another sordid development, in the early hours of Tuesday, June 1, a battery of policemen stormed Oruku community, and ransacked the homes of two of her prominent indigenes namely: Gabriel Nwatu and Nwatu Nnamani.

Scores of the police operatives, according Elders Gabriel and Nwatu, bumped into them and members of their house-hold early that morning in search of what, it was learnt, were stock-piled ammunition. The police were said to have been tipped off by some informants from the rival camp to the effect that the Orukus have been stock-piling arms and ammunition in the homes of some of its prominent men.

Incidentally, the operatives, after several hours of combing the rooms and the entire compounds of the two men, declared that they saw neither the sought after arms nor ammunition as alleged by the informants.

Will Igwe Nomeh really come clean of this kidnap allegation? Or will he get convicted and sent straight to the hangman’s noose? Or still, were Igwe Nomeh and members of his family being set up because he has been fighting his people’s cause?
Further, now that the owners of the two invaded homes were found not to have stock-piled the alleged arms and ammunition, would police authorities let go of their fake informants? Or, would they try to bring them to book for giving false information which has led to contravening of the citizens freedom from molestation and inhuman treatment of any sort?

The answers to these posers lie in the womb of time.

Soak-away Tragedy in Enugu

It was, indeed, a big shock in Enugu recently when three men died mysteriously inside a six-feet deep soak-away tank in the Garki Area of Enugu in Enugu South Local Government Area.

The incident reportedly occurred at around 11 am at No. 15 Umuaniabor Street in Enugu metropolis when the men went to scoop feces from the filled pit. The incident has, ostensibly, thrown residents of the area into panic, with many wondering what could have caused such sudden deaths.

While it is the suspicion of many that the deceased may have inhaled a toxic waste emitting from the underground soak-away tank, others feared that they may have been killed by an “evil spirit” inside the tank.

Two of the victims were said to be staff of a sewage management company, One with God Sewage Services, while the third was a tenant in the three-storey building.

It was learnt that the tenants had invited staff of the sewage company to evacuate feces from the underground septic sewage filled to the brim, which they successful did between 9 am and 11 am yesterday.

However, after evacuating the human wastes, the workers, on instruction, opened the soak-away side apparently to check if there were some feces left in the soak-away, but unknown to them, death lurked in the corner for them inside the pit.

“After opening the soak-away pit, one of them went inside but few seconds after getting in, he shouted and slumped. His colleague who immediately rushed into pit to ascertain what happened also shouted aloud and slumped’ an eye witness narrated.

He stated that the noise attracted the tenant who rushed to the scene and saw the two men lying critically in the pit, and without wasting time he also went into the pit on a rescue mission only to slump few seconds after. Both of them, he said, died within a space of five minutes. He stated that it was like whoever goes into the pit, which depth was just about six feet, will just collapse and die, regretting that it was a strange development.

Of course, other tenants and sympathizers who saw how the three men gave up the ghost refused to move into the pit as they only opened another section of the soak-away and brought a ladder with which they tried to pull out the lifeless bodies of the victims using a rope.

However, the remains of the victims were only rescued by a team of policemen from Awkunanaw Police Division in the Garki area of Enugu. The police, also, ordered everybody out of the compound.

For a long time, the three corpses lay in the pit while with several people converged on the street and discussing the incident in hushed up tones. Women and children in the neighborhood were seen weeping endlessly.

The police officer, who led his colleagues to the place, said they had contacted officials of Enugu South Local Government to assist in removing the corpses.

Cooperative of Fraud

Two principal staff of Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu are accused of embezzlement of over N100 million belonging to the Institute’s Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society Limited.

Engineer Sam Eze and P.B Nkeanyadi, both senior staff of Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu are currently in a mess over their alleged mismanagement of funds of the school’s Cooperative Society entrusted in their care. (Photo shows Professor Edwin Onyeneje)

While Eze is a Senior Lecturer in the Engineering Department, Nkeanyadi is Principal Assistant Registrar (Exams/Records).
The alleged embezzled funds, amounting to N110.7 Million, belong to the Institute’s Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society Limited. Eze and Nkeanyadi, both elected President and Secretary of the Cooperative 10 years ago, had, for inexplicable reasons, chosen to sit tight in office without giving any account of stewardship to their members. At least, that was the widespread accusation against them.

One of the petitions to IMT Rector, Professor Edwin Onyeneje, dated November 17, 2008, and entitled: ‘Re: Mismanagement of IMT Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society Limited Fund: Appeal for Intervention’, tabulated the alleged mismanaged funds as follows: January 2004 to December 2004: N8163483.27; January 2005 to December 2005: N16114560.11; January 2006 to December 2006: N32552055.85; January 2007 to December 2007: N31303891.68 and January 2008 to August 31, 2008: N22608921.08. The total sum comes to N110, 742, 911, 99.

The petition did highlight that these figures excluded investments which Eze and Nkeanyadi might have gone into with other banks without due process, or the consent of members, adding: ‘Recently, these two officials went ahead to release some loans to members (some ‘dud cheques’) without the consent of the management committee and in total disregard to an earlier resolution on that held on March 5, 2008…’

This particular petition which was, ironically, signed by some of the officials of the Co-operative Society, including Bob Igwe (Vice President); Goddy Ozoagu (Assistant Secretary); Alphonsus Nwodo (Ag. Treasurer), as well as Chris O. Ani and Chinwe Ayogu (Executive Members respectively), faulted the claims of Eze and Nkeanyadi to the effect that the society neither has any credit balance in any bank nor physical asset elsewhere.

Contrary to the claims of the duo, the petitioners maintained that members of the Cooperative Society ‘who took loan from the society pay interest as high as 15% on borrowed amount’.
‘Prior to now, our bankers used to be the Union Bank Plc, but these two officers (Eze and Nkeanyadi) unilaterally operate from one bank to the other as evidenced in Zenith Bank cheques which they were issuing to the innocent contributors who were desperate to secure loan at cut throat interest. This action was done without consultations to neither the management committee of the society nor the general house of the society’, the angry petitioners blurted.

The aggrieved members of the society, in the petition, therefore, asked the sit tight President and Secretary to call a general meeting, at least, for the first time to address the issues raised. They, also, called for an account of the contributions from members and accrued interest from the loan and fixed deposits for the period of 10 years, that is, 120 months.

Also, in an earlier petition, dated October 16, 2008, the restive Co-operative Society members appealed to Rector Onyeneje ‘to direct the Bursar to stop further release of Cooperative Society Fund to Engineer Eze and P.B Nkeanyadi until a general meeting of the society is called when the issue should be addressed’. Part of their appeal to the Rector was to institute a committee to investigate the activities of the Cooperative Society of IMT for the past 10 years (1998 to 2008), with a view to determining the level of fraudulent activities of this society and find the best ways to administer the scheme in future.

It seems that these appeals from the Institute’s Co-operative Society fell on the deaf ears of Rector Onyeneje as, according to them, there had not been intervention of any sort from him. As it were, Insider Weekly could not reach out to Onyeneje to elicit his reaction over the Co-operative fraud scandals raging in his academic domain.

But in his own reaction, Engineer Eze, the embattled President, told the magazine through a telephone conversation that the matter had, since December last year, been under investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for allegedly embezzling N17 million.

Eze explained that he and his co-accused had been guests of ICPC December 1 and 2 of 2009, as well as March 11 and 12, 2010 before being released on bail amidst on-going investigation. Eze wondered why his traducers have resolved to embark on publicizing the matter while still under investigation.

Part of Eze’s defense was that his executive had handed over to a new President. Incidentally, Eze could not readily remember the name of the new President he handed over to when prodded further by the magazine.

On why his regime spent 10 years in office, and why he was not calling meetings, he retorted that the matter is already before the ICPC.

Although ICPC is still investigating the rot in the Institute’s Co-operative Society, it is believed that this is morning yet on the embezzlement drama in IMT. For instance, one of the aggrieved officials of the Society confided in this magazine that he and his colleagues were all goaded into signing the cheques for the talked-about N110.7 million only for the money to be paid into an account yet to be revealed to them.

In fact, questions on the lips of members of the academic community are: Which bank was the money paid into? Who were the signatories? And if the ICPC started investigating the matter since December last year, why hasn’t the crimes commission come up with a preliminary report on the alleged fraud?

Where is Rector Onyeneje in all these? Why has he seemingly chosen to shut up his ears to the cries and appeals of these hapless Co-operative members of his institution? Or, is the Rector not aware that about eight of these society members, who are, of course, his staff, have died out of starvation, hunger and frustration?

For now, the story is still unfolding.