Category: SouthEast

Press Secretary to Anambra Governor Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Mr. Chris Aburime, has said the governor is not after Mr. Peter Obi, a former governor in the state and presidential candidate of the Labour Party.

Aburime spoke yesterday in Awka, while reacting to a viral message on social media, which alleged that Soludo had been contracted to eliminate Obi for a fee.

He said Soludo was the father of Anambra by his position and would not plot or collude to harm any lawful citizen of the state, including Obi.

The message, titled: ‘Hold Soludo Responsible If Anything Happens to Peter Obi’, said Soludo’s hatred for Peter Obi and everything he stands for is becoming glaring as things unfold.

“Yesterday, a helicopter entered Awka by 1:30am and took Soludo to a secret meeting at the Government House, Owerri. The agenda of the meeting is Peter Obi and how to stop him physically, politically and otherwise.

“Soludo was given five million dollars in 100 dollar bills for the hatchet job and Soludo promised to eliminate Peter Obi…,” it said.

But Aburime dismissed the piece as infantile, mischievous, unnecessarily inflammatory and figment of the imagination of the author.

He said Soludo in spite of political leaning was a brother and friend of Peter Obi and would not think of hurting him or any other person for political reasons.

According to him, “Soludo is the father of all and he has a good heart towards everybody. I am surprised that people can concoct this type of blackmail against him.

“I want to state categorically that there is no iota of truth in that write- up, he did not go to Owerri and he was not offered any sum of money to harm anyone, not even his brother, Mr. Peter Obi, an illustrious son of Anambra.

“Soludo wishes Obi well, he appreciates Anambra voters for supporting him massively. Of course, he predicted his victory in Anambra and remember, there was no form of violence or electoral malfeasance in Anambra. That speaks a lot about the peaceful nature of Soludo,” he said.

Aburime said there was no benefit either personal or general for anybody who wished to create animosity between two national human capital assets and great sons of Anambra through mischief.

Former House of Representatives deputy speaker Chibudom Nwuche has urged Rivers State residents to vote for the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Siminialayi Fubara and the party’s House of Assembly candidates, on Saturday.

He said voting for PDP candidates would help consolidate the gains recorded by the Governor Nyesom Wike administration in the last eight years.

Speaking when he hosted stakeholders from Ekpeye land and leaders of other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, who visited him at his Port Harcourt home, Nwuche listed the benefits Rivers people and residents had enjoyed under the Wike administration to include urban renewal that had seen infrastructural developments such as roads, flyovers, health facilities etc in Port Harcourt and across the state, as well as conducive environment for business.

He said the proactive governance style of Wike had ensured security and safety of lives and property, as well as peaceful co-existence, despite insecurity in other parts of the country.

Nwuche urged the people to see themselves as stakeholders in the Fubara project, as he had been mentored by Governor Wike and had the leadership skills to continue from where Wike would stop.

According to him, Fubara is a humble man, who listens and respects all, with a temperament to make a good governor.

Nwuche enjoined the stakeholders to eschew sentiments and look at Wike’s achievements in the past eight years.

He said they should ensure Fubara’s victory and that of PDP House of Assembly candidates, to guarantee progress and continuity of good governance, noting that no other party could equal the achievements of the Wike administration.

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Florence Ita-Giwa, says she is convinced President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu will address the Bakassi resettlement problem when he assumes office on May 29.

She spoke yesterday in Calabar, Cross River State capital, while celebrating the victory of the president-elect.

Popularly called Mama Bakassi, Ita-Giwa said when Tinubu visited the state, he spoke about the plight of the people.

“I am not saying he will do the impossible of revoking the judgment that ceded Bakassi to Cameroon. That is gone, because Nigeria did not appeal when we had the window to do so.

“I just believe he will address resettlement of the people, who have lived like refugees for years,” Ita-Giwa said.

Ita-Giwa, who was at the Senate from 1999 to 2004, described the president- elect as a bridge builder, whose relationship cut across the old and the young in the society.

”Tinubu was among many Nigerians persecuted during the Sani Abacha era for his fight for the sustenance of democracy.

“As a young woman, I went to Alagbon to visit him and the activist Beko Ransome-Kuti. I think it is only proper that he is elected because he has contributed to the development of democracy.

“I also know how hard he worked as a politician in an opposition party and the role he played in the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari,” she said.

She appealed to opposition politicians to join him to form a government of national unity, saying those who thought the election was flawed had a right to go to court according to the law.

Former Head of Service of the Federation Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita said the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections were the freest she had witnessed for some time.

She said the voting was not based on sentiments, adding that people voted their consciences with many influential people losing National Assembly seats.

Delta State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pressure group, Delta Unity Group (D.U.G.), has endorsed the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, as its candidate for Saturday’s election.

The group formed for the actualisation of Olorogun Edevbie’s governorship ambition, has as members, former speakers of the House of Assembly, ex-Secretary to the State Government and former civil commissioners.

The body announced the endorsement of Omo-Agege at a meeting yesterday in Agbor, Ika South Local Government.

A statement by DUG Chairman Board of Trustees, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, said the choice of Omo-Agege was reached after weeks of consultations with organs that made up the body.

Barely three days to the general election, a bag filled with thousands of permanent voter cards (PVCs) has been allegedly discovered at a forest in Nnewi, Anambra State.

The cards were reportedly found by hunters in Akamili, a community in the industrial town, who later took them to the premises of a radio station, Authority FM.

A viral video made in the compound of the station in Nnewi, showed the PVCs being displayed on the floor of the station, with the two hunters standing beside them.

A female worker of the radio station, who ran short commentary on the video, claimed most of the PVCs belonged to people from Nnewi South Local Government.

She urged those yet to get their PVCs to visit the station to confirm if they could find theirs.

Another worker of the FM station, who identified himself as Ikenna, confirmed receipt of the PVCs, saying they had been taken to the Obi of Umudim community.

The Station Manager, Mr. Charles Ede, said he was off duty when the cards were brought, adding that his subordinates had informed him about the incident.

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) spokesman Dr. Ikechukwu Agu could not be reached for reactions, while police spokesperson Tochukwu Ikenga said the command was constrained to make comments on the report, as it had not received complaint from concerned authority.

Uche Secondus, former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says Atiku Abubakar, the party’s presidential candidate, will win Rivers State despite the lack of support from Governor Nyesom Wike.

Secondus spoke yesterday when he participated in an Arise TV programme.

Wike and his G5 allies – including Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu – have excluded themselves from the party’s presidential campaign, as they asked Iyorchia Ayu to step down as the party’s national chairperson.

Last week, the Rivers governor ruled out a last-minute reconciliation with Atiku, noting that he had already informed the people of the state who to vote in the presidential poll.

Reacting to the development, Secondus said the “people themselves are convinced that on that day they are voting Atiku and PDP” despite “anybody’s ego”.

He said the party had made an incursion into the grassroots, and “no matter the amount of intimidation and attempt to swing votes” from the PDP.

“Since we saw that the governor and his team have switched from the party’s presidential candidate, even though he wowed that to support them, that has not gone down well with grassroots. I believe Rivers people have been voting PDP from 1999 to date. What we have done so far in the state is to make sure we go back to the grassroots and the people, themselves, who are voting that day. We are not depending on anybody’s ego,” Secondus said.

“While we watch the governor attacking our presidential candidate over and over, the people themselves are convinced that on that day they are voting Atiku and PDP. So nobody is going to do any magic, no matter the amount of intimidation and attempt to swing votes to the APC candidate. Atiku Abubakar is going to win Rivers State.”

The Chairman of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Julius Abure, has alleged that desperate opponents in this weekend’s presidential election are sponsoring insecurity in the Southeast, to reduce votes for the party’s standard-bearer, Mr. Peter Obi.

He said unfolding events had shown that the so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ terrorising the region was as a result of the opponents, who were afraid of Obi, whose towering credentials had dwarfed all they claimed to have achieved in and outside politics and governance.

Abure spoke with reporters yesterday in Abuja.

The LP chairman said the support received would amount to futility if they did not translate to votes.

Said he: “I am aware that some sponsored persons, especially in the Southeast, are being paid and sponsored by opposition political parties to continue to threaten citizens not to come out to vote, used to deliberately reduce our vote.

“The insecurity and attacks that have led to several deaths and torching of houses and other property have been proved to be the handiwork of opponents, who know by now that they are not in the contest and the only way they feel they can measure up is ensure that they continue to intimidate the people with security threat.

“The insecurity is targeted at reducing the massive votes Obi will overwhelmingly amass from the region. But unfortunately for them, our candidate is a national project. Obi is a Nigerian project, the youth, the women, the elderly, the downtrodden are contesting for the presidency through him. “Whatever they think about him, tag him to be, the supporters are well ahead of them with their decision to make sure he is the next Nigerian President after the February 25 election.

“We, therefore, want to plead with our supporters that they should come out in their numbers wherever they are to vote. It is a mere threat to stop them from or to instil fear in them, to prevent them from coming out to vote.”

Abure urged LP supporters across the country, particularly in the Southeast where evil agents are using a stay-at- home order to frighten the residents, not to be intimidated.

He said the LP had confidence in the military and other security agencies that had assured Nigerians that the country was safe for the conduct of the election and as such, nobody should be afraid.

The Oghara Elite Group, a socio-political organisation in Delta State, has advised the G-5 governors not to work against the victory of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Saturday’s presidential election.

Speaking at the weekend with reporters in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the National President of the group, Mr. Robinson Usabor, said the anger of the G-5 governors against the National Chairman of the PDP, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, was misplaced.

He said the presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had no special interest in Ayu.

He added that it was unwise on the part on the G-5 to insist on Ayu’s removal at a time the PDP was facing a national election as a major opposition party.

“Let me say that Atiku has no special interest in Ayu; rather it is all about the constitution of the party.

“For Ayu to resign, there must be a kind of amendment to be put in place by the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that will suit the situation at the moment.

“Ayu can only resign immediately  after the general election, believing God that Atiku will be announced as the winner. From that point Ayu can step down as the case may be.

“All I can say is that the Southsouth governors should come together, instead of the ensuing disagreement among them because we may be surprised by God’s grace in 2027 Atiku may likely relinquish power to the Southern part of Nigeria, other things being equal.

Declaring that he stands by Atiku and the PDP in the 2023 general election, Usabor, an engineer, said Atiku has promised a huge development/investment package of over $10 billion for the Southsouth.

“Atiku will surprise Nigerians by performance, removing every doubt and all manner of names they have tagged him over the years.

“The G-5 governors should have a rethink and forge ahead as one family, for they are directly or indirectly feeding from the party.  Nobody is perfect; Nigerians should rather give Atiku a chance by giving him their support,” he said.

Usabor said Delta State Governor Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa did not betray anybody or group by accepting to be the running mate to Atiku, “since politics is a contest of different interests; as such the call for him to step down is not only unfair, but also a misplaced priority.

“I thank God for the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, for his courage over this matter because he has been very consistent. The party is bigger and greater than anyone.”

A leader of the South East Grand Cohesion Alliance for Atiku, Kenneth Austin, has urged the Southeast to accept the olive branch offered to the region by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some Northern leaders.

Austin said the call became necessary in view of the fact that the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, lacked the wherewithal to win the election as well as the strength of solemn pledges made by Atiku, which were endorsed by reputable Northern leaders.

He said he was privy to a meeting held in the home of a retired general and one-time Minister of Defence in Abuja, at which part of the deal was concluded and ratified.

According to Austin, who spoke on the sidelines of a news conference by the group in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, part of the agreement was that Atiku, if elected president, shall within the first 100 days in office, ensure that the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, would be released unconditionally.

This much has been officially confirmed by a former Senate President and the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, Adolphus Wabara.

The second is that Atiku has promised to work to actualise the dream of an Igbo Presidency by ensuring he hands over to an Igbo successor.

He pointed to Atiku’s repeated promises to be a “stepping stone” to Igbo presidency.

“One of these affirmations was made by Atiku last Tuesday during the party’s presidential campaign rally in Enugu.

This is the third time the PDP candidate will make the promise to the Igbo in the Southeast.

Atiku first made the promise in September last year during a zonal conference of the PDP in Enugu.

The PDP candidate also made the same promise during his campaign launch for the Southeast in Awka, Anambra State, last December.

Speaking during the rally in Enugu last Tuesday, the former vice-president said he still stood by his words.

The third, he said, was the undertaking by Atiku to cooperate in the ongoing ICC investigation and ensure prompt prosecution of the outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari and top officials of his administration like the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief of Army Staff and GOC 82nd Division of the Nigerian Army, for the genocide committed with the ‘Python Dance’ military operations conducted in the Southeast.

“Already the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague is investigating the September 2017 invasion of a community in Abia State by soldiers of the Nigerian Army during a military exercise code-named ‘Operation Python Dance 2’ (Egwu Eke Abuo), which would only get the backing and cooperation of the government, which Atiku has promised.

“The letter obtained with reference number OTP-CR-413/17, dated March 20, 2018, is the second response by the court to the petitioner. It was confirmed that the military invasion and deaths recorded were already under preliminary examination by the Office of the Prosecutor.

“Part of the letter signed by Mark Dillon, Head of the Information and Evidence Unit at the Office of the Prosecutor, read: “Accordingly, your communication will be analysed in this context, with the assistance of other related communications and other available information,” Austin said.

To further prove his point, he referred to a meeting between the Northern Elders Forum and Southeast leaders where the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) Chairman, Ango Abdullahi, presented the terms agreed upon.

Abdullahi, in an interview on February 12, 2023, confirmed this meeting in these words: “NEF is still discussing with other stakeholders from other parts of the country, who are interested in the elections. Even today (last Thursday), we are having a meeting with the representatives of the Ohanaeze in Abuja.

“NEF and Ohanaeze are meeting right now and we don’t know the outcome of their discussion yet,” Austin quoted Abdullahi to buttress his claims.

He concluded by urging the Igbo not to allow sentiments or discontent to hold them back from coming out to vote massively to secure their future, based on the promises made by Atiku and the Northern leaders.

“At least Atiku himself has been bold enough to openly declare his position in favour of Mazi Kanu, whereas even our kinsman, Obi, could not do that publicly.

“We, the Igbo, should key into this agreement reached and sealed by the North and its leaders by taking full advantage of this window of hope by voting massively for Atiku and ensuring our votes count,” he said.