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Tag: Rochas Okorocha

  • Court vacates forfeiture order on Okorocha’s properties

    A FEDERAL High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has vacated a forfeiture order secured by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on some properties belonging to former Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, and some members of his family.

    The anti-graft agency had early this month obtained the court’s orders for the interim forfeiture of assets traced to the former governor, his wife, Nneoma Nkechi and their daughter.

    The properties are:  “a 16 – block 96 – flat structure and an eight – bungalow multimillion naira estate, hotel, two schools, shopping plaza, supermarket, hospital and four vehicles.

    “The same were known to those close to the state as,  East High College, East High Academy, Willowood Hotel, House of Freeda, Dews of Hope Hospital and Market Square Supermarket.”

    The commission in an earlier statement said it would like to know how Rochas Foundation and “other accomplices” acquired and or converted some of the property for personal use.

    It alleged that a prima facie cases had been established against the suspects, which they would answer to.

    Vacating the Order, the presiding Judge, Kolawole Omotoso, lifted the forfeiture order on some of the properties, especially the schools, to enable students to resume for the new academic year.

    The court however made another Order restraining the respondents (Okorocha and family members) from selling any of the properties pending the conclusion of investigation by the EFCC.

    The development followed the submission by Okorocha’s lawyer, Okey Amaechi, that the forfeiture order displayed on the school gates would negatively affect resumption of academic activities in the new session, insisting that parents would be discouraged to register their children and wards in the schools.

    Meanwhile the EFCC had asked the court to exclude two of the properties earlier listed in the forfeiture order after it was discovered that they were not owned by the former governor or any of his family members.

     

  • Imo: Fresh moves to resolve Ihedioha, Okorocha feud

    As the face-off between Governor Emeka Ihedioha of Imo State and the immediate former governor of the state, Rochas Okorocha, deepens, Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, reports that some concerned elders and associates have reached out to leaders within and outside the Southeast to broker peace

    IMO State political leaders and associates of both Governor Emeka Ihedioha and the immediate former governor of the state, Senator Rochas Okorocha, are worried that their previous efforts to resolve the face-off between the two political leaders have failed woefully. As a result, some of them have approached selected prominent Igbo elders and other influential leaders outside of the Southeast to help reach out to the rival political leaders. A source close to Imo State Government House, when contacted to confirm fresh negotiations to ensure a less confrontational way of resolving the misunderstanding however said on Friday that even if it is true that some elders and associates of the former governor may prefer a less confrontational approach to recover our looted resources, I am not aware of any formal meeting that has held in the last week where some leaders or elders specifically requested for a less confrontational way of resolving this matter.

    According to him, instead, I can tell you today that here in Imo, both our elders and youths are evidently satisfied with the way the matter is being handled.

    Another concerned politician, who will not want to be named, because, according to him, he worked closely with the two leaders in the past, however told The Nation during the week that “in as much as most Imolites will want Ihedioha to recover their land, property and money from Okorocha, they would prefer a more amicable settlement because the heat has become rather too much and therefore embarrassing to Ndimo. We are therefore seeking a more friendly way of resolving this matter. Of course, nobody is saying the current government should not recover all proven looted funds and other resources, but we would be happy if this can be achieved without the two leaders necessarily fighting each other in the public.”

    The source, an elderly statesman, confided that some unnamed groups have listed political leaders they want to reach out to intervene in the Imo crisis. “We want to reach out to elders and leaders within and outside Imo. For some reasons, I will not give out the names of the leaders from Imo we intend to reach out to. But outside Imo, we want to talk to some selected PDP and APC leaders in the southeast like Chris Ngige, Peter Obi, Ike Ekweremadu, Orji Uzor Kalu, Ohanaeze President and all the former Senate Presidents from the zone. They are others I will not like to name. We expect that they will persuade the two leaders to resolve this matter more amicably,” he said.

    But an estranged top official of former governor Okorocha’s state government, who said he is still being owed several months of salary arrears, said in a telephone chat on Thursday that “Governor Ihedioha’s aggression is understandable given that over N30b debt to officials, workers and contractors have already been ascertained. So, we can all understand why the new governor must recover stolen resources. If he fails to recover these resources, it will be very difficult for him and his government to pay up these embarrassing debts and still deliver dividends of democracy to Imo people. Perhaps more than money, I can tell you that Imo people are desperate to recover their land from Senator Okorocha. So, they have put Honourable Ihedioha under severe pressure to change the narrative. This explains why it has been difficult to persuade the governor to change tactics. Anyone who knows Okorocha knows that except Ihedioha adopts this tactics, it would be difficult for him to recover anything from the former governor,” the source said.

    THE GENESIS OF THE FACEOFF

    Although some observers have zeroed the origin of the current faceoff to allegations of mismanagement of state resources, levelled against Okorocha by Ihedioha’s government, some insiders claimed their rivalry could be traced beyond the last governorship election in which Ihedioha, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), defeated Okorocha’s candidate, Uche Nwosu.

    Analysts who make this assertion said the two were not best of friends when Ihedioha served as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Okorocha was the state governor then.

    The first tangible faceoff between them then was during the annual ‘Iri Iji Mbaise’ in 2014, at Ihedioha’s Mbaise community. At that event, there was controversy whether or not the then governor, Okorocha, should preside over the ceremony, given that Ihedioha was the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives then. It took security men to douse the tension that would have degenerated into a major fracas.

    In 2015, when Ihedioha contested against Okorocha, who was seeking for re-election then, they literarily became major political foes. It is on record that the two rivals had to face a supplementary election. Insiders said even as a the sitting governor then, Okorocha had to enter into an alliance with aggrieved members of Ihedioha’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP), led by Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, who had vowed to stop Ihedioha, in order to win the election. Some observers said Ihedioha was embittered by the intrigues that led to Okorocha’s re-election then. The matter was not helped by the taunting of Okorocha’s aides and associates who used every opportunity to declare that Ihedioha had been retired politically.

    Given this icy relationship, no informed observer of Imo State politics was surprised that the emergence of Ihedioha as PDP’s candidate in the 2019 governorship election was to provide another opportunity to renew the old rivalry, especially when Okorocha’s support for Uche Nwosu caused a major crack in his All Progressives Congress (APC) camp.

    So, when Ihedioha eventually won the election and express determination to recover alleged looted state resources from Okorocha, everyone knew that it would be a long drawn battle. The exchange of words and allegations that preceded the handover only confirmed the fears of the associates of the former governor that Ihedioha would come after them.

    However, the faceoff assumed a very concrete dimension when Ihedioha formed several committees and panels, including the Committee on Recovery of Government Property, to investigate what transpired in Imo during Okorocha’s tenure in office.  For example, there was uproar when the Chairman of the Committee on Recovery of Government Property, Jasper Ndubuaku, who is also Ihedioha’s Special Adviser on Security Matters, was beaten up by youths sympathetic to Okorocha. The attack on Ndubuaku reportedly occurred when he and some of his officials attempted to enter the former governor’s private residence in search of government property, suspected to be hidden in there.

    When a video clip of the assault went viral on the internet, the state government declared Senator Okorocha a wanted person in the state.

    Uche Onyeaguocha, the Secretary to Imo State Government, who read the riot act ordered youths and women to apprehend Okorocha, anywhere he is seen in the state. Not long after that declaration, there were reports of some youths, who allegedly stormed the Sam Mbakwe Airport to lay ambush for Okorocha. It would be recalled that Okorocha had, according to reports also charged his supporters to resist harassment from government agents and protect their properties and businesses.

    Reacting to the arrest order, Okorocha in a statement issued by his media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, said, “The arrest order is an open invitation to anarchy or fracas in the State because Imo people will always come out to defend Okorocha. It also shows insensitivity on the side of the government in the State because such arrest order was uncalled for and Onyeaguocha has no right to issue an order of that nature.

    “The order only adds to their continued disrespect for the former governor, which is a very bad precedent.”

    Onwuemeodo added: “Okorocha will be in Imo whenever he deems it necessary to come, especially when he had transformed the State as governor and left it better than he met it; and had invested heavily in the State long before his governorship with his wife and children also having their businesses relocated to Owerri because they believe strongly in the State. Nigerians of goodwill should disregard the arrest order. It became void on arrival.”

    The current allegations and counter allegations began shortly after Ihedioha’s emergence as the governor of the state when Okorocha said he left over N42 billion for Ihedioha’s government. Responding to the claim, ihedioha’s political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), accused Okorocha of leaving the state with a liability of N300 billion.

    The state Publicity Secretary of PDP, Damian Opara, said Okorocha incurred over N100 billion debt and abandoned projects worth more than N200 billion across the state.

    “We have it on good authority that Rochas abandoned projects worth more than N200 billion all over Imo.

    “He abandoned the five-star hotels he was building in Okigwe and Owerri. He abandoned the 27 general hospitals he started. He abandoned the 15km rural roads he said he was going to construct.

    “What is he leaving behind? He is leaving behind a debt of N100 billion for Imo state. He is leaving over 90 months’ pension arrears. He is leaving the Imo civil servants in agony. He owes them for the past four years and their 48 months salaries were not paid in full.

    “He is talking of money we will get by counterpart funding. That was just a trap for the incoming administration, but we are going to overcome it,” Opara said.

    Alleging that huge resources of state resources were mismanaged under Okorocha’s government and pledging to recover looted funds and property, Ihedioha said during the Ahiajoku lecture at the eve of his inauguration that he would step on toes in his style of governance. He said he had to adopt this style of governance in order to save Imo.

    QUEST FOR A MORE PEACEFUL RESOLUTION

    Although the two rival politicians, Ihedioha and Okorocha have continued to flex muscles, some observers said it would be necessary to tone down their confrontational utterances and actions to avoid over heating the state. Dr Vitalis Uzoma, who resides in Okigwe, told The Nation that tension is here in Imo. “It will interest you to know that Imo traditional rulers are in the forefront in the current calls for probing of past administrations in Imo.

    Recently, even the former Chairman of Imo State Traditional Rulers Council, Eze Cletus Illomuanya, reportedly told some newsmen that Ndieze may embark on protest. That shows how people feel now. But knowing the full implication of political violence and disagreement, I join elders calling for a more peaceful relationship. That does not mean that the new governor should abandon the current moves to recover looted resources belonging to Imo people. He should do that without these public confrontations. The legal and administrative processes should be followed.”

     

  • Ohanaeze youths warn Ihedioha over ‘arrest Okorocha order’

    The  Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council on Friday deplored the order by Governor Emeka Ihedioha of Imo State that the people of the state should arrest his predecessor, Senator Rochas Okorocha and warned that the statement was capable of sparking anarchy.

    Okorocha himself called the governor a tyrant for ordering his arrest..

    Ihedioha issued the order on Thursday after some youths believed to be  sympathetic to Okorocha allegedly  assaulted  the Chairman of the Recovery of Government Properties, Mr. Jasper Ndubuaku, while trying to invade a property of the former governor.

    Responding to the governor’s statement, the President General of the Ohanaeze Youths,  Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said it was a threat to democracy  and should be reversed immediately.

     He asked for the intervention of the South East Governors and other Igbo leaders in the current face-off between the Imo governor and his predecessor.

    His words: “We call for the immediate intervention of the South East Governors and Igbo leaders as we ask Imo State religious leaders, traditional rulers, State House of Assembly to join Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide to intervene.”

    Read Also: ‘Votes were allotted to Ihedioha’

    Besides, he asked the people of the state especially the youths to  “suspend any action pending the outcome of the peace parley with the duo,” while urging Okorocha to “stay away from the state at the moment until the dust settles down.”

    He added: “We believe that Governor Ihedioha will see the wisdom and rescind the decision to arrest Okorocha.

    “We urge him to suspend the activities of Jasper Ndubuka committee on the Recovery  of Government  Assets until the situation is under control.

     “We will not allow any South East State to be under the control of a sole administrator under State of Emergency.”

  • Youths stop ‘raid’ of Okorocha’s home

    THERE was tension in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Thursday, as angry youths prevented members of the government taskforce from breaking into the private residence of former Governor Rochas Okorocha.

    The government Recovery Committee, led by Jasper Ndubuaku, had raided the business places of Okorocha’s daughter and wife allegedly in search of stolen property belonging to the government.

    However, plans to raid Okorocha’s Spibat home, which houses the Rochas Foundation College of Africa, was met with stiff opposition as irate youths barricaded the entrance. They were said to have pounced on the committee chairman while his men escaped.

    It was also gathered that while the Ndubuaku-led committee was trying to enter Okorocha’s home, thousands of youths, believed to have been mobilised by the government, laid ambush for the former governor at the Sam Mbakwe Airport as he was reportedly visiting the state.

    But they dispersed after it was discovered that Okorocha was not returning to the state.

    Ndubuaku, who addressed reporters after the incident, said he was attacked by thugs camped at Okorocha’s compound.

    He said: “We went to search the compound with valid court order and inventory of the government properties we want to recover, but when we got to the gate, the security men collected the inventory and asked us to wait, while they check if the items were there.

    “While we were still waiting, some armed thugs came out from the compound and attacked us, I was shot severally and cut with machete but it could not pierce my body”.

    But Okorocha said the attempted invasion of his private home was a continuation of the harassment meted out to him and his family by the Governor Emeka Ihedioha-led administration.

    Read Also: Okorocha to supporters: resist attacks

    A statement by his media aide, Sam Onwuemeodo, reads: “Our attention has been drawn to accusations by Chairman of the Imo State Property Recovery Committee, Jasper Ndubuaku, that former Governor Rochas Okorocha recruited thugs to attack him and his team when they wanted to invade his private residence at Sipbat, Owerri.

    “But we want to say the former governor has not been in Owerri for days now. Ndubuaku stormed his private home at Sipbat with more than 700 thugs – not forgetting that he told the public he recruited 6,000 youths to help recover government property when the committee was set up.

    “They were about to surge into the Sipbat home when youths sympathetic to the former governor rushed to the place to stop them. Ndubuaku and his thugs were there without any court order. And they have failed or refused to publish whatever they think the former governor has in his possession which they think belongs to the government as we had demanded. They also slapped Okorocha’s daughter, Mrs. Uloma Rochas Nwosu, in one of their altercation.

    “Their hostility against the former governor has snowballed since they saw the mammoth crowd that received him on his first visit back since leaving office on May 29. Governor Ihedioha should pursue peace and ensure peace. Trying to engage his predecessor on all fronts isn’t advisable”.

  • Tension in Imo as youths resist attempt to raid Okorocha’s home

    There was palpable tension in Owerri, the Imo State capital as angry youths resisted attempt to break into the private residence of the immediate past governor of the State, Rochas Okorocha by members of the taskforce set up by the government to recover government property.

    It will be recalled that the Recovery Committee led by Jasper Ndubuaku had in similar manner raided the business places of the daughter and wife of the former governor, in search of stolen property belonging to the state government, which they claimed where hidden in the business premises.

    However the plan to raid Okorocha’s Spibat home, expansive premises that houses the Rochas Foundation College of Africa, was met with stiff opposition as irate youths barricaded the entrance to the compound.

    Angered by the perceived harassment of the former governor, the youths were said to have pounced on the Chairman of the Committee and his men had escaped, sensing danger.

    Simultaneously, while the Ndubuaku-led Committee was trying to gain access to Okorocha’s home, thousands of youths believed to have been mobilized by the state government had laid ambush for the former governor at the Sam Mbakwe Airport, who was reported to be visiting the state.

    But they had to disperse after it was discovered that Okorocha was not returning to the state as they had believed.

    Meanwhile, briefing journalists after the incident at Okorocha’s home, Ndubuaku, said that he was attacked by thugs camped at Okorocha’s compound.

    According to him, he went to the former governor’s home to recover government properties that were hidden in the premises.

    He said, “We went to search the compound with valid Court Order and inventory of the government properties we want to recover, but when we got to the gate, the security men collected the inventory and asked us to wait, while they check if the items were there.

    Read Also: Okorocha warns Imo against harassment

    “While we were still waiting, some armed thugs came out from the compound and attacked us, I was shot severally and cut with machete but it could not pierce my body.”

    Meanwhile reacting to the incident, the former governor, said that the attempted invasion of his private home by agents of the state government without any Court Order, was a continuation of the harassment meted out to him and his family members by the Emeka Ihedioha led administration.

    A statement signed by the Media Adviser to the former governor, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, read, “our attention has been drawn to the Press Conference held today, August 29, 2019 by the Chairman, Imo State Property Recovery Committee Mr. Jasper Ndubuaku accusing the former governor of the State Owelle Rochas Okorocha recruiting thugs to attack him and his team when they wanted to invade the private residence of the former governor at Sipbat, Owerri. And we want to simply state as follows:

    “The former Governor, Owelle Okorocha has not been in Owerri for days now.  Mr. Ndubuaku stormed the private residence of the former governor at Sipbat with more than 700 thugs and he had informed the public when his committee was set up that he had recruited 6000 youths to help him recover government properties.

    “They were about to surge into the Sipbat residence of the former governor when the information came and youths with sympathy for the former governor rushed to the place to stop them.

    “Ndubuaku and his thugs were there without any Court Order. And they have failed or refused to publish whatever they think the former governor has in his possession which they think belongs to the government as we had demanded.   They had also in one of their invasions slapped the daughter of the former governor, Mrs. Uloma Rochas Nwosu”.

    It continued that, “their hostility against the former governor has snowballed since they saw the mammoth crowd that received him when he came back the previous week which was the first of such visit since he left office on May 29, 2019.

    “Governor Ihedioha should pursue peace and ensure peace. Trying to engage his predecessor in all fronts isn’t advisable”

     

     

     

  • Okorocha to supporters: resist attacks

    FORMER Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha has urged his supporters to resist further attacks from the government. He said he would no longer tolerate unwarranted assaults on his person and relatives.

    Okorocha, who addressed a crowd at the Headquarters of the Uche Nwosu Campaign Organisation in Owerri, said he has returned to the state to protect his people from government agents who have launched a war on his followers and legacies.

    The senator noted that the state was still where he left it in terms of infrastructure development, saying his predecessor has done nothing apart from hounding past government officials since he assumed office two months ago.

    Read Also: Okorocha warns Imo against harassment

    He said: “I will no longer tolerate attacks from Governor Emeka Ihedioha. I am urging my supporters to rise up and resist further attacks from the government; nobody should intimidate you, Imo belongs to all of us.

    “They have brought back impunity to Imo State, kidnapping has returned, the state is no longer safe but let not your hearts fail because Ihedioha’s stay in power will be for a little while.”

  • 2023: ‘Igbo must work to earn the confidence of Nigerians’

    Emma Ibediro is the National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC). A trained lawyer, Ibediro was part of the Rochas Okorocha team before the national convention of the party that produced the current National Working Committee. During the governorship primaries, many expected him to take side with Okorocha, but he stood with the party. In this interview, he speaks on the agitation for an Igbo President in 2023, the cry of marginalisation of the Southeast in the National Assembly and much more. Tony Akowe reports.

    THE current NWC just clocked one year in office. Looking back into the last one year, how would you want to rate the party.

    Usually, people give their opinion from the much they know. First, let me congratulate the National Chairman and other members of the NWC on their one year in office. The current NWC was inaugurated on the 24th of June, 2018. Based on what it met on ground, this working committee has done wonderfully well. What is the working committee of a party required to do?  It is in charge of the day to day running of the party and report to the National Executive Committee. Granted that the present working committee was elected close to the election and there were all the problems associated with preparing for election, but you will agree with me that we have done all that is required to be done. We met a sitting President who was going to face a re-election and this working committee was able to galvanise the party in such a way that the President was re-elected. That was our number one priority, to keep our party in power and get our President re-elected. We were able to do that. In every political situation, crisis will always come up, but the way the crises are managed to the advantage of the party is what you should look at. By my own assessment of this working committee, I think we have done quite well no matter what people think. What we are expected to do, we have done. A situation where over 60 political parties were in a contest against one political party, we were able to steer this party in such a way that we got the confidence of Nigerians and got the President elected back to power is a major achievement. There is no way you can rule out crisis in a big party such as the All Progressives Congress.

    Organising is the engine room of the party and you came into office when there were lots of crisis and the party primaries conducted during this period was characterised by series of crisis leading to the party losing a number of seats. Are you not worried about this and how are you using the lesson learnt to advance the future?

    Some of these things depend on how you look at it or the interpretations you give to it. You cannot rule out misunderstanding in a big family like APC. Agreed that during the congresses that brought about the present elected officials there were bound to be misunderstanding here and there. Contrary to what some people believe, the NWC is subject to the National Executive Committee and whatever mode of primaries we choose was approved by the NEC. In our bid to also extend the democratic principles, we wanted the participation of a lot more of our party faithful rather than a select few. When the idea of direct primaries came up, we also realised that some states could have their individual peculiarities and so, we gave options to the states and said, depending on what you want in your state as approved by the stakeholders of the party in that state, the National Working Committee is willing to approve so that everybody will be fully accommodated. To be fair to Comrade Oshiomhole, the National Chairman, a lot of things has been accused of taking decisions alone. That is not true. If you go through records of our meetings, you will find out that the decision to adopt either direct or indirect primary or consensus as the case may be is the decision of the National Executive Committee of the party and it was to reflect the different peculiarities in the various states. There are states that, no matter what you try to do, due to insecurity or some other reasons; you may not be able to conduct direct primaries. But it was for the states to determine what they think was favourable to them and we allowed them that space to decide what they wanted to do. No matter how you look at it, whether you do direct primary or indirect primary, there are issues that will ultimately lead to reconciliation after the elections. Reconciliation is not a one party thing because it must involve all the individuals concerned. But where some individuals, on their own refused every attempt to reconcile and proceed with whatever action they have chosen, there is nothing you can do to them. You cannot force them not to go to court if they want to because that will be going against their fundamental right to seek redress. So, there are certain things you cannot do. But we did everything possible to reconcile all warring parties before the election. But there were some people who decided that whatever we did, they were not going to agree. Some individuals are like that and what can you do to them?

    How are you applying the lessons from that era?

    One of the things we learnt is that we have to be more engaging now and let the stakeholders know the values of some of these things. Probably some people felt that they were not adequately educated on the modus operandi of the NWC. So, we are taking time now to let people know that we are not doing this to either favour or offend any individual sensibility. As a matter of fact, we are trying to do the best we can to enable our party move forward and carry more of our party members along as much as we can. These are lessons we have learnt and we believe that each activity in life should be able to teach each individual a lesson. So, we are drawing from the lessons of the last election. This year, we have two staggered elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states and I am sure that we are going to draw experiences from the past. We will begin early to sensitise our members.

    The NWC approved indirect mode of primary for the Kogi State chapter to select their governorship candidate and this is already creating issues within the state chapter. How are you handling this to avoid a repeat of the episodes of the last elections?

    People are quick to draw conclusions. It appears that the extent to which you heard about the NWC approval was the indirect primary. You did not look at the second leg which talked about without prejudice to any other development that may come up before the election. We include that clause because we know that certain developments may arise before the primary. So, that decision is not cast on stone. The NWC merely followed what has been approved by the NEC to adopt either indirect, direct or consensus. The NWC recieved a letter from the state chapter in line with the NEC decision adopting indirect primary. But know that where it is impossible to have an indirect primary based on existing court actions or litigations and in order not to run the risk of what happened in Zamfara, we may also change our mind. That is why we said subject to developments before the primary. But people have the tendencies of going to the extreme on the other side. So, there has to be a balance which we have applied.

    There has been this debate about Igbo Presidency come 2023 in APC. What are the chances of the APC giving the Igbos the ticket?

    You see, when people talk about Igbo Presidency, I have always said that Igbo presidency is not a right, just like Hausa presidency is not a right; Yoruba presidency is not a right. Igbo presidency can only become possible if you work within the party and convince Nigerians to produce a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction. You have to work within the group you belong. For instance, if I talk about my party APC, if you work within the party and every other member of the party, either from North-west, North-east or from North-west or from Southwest will now come to the conclusion that you as an individual can have the confidence of Nigerians to become their president. The fact that you are from Southeast or from any other area is neither here or there. So, if the people from the Southeast are aspiring to become Nigeria’s president, I think the first thing to do is to work within the party, to get the rest of Nigerians to accept you for that position. It is not a right. That is what I would say.

    How would you want them to work? For political balancing, every other person has said that APC should give the Southeast the ticket for 2023. Are you in tune with this?

    I don’t want to be emphatic that it must be an Igbo person. This party is not built on the platform of dictating to the people what they want. Remember, if you check the percentage of population of members of APC and check the population of Nigerians, you will see that we are even less than five percent. So, we are talking about a president that will be a president of Nigeria, not a president of APC. So, first of all, under whatever platform you want to achieve that aspiration, you have to work to get yourself acceptable to that platform you belong to. It is not going to be an automatic award that Nigerians should give Southeast ticket for president. What of the situation where APC gives ticket automatically to somebody from the Southeast and he doesn’t win the main election? Have you considered that? The Southeast needs to play good politics; the politics of engagement, the politics of consultation, the politics of getting the other parts of Nigeria involved in their aspirations. But for now I don’t think we are playing good politics.

    As a member of the APC from the Southeast, if you address Igbo congress, would you say the APC has done much for the Southeast for them to embrace the party?

    It is a question of give and take. I am an Igbo man and I need to be very objective. What has the Igbo man done to impress APC?  You have to balance it. The president campaigned in all the five states of the Southeast, just like he campaigned in every other states; but what was the return for it in terms of votes? So, you also need to encourage people to do something for you. You cannot at every point be asking for something without giving something in return. For instance, when they talk about marginalisation in the National Assembly, I ask, what are you bringing to the table to deserve some of those positions? If you want to be President of the Senate, it is not an automatic award. If there is an election in the National Assembly, how many people from your side will vote for you? You have only two Senators; one is ranking and the other not ranking and you know that the rule in the National Assembly is that the person must be ranking. Secondly, if you are looking for Majority Leader, how many people did you bring from the Southeast to be compared to the Northwest or the Northeast where majority of the members come from? You have to fortify your home first before you can ask for outside help.

    Coming into the position you are occupying at the time you did, nobody would pray to be in your shoes. There was former Governor Okorocha on one side and the man you took over from, Izunaso on the other. How did you survive?

    When you are faced with a situation where the only worthy decision you can take is for the interest of the party, you can let every other thing lie low. My interest in this party is to see how it can move ahead. Whatever I can do to make this party move ahead, was my priority. So, every other personal thing didn’t mean anything to me.

  • Busola’s equivalent

    Questions will linger, even when it seems the cause celebre is over. No affair of the heart, especially where sex roils, ever fades into the grave. Even when it is only suggested, without a scintilla of proof, it overruns the human imagination. Hence writers and movie directors have steamed movie screens and pages with the forbidden romance between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Why? Because sex is the only deity without a shrine. The shrine, however, is not tactile. You cannot touch. It lurks and frisks in the heart, eluding even the owner of the heart.

    In its name, war theatres have burned, bullies roared, mansions erected, kingdoms rose and fell, dictators trembled, patriarchs bowed, families atrophied, fathers betrayed son and daughter, father defiled daughter, father cuckolded son, son overthrew father. Sex stalked the best tales of history. Josephine and Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars. Anthony and Cleopatra and the Roman epics. Gowon and Edith, Ojukwu and his re-enactments of David and Bathsheba, all in the Nigerian civil war. Even the birth of the holy of holies, the Church of England, was powered by the fiery loins of Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn. Many suicide bombers would be earthly saints if they didn’t fantasize about the many virgins swirling in the hereafter. Even MKO Abiola, our great June 12 hero, was nothing without his pacts with his flesh.

    Even in literature, tales fail where sex does not perspire. Homer’s The Iliad was all about Penelope, Okonkwo’s machismo would fall limp without his escapades, Soyinka’s Death and King’s Horseman will faint if the protagonist did not rethink the lush loins he was vacating. The great writers, Flaubert, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Conrad, Dostoyevsky, Sophocles, Euripides, all paid homage to sex.

    So, when Busola Dakolo added to this human obsession, it only proved that the shrine was all well and good in our country. Some say they believe her. Some say she made it up. Those who believe say her story says it is not only hers but also of others, all those who have erupted into the public space with personal accounts of Pastor Fatoyinbo’s sizzles in the dark. Why, some said, did she set him up? Why did she come down in her night gown with all its prompts and temptation? Why did she drink the Krest? Why did she go to her home after the corruption? Why did she wait for two decades before blabbing? Why give him another opportunity for pelvic explosion on a car bonnet?

    Whatever happened in that alleged dawn of rape and Krest, what her doubters must realise is the pedagogy of the oppressed. That is the education of Busola. A defiled person is not a normal person after the fact. If she was raped, why did she not scream at the time? Remember that this was the man she held in awe, a sort of divine rescuer. He came to replace a deadbeat dad, who was never around. He came as God’s messenger to her life. She also knew the man was a “redeemed cultist” with all the fear and trembling.

    She was not only cowed in body, but also in spirit. She was therefore a dazed person. How was she to confront this defiler? How was it not her fault, she would tell herself. She would, in that subjugated cast of mind, want to seek validation even with her conqueror. She would want him to tell her she was not a bad person. That way she would keep going to him, and not only him but other men. Maybe, somehow, she would realize that it was not her fault.

    That is what her traducers don’t know. Humans bond with their oppressors. They go back for comfort. It is the tyranny of oppression that the oppressor’s greatest asset is not the conquest of the body but of the spirit. According to Busola’s account, the man first conquered her spirit, therefore earning her trust. Conquering her flesh was a forgone conclusion. So, once the spirit submitted, rape was easy, even in the cosy intimacy of her home that he apparently frequented. He knew the comings and goings in the household, so he also plotted his comings and goings. This also happens in marriages, where spousal abuse is routine, but the victim remains trying to redeem themselves with the abuser, hoping they would find absolution. Singer Tina Turner suffered for many years under her husband, and she did not know she had great legs until she was free. It is such freedom that Busola sought and found elusive.

    Her sort of oppression is commonplace in the realm of politics. Donald Trump  is a great modern example. He would not have won, if he did not have the support of women, including suburban and educated ones. They saw protection in a man who has shown open contempt for women in word and deed. In the patriarchal age, who delayed suffrage for women, was it men? NO. it was women in the United States who fought against women’s rights icons like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

    The man, who would soon be United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, or BoJo, has never had a reputation for treating women with respect. Recently, he had a row with his girlfriend and his neighbour had to call the cops. Not long after, he posed on a lawn with the same woman, two of them feigning a smile.

    The Russians have for about a century lived happily under one tyranny after another, but they would go to war to defend their oppressor. Is Kim’s North Korea not an instance of such power of one man over a people for generations? Same applies to Filipino leader Duterte, who jeered, ‘’so long as there are many beautiful women, there will be many rapes, too. Or Brazillian leader Bolsonaro, who mocked a woman that ‘’I would never tape you because you dont deserve it’’.

    Father bequeaths it to son. In Nigeria, have we not seen people vote for the same person over and over even with no example of progress. They weave myths about the personages, and they believe everything they hear and dismiss facts evident before them.

    Eventually such powers fade, but before then, they bow before their oppressors until the light comes. It happens in politics as with the men of God. The men of God use miracles, as though miracles are the real evidence of God’s presence, when the devil also can do miracles. Even Jesus dismissed them as workers of iniquity. If they focus on the weightier matters of the law, they would distinguish the phony from the true.

    The people who suffer avidly under such politicians and prophets are the political and pious equivalents of Busola Dakolo. But like Prometheus in Aeschylus’ play, Prometheus Bound, suffering is for a while. In the Greek sequel, the man seeks freedom by reconciling with Zeus. But centuries later, an English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, rewrote Prometheus Unbound, making the man obtain freedom by rebelling against the gods. That is the recipe Busola is seeking, to rebel against the man who played God in her life, for decades.

    Rousseau had an answer that resonated in the French revolution. He exclaimed, “force them to be free.” That, perhaps, is what Busola is doing for herself.

     

    Roach of democracy

    The last time I wrote about Rochas Okorocha, I described him as seeking to be a post-governor, his own version of a dual mandate, apologies Lord Lugard. Hence, he is still running ads on television about his heroics, as though the baton has not changed hands. If you go to Imo State, you will wonder how the man governed a state with such lack of restraint. Forget about the university he built for himself while in office that looks better than any in the state or region, even though almost completed. Forget about the statue of a failed South Africa leader he erected on the same pedestal with Ojukwu, the Igbo preeminent hero. Also forget a secondary school he called Rochas College of Africa he carted away from the state’s broadcasting corp., or the estate he built or his wife built while he was in office, the poshest in the state. And forget that he erected a hand statue, named Akachi, pointing to heaven beside the estate. Forget that the exco chamber is like a civil war relic, cobwebs and cracks, from neglect and he held his exco in a place that looks like a beer parlour.

    One of the endangered roads

    What I could not get over were some roadworks that endangered his fellow citizens. A few of them had shown deep craters as though bombed. They were built without due process and without proper blocks and rods.  I saw two bridges in Owerri that Governor Emeka Ihedioha has shut off awaiting proper investigation. On one bridge, I met staff of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) who had warned Okorocha not to toy with Imo lives. Parts of the bridge have dipped under pressure, the hole not revealing any proper rods.

    The man said he had finished the work in Imo State, maybe for himself. And he eyes our presidency. Those who coined the phrase delusion of grandeur had not seen his type. He also built tunnels that many road users are avoiding, because they look like disasters waiting to happen. If the roads and bridges are restored, Gov. Ihedioha would have been saved Okorocha the spiritual consequences of disastrous blood guilt. He confirmed we have Roaches of democracy in this land.

  • Okorocha: INEC to meet on court judgment

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that it will meet to do the needful on the judgment concerning the release of the certificate of returns for Rochas Okorocha.

    The Commission in a statement noted that as a law abiding institution will obey all court orders.

    The statement which was signed by Mr. Festus Okoye, National Commissioner & Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, stated that “the Commission will meet as soon as practicable to do the needful”.

    As a law-abiding institution, the Commission will continue to obey judgements of all courts of competent jurisdiction.

    “However, the Commission’s overriding consideration is the safety of its ad-hoc staff, Electoral Officers and Collation/Returning Officers and is worried that if electoral impunity is allowed to flourish, any individual can harass, intimidate and put the Commission’s officers under duress, procure a favourable declaration and be rewarded with a Certificate of Return,” he stressed.

    Read Also: Okorocha didn’t hand over to me, says Ihedioha

    He also revealed that the commission “has been served with the Order of a High Court of Imo State, presided over by Hon. Justice Njemanze, directing the Commission not to issue a Certificate of Return to any of the candidates that contested the Imo West Senatorial District election. The Order from the High Court of Imo State was issued on 23rd May 2019 and the suit has been further adjourned to 26thJune 2019.

    “The Commission is aware that the judgement delivered by the Federal High Court, Abuja is the latest in time and determined the rights of the parties in relation to the subject matter of the Certificate of Return, in respect of the Imo West Senatorial Election. ”

    He however noted that “the Commission is currently undertaking State level reviews of the 2019 general elections and all the National Commissioners are either in or heading to their States of Supervision to coordinate activities relating to the said review. “

  •  101-yr-old regains freedom after 18 years in prison

    A 101 year- old man, Pa Celestine Egboluche, from Amachalla-Owerri, Akokwa, in Ideato Local Government Area of Imo State, who was jailed since 2000 alongside his only son, Paul Egboluche, 41, Thursday regained freedom from Enugu Maximum Prison following a state pardon by former Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha.

    His son was, however, not that lucky as he was not included from the pardon.

    Pa Celestine was rushed to hospital in Enugu by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Global Society for Anti-Corruption (GSAC), that championed the cause for his pardon.

    His pardon was made possible because of deteriorating health.

    It was gathered that the centenarian may suffer another trauma as  his house located in his village was demolished by those who accused him and his son of allegedly plotting the kidnap and the killing of one of their relations, Cyril Igbokwe.

    Read Also: Three kidnapped travellers regain freedom

    Regional Director GSAC, South East and South South, Mrs Amaka Nweke, pleaded with governments, organisations and good spirited Nigerians to come to the aid of the dying centenarian so that he could be rehabilitated.

    Nweke also pleaded that his only son should also be granted pardon to look after his father.

    “We are grateful to God and the government for granting his release from prison. We are however appealing to all and sundry to come to the aid of the old man so that he could be rehabilitated because his house in the village was demolished by the villagers.

    “We also appeal that his son who was imprisoned along with him should be released to attend to his ailing father“ Nweke pleads.

    Pleading the innocence of her father and brother in the supposed crime for which they were incarcerated, the only surviving daughter of Pa Celestine, Miss Chisom Celestine, 31, thanked all that helped to see to the release of her father but pleaded that her brother, too be released.