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Why Soludo is after me � Chris Uba By Daniel Alabrah Monday, November 02, 2009
Professor Soludo Photo: Sun News Publishing More Stories on This Section
The acclaimed godfather of Anambra State politics, Chief Chris Uba, has said the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Soludo is witch-hunting him because he refused to anoint his candidacy for the governorship seat of the state.
He told journalists that it was unfortunate if his refusal to impose Soludo as the candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party was the basis for alleging him to have masterminded the kidnap of his father.
Chris Uba also shed light on sundry issues bordering on his relationship with Dr. Andy Uba, his elder brother.
Excerpts: You were alleged to have kidnapped Professor Soludo�s father. Did you really do it? I believe that allegation is diversionary. I am a Board of Trustees (BOT) member of the PDP. I�m for the truth. Our President, Alhaji Umar Musa Yar�Adua, a fine man; a very good man, is doing well and mean well for this country, through his due process policy and humility, and what I believe the national headquarters of PDP should do is to assist the president to succeed and not distract him.
It is unfortunate that the issue of the alleged kidnap of Soludo�s father is happening now. I cannot know anything about it and have nothing to do with it. If that is politics, then it�s an unfortunate trend.
But are you aware of a newspaper report published last Tuesday that quoted the Commissioner of Police of Anambra State as having said that Soludo associated you with the kidnap? When I spoke with the police commissioner last Wednesday night, he said I was only being invited because of the rally we in the state exco organised against Soludo�s selection. But it�s unfortunate that someone whom everybody knows as one of my closest friends, could because of political disagreement, link me with a crime of this heinous nature.
You were friends, but � (cuts in) We became friends before he was made Chief Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo. We continued as friends when he was CBN governor. It was when he now said he wanted to be governor of Anambra State that I said �no�.
I asked him why he wanted to be governor, he said Anambra State�s budget is nothing, but that he needed the governorship badly because of �immunity�.
I told him that Anambra State has gone through many political problems; that people are no longer comfortable with imposition, but Soludo believes that once few people meet and give him the mandate, it is over and I told him such thing is no longer possible and not in the interest of our state. if this is why he is accusing me of kidnapping his father, then it is unfortunate. People who know me know I�m not a criminal. At the rally, the state exco of our party in Anambra said �no� to the illegality of Soludo imposition. No amount of blackmail or intimidation, can stop the opposition until the party corrects this Soludo mistake.
By the way, Soludo is not a member of the PDP. What is his contribution to the well-being of our great party? Nothing. He left the banks with a big hole. He afflicted some Nigerian banks with financial cancer. Instead of him to face his problems, he now wants to come and hide under immunity.
He himself has once said he had problem in his village. He is involved in a serious conflict in his hometown Isuofia and in his village which he has split into two warring sides. The details of the crisis is well known to the state police command who have intervened on several occasions.
He said some people were fighting him. He moved his wife and children abroad. Why did he leave his father behind? But we read in earlier media reports that you were the one who went to invite Soludo to contest for the governorship of your state.
That is what Soludo wanted the people to believe. So I invited Soludo, which means he was an outsider? He was only dropping my name. He has never been a member of PDP. He has never fostered any good relationship with either his community or politicians in Anambra State.
In fact, the idea of Soludo�s governorship ambition became known when he lost the bid to be returned as CBN governor which he had assured many people was a sealed deal. It will be interesting to know at what point I may have approached him when, in fact, we never related on the basis of politics. Generally speaking, Soludo is not a political asset. He is a political liability to the party. His candidacy is dead on arrival.
Don�t you think your party at the national level, may wield the big stick against you for organising a rally opposing its candidate for the state governorship? My party will not wield any big stick. The rally was organised by the state executive to protest the irregular selection of Soludo as the party candidate. I merely attended because there was no directive from the party not to hold the rally.
Also, the signature on the advert was forged. Our party�s constitution does not state that state exco has no right to organise rallies in the state. Somebody just wrote something and put a fake signature on it.
But why was it you being suspected by the Soludo camp? Soludo knows that I�m one of the major opposition fighting his candidacy. I�m sure the police will soon come out with the findings of their investigations of the kidnap saga. Nigerians will then know who is telling the truth.
Nobody is above the law, if I�m needed by the police, I�ll present myself. You must also know that people have been kidnapped in the state previously. I bet you, Soludo knows where he kept his father. Don�t you think your antecedents may have made you a suspect by those who are making the allegation against you? You remember you were alleged to have also kidnapped the then governor, Dr. Chris Ngige? I never kidnapped Ngige. I never left Enugu to Awka. Ngige himself said it was the police that told him to vacate. Now, some people politicised it by brining my name into it.
Let�s talk about your relationship with your brother, Dr. Andy Uba. I remember you were also opposed to him in the 2007 election. Who would you really prefer as governor of Anambra State? I was never opposed to my brother in 2007. People who wanted to cause mischief came between us. You need to know that we were born by the same father and mother. But this is politics. And you know members of the same family may belong to different political groups or have different political inclinations. Andy is my senior brother, I have no problems with him.
Also, I need to add this. Talking about our great party (PDP) and Soludo, all I want is for the due process to be followed. Let�s conduct fresh, transparent primaries. Anybody that wins, should be governor. As a BOT member in the South East, I spent close to N800 million to buy brand new 406 cars and shared to all the party executives in the state. I bought 5, 000 wrappers and shared N500, 000.00 to each local government area, just for the purpose of mobilising for the party.
I want Soludo to tell Nigerians what he has done for our party to be angling to fly the party�s flag. All our party members and the NWC of our party fully knew about these donations I have just mentioned, which I made to further the interest of our party in the state.
As a well enlightened professor, should Soludo not have resigned when there was an outcry against his selection? He knew he came in through the back door and yet, he refused to resign. He is not a gentleman at all.
I want to say that I know a lot of things about this man called Chukwuma Soludo. And I will soon begin to talk, if he does not mellow down against me. He has a lot of skeletons in his cupboard. Soludo is not coming to help Anambra people. He is coming to hide from prosecution from the havoc he has caused in the banks. I know what he has discussed with me on this.
From all that have happened since the PDP aborted primaries in Anambra and the selection of Soludo as the PDP�s candidate, why is the opposition against Soludo still strong? Well, it is obvious that Soludo�s entry into the governorship race was not well thought out and he may have been deceived by those who knew he had a large sum to disburse. For instance, Soludo never made any contact with any of the structures in Anambra State throughout the crisis within the party. Rather, after losing the bid for a second tenure as CBN governor, he started approaching people to buy them off. In my case, he offered me $10 million which I rejected.
He offered me the money for me to endorse him and ensure he becomes the governor in 2010. I rejected the money in my house here in Abuja and felt insulted. By the way where did he get 10 million U.S. dollars from? Also, the greatest affront of his emergence was that when he was losing out in the primaries, he sponsored proxies who obtained an order to stop the process, only to come and benefit from what he initially sabotaged through a worse selection process. Yet, these issues are not being addressed. No matter what anyone says of the Nigerian political struggle, the truth is that we must have a base. In Soludo�s case, not even his community will stand by him after throwing them into serious and avoidable crises which they are yet to resolve. In fact, the Anambra State police command is aware of this crises in Soludo�s Isuofia community which have remained intractable.
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2503 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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