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FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBTS: BY EMEKA UGWUONYE
DEAR ALL:
On the specific issues that came up recently whether to support Emeka Ugwuonye or not, I want to clarify as follows:
(A) To arrest, detain and torture Emeka Ugwuonye in Nigeria for what happened in Washington DC is a clear threat to all members of our Diaspora community. A simple dispute with a powerful person in America could lead to your arrest and detention in Nigeria. A quarrel in the street of Washington with a family member of the a Nigerian police commissioner could lead to your incarceration in Nigeria. But what about the torture? Is there any basis in any system for them to torture and repeatedly beat me in detention? Is there any reason for them to me pressure me to disclose the information about my clients and certain information they believe I have about people in Nigeria. I am sure there must be somebody who would say; "That serves him right. Emeka should be tortured". But I am sure that most people would object to torture. One thing that we in the Diaspora feel certain about is that we cannot be arbitrarily arrested and detained or tortured anymore by the Nigerian security agencies. And when we manage to visit Nigeria, we are usually careful to ensure that we do not get into any trouble that could give them an excuse to arrest or detain us. But what if they arrest and detain you not for what you did in Nigeria but what you are alleged to have done in Washington or New York or Houston, London, Pretoria, etc? If you allow that, then you have allowed them to break the only protection you have. You will now have to live in Chicago and worry about Nigerian police.
(B) I am not worried about not continuing to work for the Embassy of Nigeria. All I ask is for them to pay me what they still owe me. They never paid for my services. They used me and abused my goodwill. They lied to me. They tried several times to get me to lie to the American authorities. They pressured me to give them money. They pushed me to the wall ethically and constantly endangered my practice. In fact, the worst thing that ever happened to me was that I ever worked for Nigerian government. I couldn't play their games and there was always tension. As I speak, they owe me money in fees not withstanding the 1.5 million dollars. Any Nigerian lawyer that works for the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington will probably face the same problems over time. It is a common knowledge that any one who has contract with the Nigerian government officials would be asked to pay a kickback. They do it all the time in Nig eria. But if you try it in the US, you would commit a crime with serious consequences. I refused to share my fees, and they decided to teach me a lesson and send a strong message to anyone out there who dares to break their code of conduct again.
(C) I have no problem with the fact that the Embassy hired a lawyer to work in house. After all, what Aluko's son is doing for them are the basic routine stuff, which we did free of charge for the Embassy, such things like writing a letter to vendors when the vendors demand their money and the Embassy cannot pay, or speaking with AT&T; when an ambassador's family runs up the phone bills and there is a dispute over it with the phone company. Indeed, I had encouraged the Embassy to hire someone in house to handle such menial legal matters. The firm that could be said to have taken over our work for the Embassy is a DC law firm which charges them over 1 million dollars per annum in base fees and they are paid up front. That firm will not do the menial job and they would not do it free of charge as we did most of the time.
(D) What may bother me about the choice of Aluko's son are just about five: (i) The Ambassadors, starting with Rotimi, believed strangely that I was hired by Obiozor because I was an Igbo. First, Obiozor did not hire me. So, that assumption was false and it could be easily contradicted if anyone bothered to look in the files. (ii) The Ambassadors continued to spread the rumor that the Igbo people conspired to sell the Embassy properties at giveaway prices. There is no truth in either element of that allegation. Property transactions were controlled all the way from Abuja, even to the point that my fees were cleared with Ambassador Adeniji, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the listing of the properties were cleared by Sule Lamido, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and in some cases the price at which the properties were sold were approved by President Obasanjo in his own handwriting. And all properties were sold to the highest bidders after they were listed by reputable real estate agents for months. (iii) Bolaji Aluko was misleading the whole community with the claim that he was against me because it was in the public interest to castigate me, whereas, in fact, he was actively positioning himself and his family for favors and benefits from the new Ambassadors. Such a peculiar and manipulative definition of public interest is what I found to be mind-bugling, not because Aluko used it, but because the people seemed not to know any better. They thought he was right and that he cared so much about the interest of the public. (iv) The Ambassadors imagined a warfare between the Igbos (me, Obizor and Maduekwe) against the Yorubas (Ambassador Rotimi). In such an imaginary warfare, they perceive Aluko as a man who was fighting for the Yoruba against the Igbo. So, they felt he needed rewards and compensation for what he has "suffered" in the hand of an Igbo cabal led by Emeka Ugwuonye. No wonder; when I offered to make peace with Aluko and to dismiss the case in March of 2010, Aluko refused to allow the cases to be dismissed. He was enjoying the impressions he gave the Ambassadors that he was fighting for them. If the cases got dismissed and he made peace with me, he wouldn't be seen to have fought enough for the cause. (v) If the Embassy of Nigeria really wanted to hire a lawyer as an in house, they ought to have been more transparent about it to avoid any appearance of ethnicity and tribal bias. Throw it open to many Nigerian lawyers in the US and select the best of them, which could end up being Aluko's son. But for goodness sake, don't start this story about Igbo lawyers, Yoruba lawyers, Yoruba Ambassadors, Igbo Ambassadors, Yoruba Professors, etc, and then secretly pick the son of the most virulent opponent of the so called "Igbo lawyer". What happened to the "Nigerian Lawyer", "Nigerian Ambassador"? Why continue to break the country into ethnicity for none cultural issues, when the world has become so networked and so integrated. How could I date and even marry an Australian woman, but be worried about a Yoruba Ambassador? If we consider racism wrong, we must be prepared to consider tribalism worse.
(E) By the way, for your information, Aluko's son was hired by the Ambassador probably between August of 2010 and December of 2010. I knew about it. So, let it not appear as if I just found out or as if I am crying for losing a brief. I also knew that Ambassador Adefuye had been speaking with Aluko concerning the case I filed against Aluko and the Ambassador was promising Aluko that he would do something to help him by finding a way to punish me. In fact, I was warned that the Ambassador was going to hire a law firm in Washington to sue me and that he was considering using EFCC against me. (Aluko knew the Ambassador's plans and he share the information with his close friends. None of that worried me at all because I knew that the Nigerian criminal justice system would never have jurisdiction over my dispute with the Embassy over the 1.5 million. Also, I felt confident because the 1.5 million complaint was already dismissed by the District of Columbia Bar in my favor and I could not see how a Government that owed me over 2 million dollars could complain that they paid me or that I seized 1.5 million dollars.
(F) So, I did not fear these threats. Obviously, while I remained firm in my views of Nigeria not having jurisdiction over the controversy, I had failed to appreciate the fact that in Nigeria, agencies like the EFCC do not obey the law and they arrest people just to harass them. Also, I had not contended with the fact that EFCC was being headed by one of the most daft public officials in Nigerian history. I had assumed that Mrs. Waziri would familiarize herself with the facts of any case before she would arrest a person in my position, by which I refer to the fact that I have been the country's lawyer and that I was at least entitled to an opportunity to explain my side of the controversy. But it turned out that Mrs. Farida Waziri was no better than a constable on the road side collecting money from okada riders. She would do whatever she perceives to be the wish of the bigger person in a any two-men fight.
(G) On the issue of my alleged new status: I appreciate the fact that some people would like to support me. It is important to say that I do not see such support as a support for me as a person. Rather, I believe they are supporting due process. They are saying, don't kill the guy just to silence him. They are saying don't lock him up simply to keep him quiet or to break him. I think it is a thing they should do under any circumstances and regardless of who is involved. I can assure you that the Nigerian Government will care about your voices because as you have seen in the Wikileaks disclosures, Nigerian officials would do everything not to be seen to offend the US Government. If you demand justice in my case, Nigerian Government will be forced to listen. And the benefit will not be just for me: it will be for all Nigerians including you.
(H) You must realize that at any point in time in my case, there has been a competition for the opinions of the members of the Diaspora community. The Ambassadors were listening all that time when Emeka Ugwuonye was being vilified on the net. Indeed, the Ambassador made effort to ensure that the Diaspora public perceived me in a negative light. For instance, people were privately encouraged by the Embassy to attack me. People were invited to dinner with the Ambassador just to get their support in the war against Emeka Ugwuonye and some of them would come to the net and boast that they have information about Emeka Ugwuonye's case, which they never really shared with anybody. Ambassador Adefuye would not have been comfortable plotting against me with Mrs. Farida Waziri in Nigeria unless he felt that I had been so sufficiently vilified here. Indeed, lies were used to shape your opinions. First, do you not reme mber how in August of 2010, some people announced how I lost my case in court and how the court found that the allegations against me were true? Do you remember that? It was not really true. The reasons for the court's decision then was actually favorable to me in certain respects. But that particular spin was meant for your consumption and to psyche the Ambassador into thinking that I was finished and that he was at liberty to exact his revenge, and that their warrior had vanquished Emeka and then deserved his reward from the Government. In order words, the Ambassador felt that whatever he did henceforth would be like flogging a dead animal. For the avoidance of doubts, of all the cases in which I have been involved over this matter, the only ones that are over are the two cases that Aluko filed against me. He withdrew them as he could not take them to trial. My only case against Aluko is still active and pending.
(I) My request of the public has been one all along: Do not take sides. Just watch and see how things go. If you can support me on principles, do so. But if you cannot, then stay neutral and watch. Don't rush to crucify me based on sheer manipulation of your opinion. It has been a rather tough fight because I am fighting a powerful and concerted enemy with all the money in the world to embezzle or to use to fight me. But I remain confident of victory, if they do not kill me in Nigeria. The only thing you can do for me, which would seem fair, is to stop them from killing me. I have been repeatedly warned about that. A man I met and befriended in the EFCC cell who has friends in the government came to my hotel one night to warn me that I was very close to being assassinated. He knelt down and begged me to shut up and quietly return to the US to take care of my children. He kept saying: "Emeka, I just came out from a meeting. You don't realize how deadly these people are". When I told him not to worry. He shook his head at me as if I was mad. He then turned for the last time and said, "I have not met your two children, but hearing how worried you were about them in the cell, I think you should consider what happens to them if they have to grow up without their father". That was too difficult to bear. But what am I going to do? I grew up without my father, and I wouldn't want my children to grow up without me. But I can't turn my back now from this fight, even if I were to try.
(J) For the avoidance of doubt, it is no use trying to classify me into something that sounds great. I am not a revolutionary. I am not a crusader. I am not even a leader. I am just a normal guy who was forced into a circumstance where he found himself looking in the face of absolute evil and he refused to capitulate and be destroyed forever. However modest, however little the outcome, I have decided to land a punch on the face of that monster even if it is going to consume me afterwards. We simply should not allow these people to continue to rape our country just like this. They've pillaged. They've plundered. They've killed. They've virtually gone with impunity. Read the Wikileaks and what you learn is only a snippet of what goes on. For everything in Wikileaks, there are hundred not yet revealed. Criminals are running Nigeria. But a time comes in our lives when we must look evil in the face and refuse to bow down. Yes, it is true that my involvement in this struggle came in form of my personal quarrel with them, but it has to come somehow. In Tunisia, it came in form of a simple mistreatment of an ordinary artisan. Let it be said in the case of Nigeria that it came in form of a the unlawful arrest and detention of Emeka Ugwuonye. Everyday that I see my children, I try to hold them because I know these may be the thing they would remember if I'm gone.
(K) I must emphasize that I am not a whistle blower either. I am just a man that couldn't take it anymore.
Ephraim Emeka Ugwuonye, Esquire President ECULAW GROUP Website: www.eculaw.com Tel: 202-459-3382 Fax: 240-489-9300
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2510 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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By the way, this Aluko guy has been tasked with developing a plan for a Federal University in Eastern Nigeria.
quote:I have no problem with the fact that the Embassy hired a lawyer to work in house. After all, what Aluko's son is doing for them are the basic routine stuff, which we did free of charge for the Embassy, such things like writing a letter to vendors when the vendors demand their money and the Embassy cannot pay, or speaking with AT&T; when an ambassador's family runs up the phone bills and there is a dispute over it with the phone company. Indeed, I had encouraged the Embassy to hire someone in house to handle such menial legal matters.
___________________ Feel me? Ofu onye ana asi unu abia go. - Ednut Igbo-American . www.airamericaradio.com visit her. Posts: 2510 | From: Mother Earth | Registered: Mar 2001
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When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
___________________ The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves... Posts: 789 | From: Valle del Sol, AZ | Registered: Nov 2004
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