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Ngige must comply with Egwu
panel- Okpaloka
As Anambra State indigenes and indeed Nigerians continue to
react to the November mayhem in Anambra, Chief Reuben Okechukwu Okpaloka,
secretary of the Chief Chris Uba-led faction of the ruling Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), in this interview with our Correspondent, FELIX UKA, gives
insight into those he feels were behind the crisis. Excerpts:
THE November
mayhem seems to have robbed the state of most of the things that make up a
government. As the ruling party in the state, how do you view the incident?
The state secretariat of PDP in Anambra
State feels too sorry over the unwarranted break down of law and order in the
state due to one man’s carefully designed desire of using high-intelligence over
and above all in the state to cover up his usual personal and official
life-style of greed and jealousy on the governance of Anambra State. The party
condemns all these irresponsible acts as they are not signs of democracy
dividends to our people.
The governor has heavily backed up his
carefully designed false propaganda, using all sorts of personnel and media in
blackmailing such individuals or groups who have had dealings with him by
causing artificial public hatred for those people while using the state
government-owned Anambra State Broadcasting Service (ABS) to air them times
without number. By that His Excellency, Dr. Chris Ngige tries in all aspects to
crucify all those that were in the forefront of actualising his present position
both financially and through the use of the party machinery.
As the party in power, how much effort
have you made to resolve the crisis within yourselves in the state?
Notwithstanding the way the governor has
chosen to rule, enough peaceful steps have been painstakingly taken by the state
PDP through the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to ensure that
Governor Ngige sees reason and complies with the rules of the party
constitution, but he found himself above the party. He enjoys crisis and ego
trips which afford him the opportunity to unnecessarily spend from the state
treasury. He chose a chairman for the Anambra State Independent Electoral
Commission (ANSIEC) who has openly become an agent of Ngige’s government and
group in deciding for PDP who becomes the party’s candidates for the local
government election. He has suddenly assumed the position of the party’s
chairman in the state. Cornel Umeh is maternal cousin to Ngige, so what do you
expect?
I don’t see the election holding as they
claim to have planned it because the necessary structures were not put in place.
The ANSIEC chairman only says what he sees in dream. They first wanted to
embarrass the Christians by putting the election on December 25th when the birth
of Jesus Christ is celebrated. The ANSIEC chairman is a major cause of the
problem, by receiving a list of candidates from one Dr. Fred Oduah whom they say
is a state coordinator of PDP, but disregarded orders of PDP National Working
Committee.
Even the governor and his group attempted
to use two Rev. Fathers to block PDP state chairman’s reception at Cana-House,
Awka and deceitfully caused the Catholic Bishop of Awka, Arch-Diocese to write
patron of the national PDP and almost instigated religious riot between the PDP
and our good Catholic Church in Anambra, but for God’s grace.
Governor Ngige’s faction is alleging that
the Uba group to which you belong planned and held a rally on that November 10,
2004 to cause breakdown of law and order by burning government facilities.
Dr. Ngige and his government had prior to
the November 10, through the ABS, challenged the flag-off campaign for the local
government election of PDP. He did that together with ANSIEC chairman without
justification. They carried the unwarranted announcement in ABS by airing strong
threats to members and supporters of PDP not to attend the PDP’s planned
flag-off rally at Aroma junction and that anybody that goes there shall have
himself to blame. This scary announcement continued until Wednesday, the 10th of
November morning.
The ANSIEC said the date slated for
flag-off was November 17, not November 10, 2004, didn’t the commission
communicate that to you?
That is not the issue. A political party
can flag-off its rally anytime it pleases. The flag-off is for candidates to be
given flags so that they know whom the party has chosen. Those chosen by the
party would then go for the ANSIEC’s own campaign rally. Again one had police
official approval to hold the rally.
So how do you view the coincidence of that
rally and the mayhem of which started early morning of that November 10 by
burning of the ABS facilities?
Despite government’s announcement on that
Wednesday morning, as early as 10.00 a.m., hundreds of PDP members and
supporters’ vehicles had started arriving at both Aroma junction and Amansea
border for the great flag-off campaign rally notwithstanding the government’s
plans to abort the rally. The jubilating PDP members and supporters with many
dancing groups were flying PDP flags high and low and were suddenly thrown into
disarray by unidentified groups with L-300 vehicles storming the venue hitting
everybody and burning down canopies. Before we could know what was happening,
the PDP secretariat at No. 7 Ziks Avenue, Awka, got shattered and was vandalised.
Explosions were heard here and there, forcing our jubilant members to take to
their heels. The incident was promptly reported to the Anambra State police
commissioner who of course promptly deployed his men to take care of the
situation. It was at this point that PDP realised that Dr. Ngige and his
government were out to sabotage the flag-off rally. The happenings confirmed
that the state government was out with violence to disorganise the rally from
being held.
On Thursday, November 11, 2004, the state
PDP again tried to flag-off the campaign rally as our members gathered in their
thousands, but it became impossible as there were buses that ran across Aroma
junction again, shooting at our members which led to the death of some, many
were wounded and some vehicles were badly shattered with bullets. My own vehicle
was also attacked.
This confirmed reports that some of us
were marked for elimination by the government of Anambra State. It became clear
to all of us that it was the government trained secret police, Bakassi Boys,
under the cover of Anambra Vigilante Service (AVS) that the state government
used to shoot the people it claims to govern. These hatchet men were later
shooting inside government lodge, Amawbia celebrating the successful Aroma
junction shooting of PDP members. The shooting continued till Friday and
Saturday.
These attacks were promptly reported to
the commissioner of police who promptly deployed his men, but the movements of
the government sponsored miscreants were too fast as it was openly noticed that
at the government lodge, Amawbia, their base, gun fire was continuously heard.
The Anambra State chapter of PDP hereby disassociated itself from any blame
being cast on the Anambra State police commissioner, and any police rank and
file of complicity in the crisis. The command did everything security wise to
avert the outbreak of violence, but for the fact that it was carefully planned
and the attackers were well protected with state government apparatus, that may
have made the police helpless. Those individuals and groups that are demanding
the removal of the state commissioner of police and MOPOL commander are those
who wanted the police to watch the secret police of Dr. Ngige to exterminate a
group of PDP police.
Do you think the presidential
reconciliation committee can resolve the problems that occasioned the mayhem?
Some people in our state met in Enugu-Ukwu
under the auspices of the said leaders of thought. I think we should learn to be
good fathers and be able to find out true facts in quarrels between our children
and face the matters sincerely, honestly and not be one-sided. Failure to do
that has been our problem. The president has taken immediate steps by setting up
a presidential committee to find out the remote causes and how to resolve it. We
of the Anambra chapter of PDP have confidence in the efforts of the committee
headed by Governor Sam Egwu of Ebonyi State. We believe in peaceful dialogue to
resolve any problem no matter the level or height. But if Dr. Ngige and group
decide to continue to be King Pharaoh, that will be too bad.
The 30-member state House of Assembly has
29 members from the ruling PDP. How has the state executive of the party related
with the lawmakers, particularly regarding the crises that have been rocking the
executive arm of the government which has the governor as member of the PDP
family.
Members of the state House of Assembly
have from inception been a major problem. If they had lived up to expectation
they could have been able to at least bring the duo of Ngige and Uba to a round
table discussion. But they don’t have the liver, afterall none of them could
have financed or won the election. Out of the 30 members of the House, 29 are
PDP members. They are rather fighting among themselves, look at how they
illegally removed two of their members, Azodo and Nelson Achukwu.
We learnt that the peace talks between
Ngige and Chief Uba had been unsuccessful because Uba is demanding that he, Uba
be made the deputy governor, how true is this?
Is there anything wrong with Chief Uba
becoming a deputy governor if he agrees to take that? If he could make a
governor why can’t he be a governor? He funded Ngige’s governorship in all
aspects. Ngige was driven away by other aspirants at Enugu until Uba came in and
cleared the way for him. Uba is Ochiagha (commander) he is Omesulumba,
people like him a lot, people adore him and some are envious of his
popularity.
But some people argue that if Uba is made
the deputy governor, he will take advantage of that to sponsor the governor’s
impeachment.
(Cuts in). No, PDP is one family, such a
thing should not be contemplated now that we are talking of peace.
So what is the way out of the problem?
Ngige is the problem. The way out is for Ngige
and his government to comply with the outcome of the presidential committee as
soon as they come up with resolutions. We like peace, we hate crisis, it is not
the democracy dividend which we promised our people. Let Ngige stop running the
state government with outsiders. He picked those who did not believe in PDP
programmes, it is not only repair of roads or payment of salaries that we had as
our manifestos. You can see that there are no development projects at the local
government areas. That has never been the programme of PDP. I tell you, each
local government will demand refund of their federal allocation from Ngige. It
must be accounted for.
However, I wish to call all Anambra people
to be calm while we look out for sustainable resolution and enduring peace in
the state.
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