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Amechi faults President's claim on Anambra crisis
From Chuks Collins,
Awka
FIRST Republic Aviation Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amechi, has faulted President Olusegun Obasanjo's handling of the political crisis in Anambra State.
The elder statesman is also unhappy that his name has been linked to the crisis by the President.
President Obasanjo, in his December 10, 2004 letter to the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, recalled that he asked Amechi to resolve the dispute between Anambra State Governor, Dr. Chris Ngige and his estranged godfather, Chris Uba.
But the elder statesman, during a press conference held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Centre, Awka, yesterday accused the President of not doing enough in resolving the matter.
Much worse, Amechi added that the President is protecting "brigands and lawless felons."
The First Republic politician said: "It is morally and constitutionally wrong for the Presidency to shield the culprits from prosecution.
"Certain people are taking laws into their hands in the state and the President is protecting them."
Amechi also faulted Obasanjo's disclosure that Ngige at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, once admitted at Uba's prompting that the governor did not win the April 12, 2003 governorship election.
According to the veteran politician, the truth is that many governors, senators and House of Representatives members in the current democratic dispensation did not get to their offices on merit.
He also accused the Federal Government and the police of masterminding the Anambra crisis, and admitted that peace might not be in sight.
Amechi gave details of several efforts by him to mediate in the crisis, but noted that the President's lukewarm attitude and backing for the Uba faction made the opposition camp intransigent.
Amechi admitted being with Obasanjo on the day a group of politicians led by Uba disclosed plans to remove Ngige, consequent upon which the President asked him to mediate.
The peace talks were fixed for July 10, 2003, the day the Uba group abducted the governor and purported to remove him through the State House of Assembly.
With the development, he continued, peace talks became impossible, with the Uba group digging deeper in the trenches.
Amechi said that all his efforts to brief the President on the development and get him to order the Uba group to rein their activities were aborted by Obasanjo, who neither acknowledged his calls nor responded to them.
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