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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Nigerian-American mayor, Onunwor, to appeal against guilty verdict
NIGERIA- born Emmanuel Onunwor will appeal against a guilty verdict handed down to him on Monday by a United States federal court, The Guardian has learnt. The charges range from mail fraud, racketeering and extortion to filing false tax returns.
Onunwor, who in 1997 became the first Nigerian immigrant to emerge as a US city mayor, is now in jail after he was found guilty by a jury on 22 counts in a case that has drawn mixed reactions in the town at which he has been Mayor for seven years.
Sources close to Onunwor's wife confirmed to The Guardian yesterday that although Onunwor had been found guilty, he would appeal because the Nigerian-American believed that he was set up and innocent of all the charges. Onunwor's sentence would be delivered on November 24, 2004 and he may get up to 20 years in prison.
His supporters, who have insisted that Onunwor would have won an election for a third term next year, say he is only a victim of powerful forces who are not comfortable with the rise of a black man to such a position. They point out that Nate Gary, in whose office an Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) camera was located to watch Onunwor and with whom he allegedly broke the law receiving a bribe of several notes of hundred dollars in an envelope is yet to be tried, while the major had already been found guilty.
Ordinarily, in the interval between the time a guilty verdict is given and when a sentence is delivered, a defendant can be allowed his freedom until when the sentence is passed.
But when Onunwor applied for bail on Tuesday, a federal judge turned down the request. The US attorney prosecuting the case was reported as submitting to the court that Onunwor, who is still the mayor of the town, is a flight risk. He was quoted as saying: "His connections to Nigeria and his danger to the community of East Cleveland by continuing to serve in the capacity of Mayor ...these were our issues from the beginning."
One of Onunwor's supporters, Michelle Cook countered that the embattled mayor is not a flight risk. "He has children and a wife to provide for ... I don't think Emmanuel would flee this country."
While trying to obtain a bail bond, Onunwor had volunteered to resign as mayor if it was granted.
Another US attorney, one of those familiar with the case, said the case was about a public official "who sold his office for personal gain. Onunwor's lawyer, John Pyle in a local media report said the Nigerian simply received a gift from Gary, without any promises of favours attached to the money.
Gary was a consultant that had business dealings with the town of East Cleveland where Onunwor is mayor.
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