THE battle for the soul of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State between members loyal to Governor Orji Uzor Kalu and bigwigs based in Abuja took a twist as the acting chairman of the party in the state, Chief Alfred Awah, has petitioned President Olusegun Obasanjo, the National Security Adviser and the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) in Abuja over alleged plot to kidnap and assassinate him.
Awah, believed to be sympathetic to the cause of the Abuja group of Abia politicians led by Senate President Adolphus Wabara and PDP National Secretary, Vincent Ogbulafor, assumed the position of Abia State acting chairman after the removal of former chairman, Chief Uzodinma Okpara, for alleged anti-party activities by the PDP National Working Committee (NWC). Okpara was accused of having worked against President Olusegun Obasanjo and the PDP in the 2003 general elections.
Awah, who until he was named acting chairman of PDP in Abia was the state deputy chairman of the party, claimed that some officials of Abia State government attacked him inside Government House, Umuahia on August 12, 2004, in order to prevent him from taking over as acting chairman of the party.
But in a swift riposte, Governor Orji Kalu’s chief press secretary, Mr. Udeala Onuoha, in a telephone chat with Sunday Vanguard, dismissed the petition as an attempt by the Awah-led group to cover up the illegality it allegedly committed by breaking into the party office for an illegal meeting.
He said that it was an attempt to paint the state government under Governor Kalu black, as Awah did not come to the Government House let alone detained and brutalized. According to Udeala, “Chief Awah was not in any way molested, detained in Government House. He never came to the Government House. It is all a cover up to paint the governor black”.
He said that the police should look into the matter to confirm its veracity or otherwise, adding that Awah and his group should be made to apologise to Abia people for allegedly vandalising the party secretariat. In the petition dated August 13, 2004, copy of which was made available to Sunday Vanguard in Abuja, Awah said: Following recent changes in the leadership of the party in the State, which saw the suspension of the Chairman and my ratification as the acting Chairman by the National Executive Committee, we scheduled a stakeholders’’ meeting of the party for the 13th August, 2004 and we obtained police clearance and approval for provision of security at the venue of the meeting at 66, Aba Road, Umuahia.
“I am compelled to report that on the 12th of August, 2004, I was invited by telephone to see the Chief of Staff to the Executive Governor of Abia State, Chief T.A. Orji. I was led to T.A. Orji’s office by the Youth Leader of PDP, Chief Dr. Roy Ndukwu at about 4.30 p.m. in the company of Chief J.J. Okoro.
Awah said, “During the meeting with the Chief of Staff, he told me that the Governor instructed that the scheduled meeting of August 13, 2004 should be cancelled. I told him that since he had no reason for the cancellation, since the Governor himself was officially written and invited to the meeting, it was not necessary to cancel the meeting given the statewide circulation of the notice”.
“After discussing with the chief of staff, as I was coming out of this office, some hefty boys and men who are government officials and security men arrested and abducted me.”
He said that there were people who boasted that the alleged attempt to kidnap him was to forestall his becoming the state chairman of the party. The PDP chief also alleged that he was brutalized and terrorized through physical assault meted out on him. Awah claimed that officers from the State CID Umuahia, led by one DSP Ubani, were invited to take him away to their office at Uzuakoli Road, Umuahia, where he alleged he was kept till about 1.00 a.m. the following day.
In the three-page petition, he said “My plea therefore, is to implore you to thoroughly investigate this matter with a view to bringing the culprits to book. These people who carried out this act should be arrested immediately so as to deter them from further planning to kill me”.
He said that the Federal Judiciary should be involved in the handling of the matter, pointing out: “If these people are not exposed and seriously disciplined, the state PDP cannot function effectively and this will be invitation to anarchy and disorder. These people are heating up the polity unnecessarily”.
