Re: Abia people saw hell under T.A Orji: Right of reply

For the record, Sen. Orji contested and won the 2007 gubernatorial elec­tion on the platform of now ailing Peoples’ Pro­gressive Alliance Party (PPA). It is therefore pre­posterous to assert that Orji could have had a hand in the engagement of polit­ical thugs imported by the PDP as Mr. Igwe errone­ously alleged


Our attention has been drawn to a malicious publication in The Sun newspaper of Wednes­day, June 8, 2016 wherein one desperate, attention seeking and self-ac­claimed ‘Comrade’, Mr Igwe Samuel Obin­na, in an interview purportedly granted to the newspaper made a couple of baseless, thoughtless and actionable remarks about the tenure of the immediate past Gover­nor of Abia State and Senator representing Abia Central Senatorial District, Senator Theodore Ahamefule Orji. Similar labori­ous but fruitless attempts had been made in the past by the same character to be­little the modest achievements of Senator T. A Orji as governor with his farce and perhaps tarnish his image but all were ig­nored for three simple reasons: The Abi­ans are no fools because facts are sacred; T. A Orji’s string of achievements speaks for his tenure and person and that reply­ing the fake comrade might amount to dignifying his ludicrous comments.

However, several studies have shown that when the mass media are consistently deployed to unceasingly dish out false­hood in form of news, articles and inter­views as being done by Igwe, members of the public, particularly those who are not familiar with true facts about such issue(s), may consciously or unconsciously begin to discuss such falsehood as if they are facts and begin to believe and even act on them. It is for this reasons that we have decided to re-state the facts as they are for the public to see the charlatanism in the character called Igwe Samuel Obinna. It is also important to take this step because the latest effort by Igwe to force falsehood down the throat of the public in his June 8 interview also appears to be a calculated attempt to disparage the integrity of the Economic and Financial Crimes Com­mission (EFCC) as well as set President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressive Congress (APC) on a collision course with the performing and distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Theodore Orji.

In the politically motivated interview subtly contrived to question the integrity of EFCC and trivialize the great achieve­ments of former Governor T. A Orji in Abia State during his tenure, Igwe queried the persistence of the anti-graft agency in prosecuting the right suspects against whom prima facie case had been estab­lished by the agency over misappropria­tion of Abia State fund between 1999 and now. Specifically, Mr. Igwe was quoted to have said: “As I speak to you, there are lots of petitions written against the past government of Abia State headed by Chief T.A Orji who is now retired in the Senate. Prior to his becoming governor of Abia, he had also an existing case with the EFCC; as a matter of fact, he was only granted bail in 2007. Ndi Abia expected that he would have returned to Kirikiri Maximum prison from where he became governor in 2007 af­ter the expiration of his immunity on May 29, 2015. As a Senator of the Federal Re­public of Nigeria, he has no immunity from public prosecution; so, why is he still free? Former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State and Jones Udeogu (Former Director of finance Government House) whom they were all charged before he became governor have been re-arraigned in court but Chief T.A Orji is not mentioned at all.”

This assertion would have sounded better in a village idiot’s mouth than Mr. Igwe who spent substantial part of his life in the United Kingdom and therefore should know that it is a criminal act to make baseless, fallacious and dangerous allegations against individuals and cor­porate institutions for political reasons. In order to put the record straight, we are presenting to him and his suspected sponsors the following undisputable facts which guided the EFCC in its decision not to invite Sen. Orji for trial.

(1). Sen. Orji has no such amount as colossal as N5.6 billion traced to his ac­count which he cannot explain and of which the individuals he mentioned in his purported interview are being ques­tioned by the EFCC to explain to Nigeri­ans in a court of competent jurisdiction how they came about the said sum.

(2). Sen. Orji never altered the code of conduct assets declaration form during his tenure to cover false assets declara­tion in order to circumvent prosecution just like the individuals he mentioned did.

(3) Unlike the individuals he men­tioned, Sen. Orji did not declare asset of N1bn during swearing-in as governor and/or owned ships, aircrafts including private jets, banks, printing press, news­paper company while in office as the Gov­ernor of Abia State.

Surprised? Well, we believe that these few facts as stated must have cleared the frustrations of Mr Igwe Samuel Obinna, his suspected sponsor and his cohorts, which he laboriously expressed in the ill-fated interview where he said thus: “Abia People wonder why President Buhari’s anti-corruption war is yet to be seen in Abia. It will amount to a mockery to the People of Abia if former Governor T.A Orji is not ar­raigned in court despite all the petitions on the table of the EFCC....”

Mr. Igwe also made a caricature of his wittiness which we thought he possessed until now, when he contrasted the view of the entire world on Sen. Orji’s giant stride on security in Abia State which saw the eradication of kidnapping and the threat it poses to the Nigerian societies then when he asserted thus: “The area of securi­ty recorded massive failure. Ndi Abia sleep with their eyes open. Kidnapping business became commercialized. The hoodlums hired to rig elections for the PDP in Abia State became jobless after the elections and needed to feed from the system that aban­doned them. Kidnapping became so alarm­ing that Senator Akpabio had to accuse the state governor of Abia for commercializing kidnapping in Nigeria.”

This kind of wicked misinformation can only be fed to the innocent public as facts by the ilks of Mr. Igwe. It is unfor­tunate that Mr. Igwe, as it appears having agreed to do hatchet job, could not even get the commonest facts right before tak­ing to the press to dish out his falsehood.

For the record, Sen. Orji contested and won the 2007 gubernatorial election on the platform of now ailing Peoples’ Pro­gressive Alliance Party (PPA). It is there­fore preposterous to assert that Orji could have had a hand in the engagement of po­litical thugs imported by the PDP as Mr. Igwe erroneously alleged. It is also impor­tant to refresh his memory which appears to be failing him by reminding him how the government before Sen. Orji’s forced youth restiveness and insecurity on Abia State when by obvious use of divide and rule approach, it bastardized kingship, tampered with our peace and tranquility by dividing Abia State into ludicrous au­tonomous communities, thereby creating unnecessary land disputes and supremacy battles between the traditional rulers. A living example is the polarization of Ibeku ancient kingdom and the subsequent emergence of the likes of Mr. Igwe who hid under “political activism” to subvert Abia State.

Again, nothing can be more laughable than another gaffe by Mr. Igwe when he said in his controversial inter­view thus: “The last time teach­ers and workers in Abia State received salaries as at when due in Abia was during the govern­ment of Dr Orji Uzor Kalu… Can you imagine that in the last decade, Abia State Government has failed to conduct Local Gov­ernment Elections as mandated by the constitution of Nigeria? Do you know that the last gov­ernor to conduct LGA elections in Abia was Dr Orji Uzor Kalu?” Balderdash! It is unfortunate that Mr. Igwe in his desperate effort to massage the ego of his suspected sponsors again stood the truth on its head when he fraudulently hid facts regard­ing the genesis of the financial miasma in the state which cul­minated in some workers being owed few months salaries and why local government elections could not be conducted at the time.

For the record, again, one had expected Mr. Igwe to tell Ndi Abia that Sen. Orji is pre­decessor had mortgaged the future of the state at the time he took over and inherited a debt of N29bn including sev­eral millions of naira owed Sun Newspaper for personal advert of Sen. Orji’s predeces­sor. This was also exacerbated by the criminal activities of the kidnappers which threatened the existence of Abia State. Of course no sane government would waste state resources to conduct LGA election when its residents were being kid­napped and killed in a most bizarre manner at the time. The fact that Mr. Igwe tried to de­monize Sen. Orji on a practice which has become acceptable norm in Nigeria tells you the dangerous precedent he and his fellow antagonists are trying to set.

Mr. Igwe, in his interview, also showed his true nature when he tried to incite Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari and his All Progressive Congress (APC) against Sen. Orji and his son, Hon. Chinedum Orji by alleging thus: “I remem­ber how the former gover­nor locked out PMB and the APC team out of the stadium and prevented them from us­ing that venue for Campaign in Abia State in 2015. That is a state where the governor’s son had so much power that he mandated the traditional rulers’ council chairman, Eze Eberechi Dick to revoke the title of Ogbuagu of Igbo land bestowed on President Buhari by Eze Ikonne.” It is on record that President Buhari had his campaign unhindered in Aba, Abia State before retiring to Eze Ikonne’s palace where he was bestowed with the tradi­tional title of Ogbuagu. The fact that Eze Ikonne applied his traditional powers freely in bestowing the title of Ogbuagu to Buhari without constraint rubbished the allegation of des­potism which Mr. Igwe made against Sen. Orji and his son.

Again, Mr. Igwe evidently committed self-immolation when he described Abians as suffering people who were caused pain and agony in the hands of the Sen. Orji who set precedent by facing out wheel­barrow, machete and hoe youth empowerment programme which was the initiative of the government he succeeded and championed egalitarianism by the empowerment of over 50, 000 youths from the entire 17 LGAs that make up Abia State with thousands of buses, cabs and tricycles. Trying to com­pare Sen. Orji’s administration with its predecessor by Mr Igwe in his interview amounted to self-immolation and exposed the charlatanism in him.

Facts do not lie. The tenure of Senator Orji as Abia State governor revolutionized all sec­tors including security where he courageously confronted and eliminated kidnapping which was alien to the state; Education, where he built and/or renovated 44 schools lead­ing to Abia State ranking sixth state in Nigeria by UNESCO with highest literacy level in 2015; Health, where he built about 712 health centers; Ag­riculture, where he established the famous liberation farms in the three senatorial district of Abia State and ensured that the state produced the best cocoa in Nigeria. He repeated similar feats in the judiciary and roads construction. Besides, Senator Orji also tackled and reduced the menace of child and mater­nal mortality which was very high prior to his emergence as Governor with aggressive government policy through the pursuit of the National Programme on Immunization (NPI), Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and the building, renovating and equip­ping of 712 health centers such as the Abia State Specialist Hos­pital and Diagnostic Center, Umuahia, Dialysis and Oph­thalmology Center, Umuahia, Modern Eye Center, Umuahia, Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Center Annex, Amachara, Abia State Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Cen­ter Aba, and Ahiaba Okpuala Health Center, Isiala Ngwa, just to mention but few to complement the Federal Medi­cal Center Umuahia which was the only functional hospital in Abia State before 2007 built in the early 1950s by the joint ef­fort of the Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian churches.

He also constructed sensi­tive infrastructures such as the New Government House, In­ternational Conference Center, New ASEPA Office Complex, New BCA Office Complex, New Twin Worker’s Secretariat Complex, Women Develop­ment and Skill Acquisition Center, ASUBEB Office Com­plex (65% Completed), Joint Account Allocation Commit­tee Complex (70% completed), New High Court Complex, 28 Room Constituency Offices at Aba, Emeka Omerua Guest House, Abia State Planning Commission Office Complex, Modern e-Library, remodeled Abia Hotels, Renovated Abia State House of Assembly Com­plex, Renovated Customary Court, and the renovated Old High Court Building, so com­paring T.A Orji with an admin­istration without a significant project to its name is an insult to the collective intelligence of Ndi Abia.

Before we forget, it is im­portant we tell Mr. Igwe, his suspected sponsors and their cohorts that in just 365 days of Sen. Orji as a Senator represent­ing Abia Central, he has spon­sored eight famous bills, which when enacted, have the capac­ity to place Nigeria among the leading countries of the world in all ramifications; that one of the bills (the Food Security bill) when enacted, will ensure a healthy society, and a robust population because it will cer­tainly reduce drastically and/or eliminate completely the men­ace of nourishment, morbidity, neo-natal mortality, high rate of child and maternal mortal­ity which Nigeria is the second largest contributor with the loss of about 2, 300 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of child­bearing age every single day ac­cording to the current UNICEF record. In other words, about 8.395 million and 52, 925 an­nual infants and maternal mor­tality will be prevented.

Mr. Igwe, do you know that while the entire nation is grap­pling with the recent economic hardship, the people of Abia Central were given 600 bags of rice -100 bags each with condi­ments? Do you know, as well, that to ensure their financial freedom, Sen. Orji also provid­ed them with means of steady income by empowering indi­gent traders, transporters and artisans with 20 sewing ma­chines, 20 grinding machines, 20 2.5 KVA generating sets, eight tricycles, (Keke), 14 mo­torcycles, two 18-seater buses, 15 wheel chairs and 100 liquid fertilizers to farmers, which the Abia State Ministry of Agricul­ture said will enrich over 200, 000 hectares of farm land.

Lest we forget, Sen. Orji also initiated scholarship scheme that will produce 240 graduates in four years which kicked off last December with 60 under­graduates already beneficiaries. Please, our dear Mr. Igwe, we urge you to restrict your igno­rance to social media where you are being celebrated by na­ïve and gullible individuals in­stead of bringing it to the open because even the blind know that Sen. Orji’s government as governor has dwarfed, in concrete and abstract achieve­ments, the tenure before his.

Signed:

Don Norman Obinna

Media Adviser/ Head of Me­dia Team, Senator Theodore Ahamefule Orji (Ochendo), CON.