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ADC’s campaign council launch and Nwosu’s giant stride to Agu-Awka
“Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal: Tis not the trial of a woman’s war, The bitter clamour of two eager tongues, Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain.” When William Shakespeare wrote these lines in King Richard 11, one of his eternal epics, he was simply trying to emphasise the need to reduce noise and focus on the substance on whenever issues contend and clash against each other.
Fiery expressions neither supersedes, quiet, logical and concise argument, nor does it suggest the lack of zeal or energy. Matters must not be settled with the bitter clamour of eager tongues, like the trial of a woman’s war. This was what the iconic Shakespeare laboured to establish, using a depiction of the hot exchange that took place in the Court of King Richard 11, in that particular scene in the play.
Today, 427 years after that play, which debuted in 1597, the inherent message the renowned writer was passing is resonating in Anambra – achievements are not measured in the decibel of high-sounding words and cacophony of voices, but in the quietude of ideas and how they translate into real life.
So, as John Chuma Nwosu, governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the political platform under which Nigeria is finding a new essence as a nation, handed down the mandate to the 17-member John Chuma Nwosu Governorship Campaign Council (JCN-GCC), the message was very clear – this is neither a battle done with unsheathed swords or a bitter war by the clattering of eager tongues.
The event was the inauguration of the council on Friday, July 25, 2025 at the Number 4, Udoka Housing Estate Secretariat of the party, in Awka, the Anambra State capital. The event, which marked the commencement of one of the most significant steps in the move by the party, currently hosting the coalition movement by prominent Nigerians to take charge of the affairs of Nigeria, was another exhibition of great enthusiasm by party faithful, who came from all the nooks and crannies of the state to give fillip to the momentum in the new Nigerian political firmament.
The council made up of high-net professionals in different field, included Ike Iwenofu Campaign Chairman, an engineer, Ben Chuks-Nwosu, foremost lawyer, political icon and former Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Chief Of Staff, Celestine Okoye retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Security, Bonny Okoye Campaign Manager, Dr. C. C. Okeke, a renowned intellectual, Deputy Director General (DDG) Political Matters, Emeka O. Ekwueme Director Administration, Chief Emeka Anagor Director Finance, Reginald Akunekwe Director Mobilisation, Zelinjo Igweze, renowned academic, Director Women Affairs and Ricky Okechukwu, another erudite scholar, Director Research and Strategy.
Others were Samuel Ezedigbo Director Youth Affairs, Justina Nwafor Women Zonal Coordination South, Grace Oguelina Women Zonal Coordination Central, Christiana Iwuno Women Zonal Coordination North, Hygienus Anedo Coalition and Inter-Party Affairs and Paschal Azubuike Head Media Affairs, while Sunny Igboanugo, is to serve as the Director of Media and Publicity of the council.
His charge: keep it clean! No campaign of personalities, no name-calling, no mud-fighting. It must be all about issues in the state – about telling Anambra people the truth – about filling them in on the change that is coming and how the ADC bears the evidence of a major rescue and transformation of the land into a firmament of opportunities that it once was by tapping onto the ingenuity of its vast human and material resources.
The whole idea was encapsulated into the SHEEMS agenda – a template that outlines programmes to enhance the critical areas of development based on the prevailing issues in the state – Security, Health, Education, Economy, Markets and Social Welfare. His dissection of these seven critical areas, bore ample evidence of not only his clear knowledge, but the weight of his convictions and vision that they remain the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for preparing Anambra to take the giant leap into the enviable hub of world economies.
In his smart government idea, security will come onto the radar of technology rather than human elements. Tracking criminals and fighting crimes will be a function of hi-tech such as in modern societies where crimes could be detected in split-seconds through a network of alarm bells that would trigger off the relevant agencies that would move to check them within the same split-seconds.
The streets would be devoid of the eyesore optics of crudity where all manner of brutality are unleashed on citizens in the guise of fighting crimes, adding: “We will introduce the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI-enabled) security system that will run on face-recognition technology with a fully-equipped Command and Control (CAC) certre.”
Healthcare would also take similar pattern of modernity by procuring hi-tech medical facilities, with focus on first-class assessable and affordable programmes anchored on Primary Health Care (PHC), complete with Emergency Medical and Transport Services (EMTS), he said.
Education would run basically on the STEM model of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – the current global prototype to equip the children of the state with the ability of grappling with modern developments, in addition to the current system, with the focus of standing out once again as national bests in the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Education Council (NECO) examinations.
Even though the economy would be private sector-driven, the ADC government would take bold initiative of investing heavily in creating enabling environment, including investing in the domestic power sector to eradicate the current parlous state of affairs in the state. It would practically take the gown to town to attract investments from national as well as global players, one of the major economic visions missing in the state at the moment.
Regarding the Environment, he said: “We shall deliver a new infrastructural map for Anambra State with a solid Road Maintenance Department (RMD) similar to the PWD (Public Works Department) in compliance with the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS).” Recall that ANIDS was the template with which Peter Obi, former Governor of the state, achieved the feat of becoming the national best in the global programme called Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), for which he was invited to give a speech by the United Nations in 2014.”
In his Markets programme, Nwosu spoke ending the excessive taxing in the state rather than choking the people, stating: “To enhance enterprises and improve ease of doing business, we will ensure tax reduction and our means of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) recovery will have human face. We shall deploy technology in revenue collection instead of the use of thugs.”
Social Welfare – the last in his robust programme, he talked extensively on empathy towards the poor in the society, stating that the state would come into the aide of “members of our state population, who are indigent, fall on hard times or face catastrophes, especially in housing assistance, food and nutrition charity healthcare, orphanage or indigent child support while providing supplementary security income for the aged.”
Ndubuisi Nwobu, Deputy Governorship candidate, who was no less emphatic about task at hand – ADC berthing at Agu Awka by March next year as the government in power, spoke on the need for unity of purpose within the team, adding that all channels must be exploited, including knocking all doors to spread the message. “It’s not going to be easy, but it will be easier if we connect to the people with the right message.
The former Speaker, who expressed delight at the quality of the membership of the campaign council, maintained that with their experiences in their various fields and their individual attainments being fully unleashed and harvested during the campaigns, the envisaged victory dance at the end of the November 8, 2025 governorship election would be assured.
Earlier, Iwenofu, a renowned Engineer, had restated the need to staying on the path of the main issues and avoiding concentrating on personalities, adding that Anambra people already knew the issues at stake and why a change in the governorship of the state, remained the only option at a time like this in their history, promising to harness all ideas of the members in conducting the campaigns.
Indicative of high-profile the party has already assumed in the state, the increasing tempo and the momentum, the party officials moved from the inauguration to Ojoto, headquarters of Idemili Local Government Area to commission the main party secretariat and Oba, in the same local government, where two other offices were equally commissioned.
Addressing enthusiastic party members, who were waiting for him, Nwosu, reiterated the contents of the SHEEMS Agenda as the programme to drive the future of the state. “Our SHEEMS Agenda, is our roadmap for achieving Anambra of our dream. I take this opportunity to restate again that zoning has come to stay in Anambra. I’m going to do only one term to fix things and put the state on a sound footing to leap into the future,” he added.
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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