News
Isienyi: Travails of lawmaker, as metaphor of Soludo’s Anambra!
By Sunny Igboanugo
Maduabuchi Bernard Udemezue, member representing Ayamelum Constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly, was on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, suspended by his colleagues for reason of “unparliamentary conduct, inciting comments on social media, and abuse of legislative privileges.”
If anyone is surprised about this development, such a person must either be living in a cave, quite detached from human existence, or has become so tired of hearing the overwhelmingly bad vibes from Nigeria and decided to opt out of hearing more – if only to maintain some sanity.
In other words the person must have decided to block everything or deleted everything Nigeria completely not to understand the way we roll here. Otherwise, even a political imbecile knows the fate that awaits the lawmaker even before the hammer. Even Udemezue must have been aware of the impending fate. It would be surprising if he is not and more so if he is not prepared for the sure outcome. Nothing else could been the result of his audacious, if not “reckless” outings in recent times. It is akin to political hara-kiri.
The attempt to nail the fiery lawmaker, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came via the report of the Committee on Rules, Business, Ethics and Privileges, which found him guilty of anti-parliamentary conducts following a motion of urgent public importance moved Tony Muobike and seconded by Jude Ngobili. The motion specifically accused him of using his social media platforms to make inciting comments capable of disturbing public peace and bringing disrespect to the Assembly.
Apart from the three-month suspension slammed on him during which he would barred from accessing any part of the Assembly complex, Udemezue was ordered to apologise to Somtochukwu Nkem Udeze, Speaker, and members of the House, both on his social media handles and through a written apology to them within five working days from Tuesday.
“That Hon. Bernard Udemezue should be subjected to various special sessions, training and or workshop on right parliamentary ethics, practice and duties. Members should conduct themselves properly as being guided by the Standing orders of the House, especially in public places. The social media space is not and cannot be an approved means or approach to conducting legislative business especially for a Legislator.”
Sounds familiar? Certainly! But valid as the reasons adduced for this step might look in the face of his utterances and particularly for allegedly snubbing the House by not appearing before them, anyone who believes the members acted independently must either be hollow, mischievous or living in denial.
The real reason for targeting him is that the lawmaker trod the forbidden path. Confronting the executive, no matter how slight it may seem, is the highest form of political sin anyone, particularly a legislator would commit in Nigeria. That was exactly what Udemezue, more of deliberately than inadvertently because, according to him, the governor drew a line in the sand for him and his colleagues on their boundaries from the outset.
Besides, he did not just speak passively, he drove his knife through the heart rather than the skin. In fact, anyone who wants to know the real issues bothering many Anambra people and their complaints regarding their state should listen to that outing in the social media. It covered quite a bunch, ranging from massive corruption, incompetence, impunity, nepotism, neglect to the outright belittling the Assembly and its members.
But in all the darts he threw, the greatest was his narrative on the murder of Justice Azuka, the lawmaker representing Onitsha North 1 constituency whose corpse was discovered at the Second Niger Bridge area on January 29th 2023, more than a month after he was abducted by his supposed assailants on December 24, the previous year.
He started with the question – “who killed Azuka?” It was a rhetorical question he posed his traducers. Then he went ahead to answer it. “The people that killed Azuka are those suspects who were arrested and later escaped from police. Have you told Ndi-Anambra the story of how they escaped?
Fleshing up his narratives, he told the world how on December 22, 2024, the slain lawmaker had come to Awka, the Anambra State capital to collect his rice allocation for the year’s Christmas and was never seen again.
Hear him: “I know who killed Azuka. Who killed Azuka are those suspects, who were arrested and later escaped from police custody. Have you told Ndi-Anambra how they managed to escape – the story of how they escaped – have you told Ndi-Anambra in details? Azuka came to Awka, 6.30 pm. He called me that he came to take his Christmas rice.
“On the 22nd of December, 2024, I was with Azuka late night and we were discussing something. He was the bridge that we needed to impeach the governor. We wanted to impeach him and we needed just one person. And we co-opted Azuka. We met on 22nd of December. On the 24th of December, you sent a message that the governor brought rice and the House members should come and take rice. Azuka came.
“Before he came, he didn’t call me. But when he came he called me and I said, why didn’t you tell me you were coming, I would have told you what was obtainable for you and what you were coming to take was one unit of 25kg of rice. I don’t know how you’re going to share it to your constituency. Maybe your constituents will come with small cups and you share it in grains to them. He then collected the rice from the House – one unit of 25kg of rice – for Christmas and not Easter or New Year but Almighty Christmas.
“What did you want our constituents to say to us? What did you want our constituents to do with us during Christmas. A person will visit Honourable and Honourable will not give him one bag of rice. That was your plan – to set us up against Ndi-Anambra. He collected the one bag of rice, he didn’t get home anymore!”
What could be more revealing, if not more damning? He had gone ahead to narrate how the members were denied their basic entitlements, declaring that but for his audacious move of coming to the Assembly with keke (tricycle), and the embarrassment it caused, the governor would not have considered giving them official vehicles.
He added: “Look at what they gave you. Do you have escorts for your protection? Why don’t you have escorts? The governor said we cannot afford to feed our escorts even if the state paid for us. Do you have aides? You making noise, do you have PAs? Is there a provision for you to have PAs as House member, is there a provision for you to have a driver?
“On the first meeting we had with the governor, what he told us was that we cannot impeach him, that he was the one who appointed the Chief Judge of the state. That if we try to impeach him, he will set up a committee and that committee will be set by him and he will appoint ‘Glamour’ as the head of the committee and we can now imagine the report he will bring if Glamour is the head of the committee. Glamour is the Chief of Protocol to the governor.
“He stripped us of our powers on the first day of meeting with him. He didn’t even call us to tell us this alone, he called all his commissioners to embarrass us before them. I left the hall. I was the only one that left the hall. All of you were there at the Golden Tulip. Your governor told you that you can’t impeach him, you can’t move motions. What then are you doing?
“How can you function? Everyday, motion of commendation. Did I come to the House of Assembly to do motion of commendation? The only thing we’re allowed to do, was motion of commendation. Motions are useless in the House, because we’re not allowed to move motions of request. We’re not allowed to move motions that reflect what our people need.
“You want me to move motions of commendation. What am I commending the governor for. I’m not from Aguata, I’m not Nnewi, I’m from Anyemelum. What has he done for me commend? I cannot move motions of commendation for the governor, he did nothing for my people. Let’s go on a debate. Let’s go on a debate.
“The roads you claim you’re doing, at what cost? You brought a scandalous budget to us that you wanted to do roads. You said it was because you wanted to give us stone-base with guarantee of minimum of 25 years lifespan. Ndi-Anambra, you all can confirm if these roads we’re seen that as they’re constructing they are collapsing, they’re mending – are they the roads you told us? Your roads have not lasted 25 months, they’ve collapsed. Shamefully!
“How far Dubai-Taiwan. Mr. Governor, you’re not trying! You no dey try. I’ll tell you what you don’t know. You said you wanted Digital Taxation. That we should no longer give money to Agberos by hand. Do you remember at your early stage, when you were newly elected. You brought my uncle all the way from Australia.
“You brought Christian Madubuko, a very bright human being. He came and said the answer is Digital taxation. Let them be using POS so that all the revenues will be coming to a single account. He gave that idea thinking you were sincere. But when he introduced that idea, before two weeks, didn’t you remove him? Didn’t you remove him as Director of Revenue?”
Now, with all these revelations, the only answer the House and its leadership has is to slam the lawmaker with suspension. That is their response to the highly critical issues he raised, which is at the heart of not only the current parlous situation in the state, but more so to the very survival of the people.
If anything, is it not surprising that till date, no credible explanation has been given about the case of Azuka? How far has the state gone in prosecuting his killers that are still in custody? How far with the re-arrest of those that have escaped? It is now more than six months when the entire state rolled out the drums to celebrate the feat of the arrest of the so-called culprits and Anambra people were promised that a new dawn had arrived.
How many people have gone the way of Azuka since those euphoric moments? These are the begging question. But then, you know that for the governor, the man sycophants call “Oluatuegwu” is busy basking in the drenching showers of praise-singers who tell him that he is the best next thing that happened since scientists discovered the cure for malaria to bother about the continuous drenching of the land with the blood of many more Azukas. What a tragedy!
Igboanugo is the Director, Media and Publicity, John Chuma Nwosu Governorship Campaign Council for the African Democratic Congress (ADC)
The door is now shut permanently in the face of the Federal Government towards taking up the 12.5 – being the remainder of its proposed 20 per cent stake in the Dangote Refineries, Africa’s first privately owned concern.
That means the government would now be stuck with the 7.5 per cent only it was able to pick up and which it currently holds in the $20 billion, 650 barrels per day capacity refinery, which came into operation in 2023 as the concern is insisting it is no longer interested in the remaining 12.5 per cent stake.
Instead of the government, the organisation, currently responsible for the supply of the major chunk of petroleum products in Nigeria and many parts of Africa, is now planning to bring in ordinary Nigerians into the mix to lap up the stake in the near future.
Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, who made the revelation, Nicolai Tangen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), that the group had since rejected requests by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the firm.
The PUNCH, quoted the African Richest Man (ARM), as saying in the interview that the NNPC’s offer to increase its 7.25 per cent stake in the refinery was rejected because the company Dangote was planning to go public and give other Nigerians the opportunity to own shares in the plant.
Dangote had revealed that after acquiring the original 7.5 per cent in 2021, for $1bn, with an option to acquire the remaining 12.75 per cent stake by June 2024, NNPC Limited began to stall, and ended up reneging on its decision.
However, the national oil company had made attempts to acquire more stakes in the refinery, since that, but this was turned down, adding that the biggest risks the business could face were either civil war and government policy inconsistencies.
Hear him: “Actually, if there are civil wars, which is not in the offing at all. The other biggest risk is government inconsistencies in policies, and we are addressing that one because if you look at our refinery, the national oil company already owns 7.25 per cent, and they are trying to buy more. We are the ones that said no; we want to now spread it and have everybody be part of it.”
Dangote, had in 2014, informed Nigerians on how, Mele Kyari, former Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (GMD-CEO), had reduced NNPC’s stake in the refinery from 20 per cent to 7.25 per cent.
He had said then: “The agreement was actually 20 per cent, which we had with NNPC, and they did not pay the balance of the money up until last year; then we gave them another extension up until June (2024), and they said that they would remain where they had already paid, which is 7.2 per cent. So NNPC owns only 7.2 per cent, not 20 per cent.
The business mogul, who painted a seducing picture of what is at stake in the new opportunities, including the provision of getting dividends in foreign currencies, told his Norwegian host: “What we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our businesses going forward, in cement or in the refinery, in petrochemicals, in fertiliser, we guarantee to pay you a dividend in dollars because we are very well into exports. 80 per cent of our revenue will be in dollars.”
Explaining how he sourced funds for building the refinery, from various financial institutions, including Nigerian banks, he said the initial plan was to fund most of the construction work from our internally generated funds, but because of naira devaluation, the group had to rely on Afreximbank, Africa Finance Corporation, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, UBA and a couple of the local banks.
“But of course we also have a very good relationship with the Standard Bank of South Africa and, at the beginning, Standard Chartered Bank of the UK. We were lucky and what happened when the plant was completed turned out to be much more than our own expectations.”
The coast has brightened for Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, having been given the opportunity of obtaining the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket for next year’s governorship election, contrary to reports in some quarters that he has been denied.
Vanguard reports that he was one of the 30 governors cleared by the party’s screening committee, including Hope Uzodimma of Imo, a two-term governor, who is currently eyeing a seat at the Senate.
Others cleared, included Sarafadeen Alli, former Secretary to the Oyo State Government (SSG), for the 2027, the report said, quoting sources, who revealed that the screening report was yet to be released due to a deluge of petitions flooding the party.
To beat the deadline by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the submission of the list of the names of successful candidates, the party said it now would publish the names of cleared aspirants on May 13.
Regarding the dithering on the release of the 2,980, comprising of one aspirants for one presidential slot, 28 governorship, 109 Senate, 360 House of Representatives, and 991 state assembly positions, a source was quoted as saying: “We are still working on the screening report to make sure everything goes well. The day is not over yet.
“We received many petitions from the eight panels that conducted the primaries. For instance, one of the panels received 10 petitions and the petitions have to be treated on their merit.”
Regarding the fate of Fubara, the source was quoted as saying the governor, whose tenure has been dogged by much of internal and external battles even after joining the APC last year, the source confirmed that he was not disqualified as speculated.
His words: “Nooo! No governor has been booted out. The party has always supported its governors. Some of them like Uzodimma got automatic clearance. To ensure we have a united front in 2027, we are working towards consensus but where that fails, direct primaries will be held in accordance with the Electoral Act. We know some of the high-profile aspirants don’t want to consent, and are ready to go to court. We don’t want that.”
After years of public outcries by individuals, groups and civil society organisations, the Imo State Police Command finally took steps against the controversial Anti-Kidnapping Unit, popularly known as Tiger Base.
The agency, described by many as notorious for rights abuses, was scrapped, by the Command, along with other tactical squads with similar identities, which have now been replaced with a newly created Violent Crime Response Unit (VCRU) aimed at tackling rising violent crimes across the state.
The development was announced at the Police Command Headquarters in Owerri, the Imo State capital, marking one of the most significant policing reforms in the state in recent years following growing public concerns over the activities of Tiger Base.
Other tactical formations affected by the disbandment include the Scorpion Unit and the Lion Squad, whose operations were closely linked to the now-defunct outfit.
Speaking during the inauguration of the new unit, the Commissioner of Police, CP Audu Garba Bosso, said the reform was in compliance with the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to reposition tactical operations nationwide and strengthen professionalism within the Force.
Bosso said the newly established VCRU would focus on intelligence-driven operations against armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism, terrorism, illegal possession of firearms, and other violent crimes.
According to him, officers drafted into the unit were carefully selected based on competence, discipline, integrity, and operational experience.
He disclosed that the operatives had undergone intensive training in tactical response, intelligence gathering, crisis management, and human rights compliance to ensure lawful and professional conduct.
“The inauguration of the VCRU reflects our commitment to professional policing, public safety, and improved service delivery to the people of Imo State,” the police commissioner stated.
In a move seen as an attempt to rebuild public trust, the command also inaugurated a Civilian Oversight Board comprising representatives of the Nigerian Bar Association, civil society organisations, traditional rulers, religious leaders, and the Nigeria Union of Journalists.
The board is expected to monitor the activities of the unit, receive complaints from members of the public, and provide independent feedback to the Commissioner of Police.
The event attracted top government officials, heads of security agencies, members of the Police Community Relations Committee, youth organisations, and human rights groups.
Governor Hope Uzodinma, represented by the Chief Principal Security Officer, ACP Gboyako Shaba Adamu, commended the initiative and pledged continued support for security agencies in combating insecurity across the state.
Observers believe the scrapping of Tiger Base and the creation of the VCRU may signal a new chapter in tactical policing in Imo State, especially amid increasing calls for accountability and respect for human rights by security operatives.
The ceremony featured the unveiling of the VCRU logo, presentation of its operational dress code, and goodwill messages from stakeholders.
Residents were urged to support the new unit with credible information to aid crime-fighting efforts across the state.
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