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Who is making Dr. Ikpeazu Chinese or North Korean?
Ikechukwu Ogbonna
Last week, an innocuous but dangerous story surfaced online and some WhatsApp platforms. The story, which could have fitted into an April fool’s Day treatise or at best, a comic relief, bore no source or byline of any writer.
Titled : “Breaking News”, it went on to state that in “a landmark ruling that has stunned the nation, the Abia State High Court has sentenced former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to death by hanging after investigators traced N1 Trillion to his secret foreign account in Australia.” It went further to state that, “the money was originally budgeted for the Abia International Airport Project and a light rail system that promised to change the ace of the state.”
One fictitious Justice Chukwuemeka Nwogu, who was said to have delivered the judgement was copiously quoted and security guards were said to have kept the former Governor under heavy guard, pending the execution.
Ordinarily, the ruse of a story would have been dismissed as one of those Click baiting stories or at best, a joke taken too far. But when a prominent Igbo journalist, a septuagenarian and a columnist in major newspapers, Chudi Amuta, uploaded the story on his Facebook page and it started circulating online and WhatApp platforms, it was evident that someone was pushing the ruse but found no better way of attacking Ikpeazu, other than using a deviously mischievous means to attain the goal.
Instructively, Ikpeazu found no reason to react to the story since it existed only on the imagination of the ghost writer. Ikpeazu did not bother to react because, in the first place, there was no such case anywhere. Again, had there been such a judgement , it would have been novel in Nigeria, putting our country at par with the likes of China and North Korea, where such bizarre pronouncements are made and executed.
For sure, there is no provision in Nigeria’s Law, both the Penal and Criminal Codes that provided death by hanging for any corruption case, no matter the magnitude.
The authors and backers of the rogue article only wanted to embarrass or unsettle Ikpeazu, who had maintained his silence since he left office in May 2023. As at the time the ‘Concoction’ was making rounds, Ikpeazu was in his country home in Abia, attending to his private matters.
But a development following discreet investigations by his aides revealed something shocking. The Judge, whose photograph was used to illustrate the story pointed out that, that copy of the portrait that was used was his official photograph, which was only available to the state government, at the State Ministry of Justice. He wondered how such an official document found its way to bloggers and writers, when in the real sense, photographs of judges are not in the public domain.
The big question now is: Who leaked the photograph from the state government’s custody? Did thieves steal the file of the judge or someone in the ministry was doing a job against Ikpeazu?
The answer to that question is now left for the state government led by Dr. Alex Otti, to answer.
But certain facts stand out. It is on record that Otti had accused Ikpeazu previously of budgeting N10billion for an airport, which he(Otti) did not see on assumption of office. That was despite Ikpeazu stating clearly that some leaders of the state considered an airport project not a high priority when the proposal was made. As such, the fund was channelled into other pressing state needs at that time.
What is evident currently is that mischief makers and agents of destruction in Abia forget that Ikpeazu has finished his eight-year, two-four-year terms successfully. He is not in a contest with Otti or any other person in the state. Otti has a re-election in 2027 to battle for. He will face the people of the state, not Ikpeazu. He will face the APC, PDP, ADC and other parties that are interested in governing Abia. Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, an accomplished Academic, has no business with the success or failure of Otti, having finished his own tenure and handed over two years ago.
So, rather than chasing shadows of a past administration, Otti and his men should focus on convincing Abians on the need for his second term. He should rather worry about which platform he will use to prosecute the 2027 election, now that his platform, Labour Party is wobbly and without a sure footing.
He should also channel his energy to delivering tangible projects that will convince the people about his genuineness on the seat. It is not Ikpeazu that stopped President Bola Tinubu from coming to the state last week, after all the hype and noise about inaugurating his projects, which was eventually done by the Minister of Works, David Umahi at the last minute. That was after the president had been advertised to be coming to Abia three times to no avail.
One thing that is certain is that, Ikpeazu would not be on the ballot with Otti again. So, the governor and his goons have their work cut out. No amount of Campaign of Calumny against Ikpeazu is enough to stop the looming battle in the state in 2027.
Ikpeazu is in his home and is not under security surveillance. Neither is he under any trial by any manufactured Judge. Even if he is under trail, it will be a public issue, not a story written with no name by faceless writers. The writers should come out and boldly state their case. The Innocent is not afraid. It is the guilty that is afraid of his shadows. Nigeria is neither China nor North Korea.
Ogbonna, a Lawyer, wrote from Aba
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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