Hotel Owner Manager Sues Governor Obi For N500 Million

Share

Many battle lies ahead of Anambra State governor, following his illegal demolition of Upper Class Hotel on August 1st and 2nd, following allegations of it being used as a hideout for kidnappers. The owner of the hotel, Chief Bonaventure Mokwe has been detained in SARS by Governor Obi for over four months, using all apparatus of the state to perpetually keep him

there. Haven exhausted all avenues to make Mr. Obi see reasons why he should pay compensation for the destroyed hotel, haven established that he acted in error as the hotel was never used for such illicit activities, the hotel manager, Mr. Justin Nwankwo , a PhD Philosophy student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, whose properties, character and livelihood was severely destroyed has dragged the governor to court.

This 1st of the 15 lawsuits has been filed, by Dr Jude Uche Okoye, attorney to Mr. Justin Nwankwo, asking for N500 million, as compensation for the irreparable damages inflicted on him, describing it as a “generational damage to his person and family, ostracizing him from his immediate society”. The lawsuit was filed on the 27th Nov. 2013 by way of pre-action notice to the Anambra State Government.

The suit of Chief Bonaventure Mokwe (The Managing Director of Upper Class Hotel) is yet to be filed. He retains the services of Femi Falana (SAN) and Dr M.N. Umenweke (Associate Professor of Law).

WHO WON THE 2013 ANAMBRA POLLS ....?? …INEC renders Anambra guber results invalid

Uche Osibe

INEC prepared three different voters registers for the November 16, 2013 governorship election in Anambra State.

Local Government Electoral Officers had voters registers quite different from the voters registers given to the Collation Officers for the said election and evidences of the use of double voters registers were the reason why both the LG Electoral Officers and LG Collation Officers sharply disagreed in the course of submitting and declaring results local government by local government (see live video/television coverage footages)

Again, another evidence of use of the two different voters registers manifested when the total number of registered voters 1,770,125 million voters in one register cou;d not balance with the votes allotted until the total number of registered voters 1,763,751 million voters in another voters registers was alternatively used

Going by the adopted figures of voters finally used by INEC at the venue of announcement of results of the election, the total number of registered voters is 1,763,751 million, the total number of accredited voters is 451,826 ,total numbr of votes cast is 429,549 votes, the total number of valid votes is 413,005, the total number of invalid or rejected votes is 16,544 and the total number of nullified or cancelled votes is 113,113.

From the results announced by INEC, the breakdown of individual scores recorded for the parties are as follows: AA – 236; Accord – 181; ACD – 471;ACPN – 552; AD – 171; ADC – 642; APA – 1521; APC – 92,300; APGA – 174,710; CPP – 853;DPP – 607; ID – 203; KOWA – 313; LP – 37,446; MPPP – 151; NCP – 254; NNPP – 670; PDP – 94,956;PPA – 5056; PPN – 323;SDP – 231; UDP – 153, and UPP – 621.

The top four parties viz APC scored 92,300 votes; APGA got 174,710 votes; PDP scored 94,956 votes and LP got 37,446 votes totaling 399,406 votes. The other parties scored a total of 13,209 votes

When the total score of 399,406 votes for the top four parties (APC+APGA+PDP+LP) is added to the total score of 13,209 for the remaining parties, the sum total is 413,613 votes.

Therefore, all the participating political parties scored a total of 413,613 votes as against 413,005 allocated to the parties by INEC, showing a difference of 390 votes.. Sources are of the opinion that of the 113,113 cancelled votes, 89,997 votes are from Idemili North LGA, APC candidate, Ngige’s major stronghold and highest in voter strength among LGAs. It is believed that the 89,997 cancelled votes belong to Ngige’s APC but cancelled to whittled down his scores.

Observers are of the opinion that if the 89,997 cancelled votes are added to the 92,300 votes Ngige got, he will lead the pack and be announced as the winner and issued with Certificate of Return by INEC as the governor-elect.

The total number of votes cast is 429,549 and when subtracted from the so-called cancelled votes of 113,113, a total of 316,436 votes is got, which is less than 399,406 votes polled by a combination of just four top runners (APC+APGA+PDP+LP), or even the total of 412,615 votes allocated to all the parties in the election.. What this means is that the number of votes for the four top candidates is higher than the total number of valid votes cast in the election.

Again, if, according to INEC’s allocated figures of 429,549 is the total number of votes cast, it means that 316,346 votes were recorded after subtracting the cancelled 113,113 votes.

APGA’s candidate, Wille Obiano should have 91,740 votes but INEC went ahead to allocate an additional 82,970 votes in order to push his figure up. If Obiabo is given his due votes of 91,740 votes, he will place third leaving Ngige with the chances f taking the first position while Nwoye will place second.

Mathematically
or statistically, the number of votes allocated to the candidates by INEC is spurious and fraudulent. Even more fraudulent and inexplicable are the high percentage of polling units and areas in Ngige’s domain which are substantially enough to determine who wins the election if conducted freely, fairly and credibly.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              
014(Ashiashia), 016(Unity Pri.  Sch.)

The areas where the supplementary election would hold include three poling units in Ayamelum local government (1247 voters), one poling unit in Anambra East (250 voters), six units in Anambra West (2000 voters), one unit in Anaocha (276 voters), two units in Awka North (1356 voters), one unit in Aguata (310 voters) and one unit in Awka South (249 voters).Others are three units in Ekwusigo (884 voters), two units in Idemili South (800 voters), one unit in Onitsha North (484 voters), 17 units in Onitsha South (12299 voters), four units in Orumba North (588 voters) and four units in Oyi (1202 voters).

The 210 polling units made up of 113, 113 registered voters are scattered in 15 LGAs of Idemmili North 160 polling units, Ayamelum 2,Anambra East 3, Anambra West 6, Anaocha 1, Awka North 2, Awka South 1,

Aguata 1, Ekwusigo 3, Idemmili South 1, Ihiala 2, Onitsha South 17,Onitsha North1, Orumba North 4 and Oyi 4.

But INEC rather than toe the line of electoral decency,chose electoral impunity, making policy summersault in is illogical defence. Questions recall like decimal, how much did Jjega t that all of a sudden, he no longer listens to voice of reason and is surprising his admirers with his overdue delay to resign even without the consensus opinion that as become a pointer.Suddenly, Jega’s words no longer couns as is seen as a jega-haga statement.Why not if Jjega can call for a supplementary election against an obvious option of conducting a fresh election after INEC has declared result of the November 16, 2013 and declared it inconclusive.

The Electoral Act 2010 as amended points to recourse to a court of law for the determination of the matter which is obviously an inconclusive election. Jega thus has a duty to organise a fresh election and will be held responsible for any bloodbath that will trail his unpopular move to conduct a fresh poll that is dead on arrival. It has been said elsewhere that Jega and his sponsors and Big Ogas in the Presidency are using Anambra State to test run the seeming hatched plan to disintegrate Nigeria come 2015.But we say no using the Anambra confusion that s the governorship race.

One of the major actors in the election, which was widely condemned as “flawed” and “shameful”, described the election as a “disaster”. Dr. Chris Ngige, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, said: “We have on tape a policeman thumb printing for APGA and INEC officials running away with election materials.” Ngige was angry as he spoke at a press conference in Awka, the state capital. He said: “This INEC used students instead of members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to starve us of election materials. All the electoral officers were all compromised, like the one in Idemili North who deliberately acted on the orders of INEC and APGA. “Students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka here were used as poll clerks just to find fault in APC and to favour their lecturer, Dr. Nkem Okeke, who ran as deputy to the APGA candidate in the election. “Much more astonishing is that they wore NYSC uniforms because of the election and when they are taught how to perfect fraud, somebody will tell Nigerians that this country will be good. This is the disposition of the personnel that came to work in the election.” Ngige urged INEC chairman Jega to call for the list of the Adhoc staff who worked during the election. “I do not want anybody to favour me or my party APC. Apart from the people from Calabar, every other person that worked during the election had affiliation with APGA,” Ngige alleged. Ngige said APC members had computed that over 600,000 people were denied their voting rights, adding that the 210 units being allocated by INEC to them for the “so-called” supplementary election were not enough. He added that the 16 local government areas being claimed by INEC as places where elections were cancelled was not true. APC, he said, knows that election did not take place in 20 local government areas. Ngige said: “INEC on Sunday came up with what it called supplementary election. The votes allocated to APC during the so-called election on Sunday were fake because we did not participate. “Our stand is clear. The election was fraught with intimidation, with thuggery, with disenfranchisement of our voters and total partisanship by the electoral body.”

In a statement issued in Lagos on Saturday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party also condemned INEC for its apparently-contrived logistic nightmare that has left thousands of voters unable to exercise their franchise, and demanded the immediate removal of Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra, Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukogu, for being incompetent and conniving.

APC said it was totally astonished to learn that INEC confirmed that materials meant for Idemili North Local Government, which has 180,000 voters, had been hijacked, without saying who hijacked the ballot papers and why, and without explaining why the materials meant for APGA and PDP strongholds were not hijacked.

Jega has lost control as Comrade Tony Nwoye, the PDP governorship candidate whose name and that of members of his family and constituents numbering over 500 pointed out..

It is established Ngige won, but what can Jega do now that he is under pressure to satisfy his masters and sponsors. How far s Anambra State far from Nigeria’s disintegration because of Jega-Jaga poll? Still waiting on Jega to resign.

APGA Big Guns Settle Ekwunife in Millions and Contracts in exchange for Obiano Suit withdrawal

President Goodluck Jonathan,  Hon. Uche Ekwunife,  Mrs Goodluck Jonathan

Ekwunife  after pressures from above withdraws suit against Obiano and  re-affirms her loyalty to Governor Peter Obi; the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh; and the entire leadership of the party after her demands were met by the trio to the tune of Millions and promise of huge contracts  and perhaps the poisoned chalice as well.


A House of Representatives member from Anambra State, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife, has withdrawn her suit challenging the eligibility of Chief Willie Obiano, the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in the Anambra State Governorship election, to contest the poll.
Ekwunife, who was the first runner-up to Obiano in the APGA primaries, told our correspondent on Thursday


 that she had to withdraw the matter after she came under intense pressure from the church, traditional rulers, well-wishers and family members.
“I have been under pressure for sometime now; I am withdrawing the matter,” she said, disclosing that she had already instructed her lawyers to file the necessary papers to withdraw the suit.

She re-affirmed her loyalty to Governor Peter Obi; the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh; and the entire leadership of the party.
She had asked the court to declare that Obiano, having registered as a voter more than once, had committed a criminal offence, according to the Electoral Act and not qualified to contest the governorship election.
Ekwunife, who represents Anaocha, Njikoka, Dunukofia constituency, emphasised that her action was not done in bad faith but to ensure the survival of the party in the likely event of the suits filed by some members of opposing parties against Obiano succeeding.

Lliliac is laughing hard!!!!, just few years ago 

Anambra PDP loses lawmaker, 15,000 others to APGA 

  Written by Sam Nwaoko, Awka   Monday, 02 August 2010

THE lawmaker representing Anaocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia federal constituency of Anambra State in the House of Representatives, Chief (Mrs) Uche Ekwkunife, has defected to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Ekwunife led about 1,5000 of her supporters from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APGA, at a ceremony held at St John’s Catholic Church ground, Neni, Anaocha Local Government Area of the state, at the weekend.

Among the large number of defectors were Ekwunife’s supporters in the Progressive Peoples’ Alliance (PPA), the party in which she contested the governorship of the state in February.

Those who left the PPA with her included chairmen of the PPA in 18 local government areas and 326 ward chairmen of the party in a rally tagged ‘’mother of all rallies.’’

Sylvester Okeke, representing Anaocha constituency in the state House of Assembly, also defected from the PDP to APGA.

Ekwunife and Okeke said their decision to defect to APGA was borne out of the conviction of the development efforts of Governor Peter Obi.

Ekwunife apologised to Governor Obi for the aspersions she might have cast on him during the governorship campaigns, saying that “all those were politics, but the truth is that he has done well, apparently because of his background.”

Welcoming the defectors to the APGA fold, the national chairman of the party, Chief Victor Umeh, reassured that the doors of the party would always be open to accept new members.

http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/9070-anambra-pdp-loses-lawmaker-15000-others-to-apga

By Valentine Obienyem

EKWUNIFE’S ‘POISONED CHALICE’

Hon. Ekwunife 

When Uche Ekwunife, PPA’s deadly guber candidate pointedly told the wife of Senator Annie Okonkwo that a time would come when only she, Uche would be telling her her husband’s whereabouts, it was probably regarded as an empty threat. Today however it has come to fulfilment as the senator is now under the ‘magic spell’ of Uche. This is authoritative and very verifiable.

The situation is so bad now for the senator that he has not just bankrolled Ekwunife’s campaign but cannot eat food in Ekwunife’s house unless it is cooked by Ekwunife herself!

According to bemused inside sources, the senator has eaten the ‘forbidden fruit’. It is believed that Ekwunife uses her body to ensnare men to get what she wants. ‘’It goes beneath the surface,’’ says an authoritative source.

 ‘’The truth is that her private part is charmed and any man who eats of it is finished as he will then be remote controlled by her.

Indeed, the story goes, Ekwunife can sleep with a gateman if that will enable her to get at the ‘oga’. Another story was told of how she once went in the company of a friend to see an important man. Immediately on getting there, and right in front of the friend, she started undressing the man. When the friend asked her why she was so brazen, she told her that she had to hurry up before her ‘weapon’ (charm) expired!

Now her confidence on the election is hinged on the fact that she has seduced Iwu, INEC’s boss. She is hoping that the charm will work in her favour again so that Iwu will do the impossible thing of announcing her as the winner. But to many, of course, that is sheer wishful thinking as charms don’t work when a group is involved.

Among close friends of the senator, efforts are being made to free him from the evil spell of Ekwunife to enable Annie return to his senses and family. This story may sound odd but it is true. She used the same ploy against Mbadinuju and made her initial money. Today her hotel is sitting side by side with Mbadinuju’s at Iyiagu Estate in Awka.

Among the people of the state, Ekwunife is referred to as a whore. Even her former PPA boss, Arthur Eze was once publicly quoted as saying that a ‘harlot’ will never rule Anambra State, in reference to Uche. No doubt, the fear of Uche is now the beginning of wisdom and housewives get the jitters once they hear their husbands are linked with Uche . Anyone who doubts this should simply go and ask questions or taste and see, but that is if he has the courage.

Certainly Annie needs your serious prayers

PPA's Uche Ekwunife Campaigns in Anambra

 

Gov Peter Obi awards N4.8b contract for construction of new government house, governor’s lodge

The Anambra government has approved the construction of a permanent Government House and a new Governor’s Lodge in Awka, the Commissioner for Information, Chief Jormartins Uzodike, said.

Uzodike told newsmen in Awka on Tuesday that the government had also approved the immediate construction of a banquet hall, a new House of Assembly, Speaker’s Lodge, judiciary headquarters and chief judge’s residence.

The commissioner, who briefed newsmen on the outcome of the state’s Executive Council meeting, said all the projects would be built at the cost of N4.8 billion and would be cited at Greenwood Layout, in the state capital.

He said the construction of the new office complex for the House of Assembly and the extension of the existing legislative building would cost N190 million.

He added that the council had approved the rehabilitation of the portion of the expressway between Amawbia Roundabout and the Amansea Bridge in Awka, with streetlights and a pedestrian walkway at the cost of N5 billion.

The rehabilitation of the highway would give Awka a befitting look, he noted.

“Approval was also given for the construction of Nkwo Nnewi Shopping Mall and infrastructure at the cost of N3 billion and a contract for the review and publishing of the state laws volumes 1 – 10 at N40 million.

“The council also approved the construction of the 5.3 kilometers Achina-Onneh-Agbudu-Ogboji Road at the cost of N770 million, as well as a 3.4-kilometer road from Nnokwa to Ichida at the cost of N580 million.

“The construction of Afor Umunya-Odumodu junction-Onitsha-Enugu expressway was also approved at the cost of N240 million, as well as the construction of 22 kilometers road across the state at the cost of 6.3 billion,’’ he said.

The commissioner added that approval had also been given for the reconstruction of the Nkitaku-Obe-General Hospital Road in Agulu at the cost of N600 million.

He added that the All Saints Church Road in Umunnamechi-Uli and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital’s internal roads in Ihiala Local Government Area would be rehabilitated at the cost of N300 million.

The council had also approved the rehabilitation of the dual-carriage way and service roads from Upper Iweka to Zik Roundabout in Onitsha at the cost of N3.5 billion.

Other approvals, he said, were the reconstruction of Aguluezigbo roads at N1.8 billion and St. Michael’s Church Road in Ndikelionwu, Orumba North Local Government Area at the cost of N136 million.

Uzodike said contracts for the projects would soon be awarded by the government. (NAN)

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OBIANO AND CHRIS UBA THE GODFATHER OF ANAMBRA POLITICS

2013: NGIGE REFUSED TO PAY THE N3bn RANSOM,  OBI CONTINUED TO PAY IT AND NOW OBIANO HAS TAKEN AN OATH TO CONTINUE  PAYING THAT MONEY LEADING TO ENDORSEMENT BY CHRIS UBA click here http://liliacfire.blogspot.com/2013/11/chris-uba-eselu-endorses-anambra.html

*********************************************************************************

Case Study B: Anambra State

“Anambra is a very hot place, a place where everyone has to be very careful.” 
—PDP “Godfather” and Board of Trustees Member, Chris Uba, Enugu, February 12, 2007

Anambra State lies near the geographic heart of Nigeria’s Igbo-dominated southeast. Since 1999 the violence, corruption, and “godfatherism” occurring elsewhere in Nigeria have run rampant in Anambra. But Anambra also evinces some examples of the tenuous reasons for optimism that systemic abuses could be reversed if the federal government would support far-reaching reform.

Godfatherism in Anambra State

A wealthy member of the powerful Uba political family, Chris Uba is an iconic example of the godfather phenomenon in Nigeria.²²⁶ When Human Rights Watch visited his home in Enugu (situated on a street named after himself) in early 2007, he proudly displayed a large collection of luxury vehicles and a police car with blacked-out license plates that he said belonged to him and not to the police.²²⁷ Security men with handguns tucked inside of their belts wandered about the compound.

Chris Uba, a member of the PDP Board of Trustees, was at the apex of his power during the 2003 elections, when he “sponsored” PDP candidates and rigged their election to office across Anambra. After that election he publicly declared himself “the greatest godfather in Nigeria,” noting that “this is the first time an individual single-handedly put in position every politician in the state.”²²⁸

Among the politicians Chris Uba “sponsored” in 2003 was PDP gubernatorial candidate Chris Ngige. The terms of their relationship were spelled out in remarkably explicit fashion in a written “contract” and “declaration of loyalty” that Ngige signed prior to the election. Chris Uba provided Human Rights Watch with a copy of this document to bolster his contention that Ngige later failed to live up to the terms of their agreement.

Ngige promised in writing to “exercise and manifest absolute loyalty to the person of Chief Chris Uba as my mentor, benefactor and sponsor” and agreed to allow Uba control over all important government appointments and the awarding of all government contracts. The contract referred to Governor Ngige as the “Administrator” and to the unelected Uba as “Leader/Financier.” It also empowered Uba to “Avenge himself in the way and manner adjudged by him as fitting and adequate” (emphasis in original) in case of any breach by Ngige that could not be settled through mediation.²²⁹ These documents, which spelled out the subordination of the Governor to Chris Uba in some detail, are printed as an annex to this report.²³⁰

In an interview with Human Rights Watch, Ngige did not deny that Chris Uba rigged his election into office but claims that he tried to break away from Uba’s control immediately after the 2003 election.²³¹ This was no easy task; Ngige said that from the moment he assumed office, Uba was continually “making personal demands that I go to the treasury and take money and give it to him.”²³² Ngige also claims that shortly before his inauguration, armed men broke into his home and forced him, at gunpoint, to sign a pledge that he would pay Chris Uba the sum of N3 billion ($23 million) immediately after assuming office.²³³ In an interview with Human Rights Watch, Uba denied that he ever demanded cash payments from Governor Ngige.²³⁴

Relations between Ngige and Uba deteriorated rapidly. In July 2003 Governor Ngige was kidnapped by armed policemen and forced at gunpoint to sign a “letter of resignation.”²³⁵ In an interview with Human Rights Watch Ngige alleged that Uba was responsible for this and cites the episode as illustrative of why, even as governor, he could not turn to the police for help against Uba’s attempts at extortion.²³⁶ Uba dismissed the allegations of extortion as being completely without any basis in fact.²³⁷

Ngige’s “resignation” was eagerly accepted by the State House of Assembly despite the circumstances under which it was obtained. One Anambra State legislator told Human Rights Watch that at the time most members of the legislature were “in bondage” to Chris Uba in much the same manner as Ngige.²³⁸

Ngige successfully petitioned to have his “resignation” thrown out by the federal courts and remained in office but quickly found himself under siege yet again. In 2004 thugs armed with firearms and crude explosives attacked Government House in Awka and burned part of it to the ground while policemen stood aside and watched.²³⁹ Other gangs then staged several attacks on other government buildings throughout the state.²⁴⁰ As many as 24 people were killed during the ensuing violent clashes and looting.²⁴¹

Ngige—like much of the Nigerian press and many civil society groups—alleges that Chris Uba was behind the attack.²⁴² Several well-placed sources told Human Rights Watch that Chris Uba had recruited an Ogoni youth leader from Rivers State to help organize the attack on Government House in conjunction with thugs sourced locally in Anambra.²⁴³ Chris Uba denied any involvement in the matter.²⁴⁴ The police’s failure to investigate who was behind the attack, and specifically Uba’s alleged involvement, stands as a stark example of the impunity he has consistently enjoyed.

Box 5: A Godfather’s Views on Governance

The following are excerpts from a Human Rights Watch interview with Anambra State political “godfather” Chris Uba at his Enugu residence in February 2007: I have been in politics from 1999 and even before, but 2003 is the time I produced a Governor for the State. Since that 2003 I have been handling the party—the PDP­—and we have been doing well and we did not have any problem in the party. When he [Ngige] became Governor he started playing funny. That is where we disagree, we signed before he became governor. We said that I am going to produce [appoint] six to seven Commissioners. He is going to produce [some] because he is governor already. I am going to produce more; he is going to produce lesser… I spent a lot of money to put him there but I never asked him for my money back. Ngige was trying to be smart, trying to run the government on his own.…The problem is Ngige being a politician who did not invest one naira, not even one kobo, wanted to run away with everything and not even share one appointment. That is why he heaped this blackmail upon me…I cannot tell him to give me N3 billion because I know that he does not have it! The allocation to Anambra in one month is not up to N3 billion! I am supposed to bring the Commissioner for Finance, this man who funded the campaign is supposed to be Commissioner of Works, I said, look, you signed it, and not under duress. The problem is the immunity the governors are having, everything they are having, you spend your money to bring them into power and they say “Go to hell.” It should be just like, you invest in a bank and then you have power to make some decisions because of your controlling shares. But he blackmails you and pays the press to go say all sorts of bad things about you and put it in the internet.245

Impeachment through Corruption and Intimidation

The Ngige-Uba saga came to an end in March 2006 when a Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Ngige’s 2003 election victory was fraudulent and therefore null and void. The result was Ngige’s replacement with his 2003 electoral opponent from the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peter Obi.²⁴⁶ Obi had produced massive evidence of electoral fraud and his installation as governor was widely hailed as a victory for democracy in Anambra.²⁴⁷

Just seven months after Obi assumed office, a group of legislators in the PDP-dominated State House of Assembly voted to impeach him. The events leading up to that purported “impeachment” provide a clear illustration of the ways in which state and federal government institutions and law enforcement agencies were manipulated, misused, and influenced by corruption under Obasanjo’s stewardship.

Human Rights Watch interviewed several legislators in the Anambra State House of Assembly who said that they were persuaded to support the impeachment bid through a combination of bribery and coercion that they believed was at least tacitly supported by the presidency in Abuja.²⁴⁸

In October 2006 the PDP leadership in the Anambra legislature transported a group of 18 Anambra legislators to the Grand Hotel, a sprawling luxury resort on the banks of the Niger River in Asaba, the capital of neighboring Delta State. They remained at the hotel for several weeks as party leaders worked to build consensus for a move against Obi. Members interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they received moral support from and had meetings in Asaba and Abuja with powerful PDP member Olabode George, Anambra State PDP Chairman Tony Nwoye and Chris Uba’s brother Andy Uba, then serving as President Obasanjo’s Special Advisor on Domestic Affairs.²⁴⁹ The legislators said that in those meetings they were repeatedly urged to impeach Governor Obi.²⁵⁰

Human Rights Watch interviewed three legislators who were among those at Asaba. They said that the House leadership gave them funds not only to cover their considerable expenses at the resort, but also frequent infusions of “pocket money” ranging from N50,000 to N200,000 ($385 to $1540).²⁵¹ A senior member of the PDP leadership in the State House of Assembly reportedly told them that the funds had arrived from Abuja but refused to spell out its precise source. They said that the most significant inducement the state’s PDP leadership offered them was the promise of an “automatic ticket” in the 2007 elections—that is, that their victory in the PDP primaries would be assured regardless of who might chose to run against them.²⁵²

To complement these inducements, three separate legislators told Human Rights Watch that PDP leaders in the legislature threatened that any member who did not support impeachment would be targeted for EFCC prosecution. While the members acknowledged that they could not confirm whether there was any basis to that threat, they had no trouble believing it. “The way we see it, the EFCC, it has nothing to do with whether you have committed any offense or not,” said one legislator who ultimately voted in favor of impeachment. “They will come and arrest a person for any reason and keep him behind bars until he succumbs to what they want him to do.”²⁵³

Three PDP legislators who opposed the impeachment move ultimately left the party and were then placed on the EFCC’s controversial list of politicians to be disallowed from contesting the 2007 elections due to alleged evidence of corruption—three of only four Anambra politicians to make the list aside from former Governor Ngige.²⁵⁴

On November 2, 2006, a group of pro-impeachment lawmakers returned to Anambra at dawn and voted to impeach Governor Obi without the presence of other lawmakers, even though they did not have sufficient numbers present to meet the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority of the full legislature for a successful impeachment.²⁵⁵ Obi was deposed as governor despite the clear illegality of the move against him.

Peter Obi was reinstated in February 2007 by the Federal Court of Appeal. But INEC disqualified Obi from standing in the 2007 elections on a technicality stemming from a factional dispute within Obi’s APGA party from standing in the 2007 elections.²⁵⁶

Mobilizing Cult Groups for the 2007 Elections

The 2007 polls were an especially high-stakes affair in Anambra because the PDP candidate for governor, Andy Uba, reportedly enjoyed the strong political backing of President Obasanjo. Andy Uba had served as an influential Special Advisor to Obasanjo for most of his eight years as president. Voicing a common complaint among many activists and community leaders in Anambra, one member of the state’s Elders Forum alleged that Obasanjo “wants to award Andy Uba the governorship of Anambra for having served him well for 7 ½ years” whether the people of Anambra wanted him or not.²⁵⁷

Andy Uba is the brother of Chris Uba, and his designs on the governor’s office caused a rift between the two. Andy Uba took over the Anambra State PDP in a move Chris Uba described as a “coup” and installed Tony Nwoye, a former student union leader, as state chairman of the party.²⁵⁸ In interviews with Human Rights Watch, numerous sources including police officials, a spokesman for Governor Peter Obi, opposition politicians and cult members identified Nwoye as a prominent member of the Black Axe cult.

According to press reports, opposition complaints and police sources in Anambra, Andy Uba’s campaign appeared to be unusually well-funded, and Nwoye immediately set about mobilizing funds to recruit thugs to ensure Andy Uba’s victory in the PDP primaries in December 2006.²⁵⁹ Human Rights Watch interviewed several cult members who were described how they were paid to rig the primaries in Uba’s favor by stuffing ballot boxes and chasing off legitimate voters. For example, one member of the Buccaneers cult described how he, along with other Buccaneers and members of other cult groups were actively involved in voter intimidation: “In the primaries we carried axes and machetes and chased away any voters that came near while we were voting.”²⁶⁰ Uba won the PDP nomination after being awarded 97 percent of all votes cast.²⁶¹

Nwoye did not introduce the problem of cultism into Anambra politics; there are many cult groups active in the state, and several civil society activists allege that several members of the State House of Assembly who predated Nwoye’s tenure were cult members.²⁶² Under Nwoye, however, PDP sponsorship of cult groups has become extremely brazen; one leading anti-cult activist complained to Human Rights Watch that “they have made PDP a cult affair.”²⁶³

Opposition figures, community leaders, and even members of the PDP alleged to Human Rights Watch that Andy Uba’s campaign used its capacity to mobilize violence to stifle any opposition to Uba’s eventual election.

At a January 2007 meeting called by the state PDP at the Parktonian Hotel in Awka, two men stood up and complained that they had been robbed of victory in the party primaries even though they had paid Tony Nwoye money in return for the promise of an “automatic ticket.” According to a state legislator and another PDP member who were present at the meeting, Nwoye responded by ordering several thugs who were standing nearby to “beat them to a pulp.”²⁶⁴ “They started slapping and beating them,” the legislator said. “One man, his clothing was torn to shreds and no one ordered them to stop…Andy Uba was there and said nothing.”²⁶⁵

Fighting Over the Spoils

According to police, cults, and other sources, after the PDP primaries Nwoye began channeling funds into the hands of members of his own Black Axe cult to the exclusion of other cult groups in the state.²⁶⁶ Several cult groups including the Vikings and the Buccaneers saw this as deeply unfair and reacted violently. Some also complained that they were not paid in full for working on behalf of Andy Uba’s campaign during the primaries.²⁶⁷

Human Rights Watch interviewed several cult members in Anambra in February 2007, two months before the April elections. According to then-Police Commissioner Haruna John and to cult members themselves, at least seven people were killed in a series of tit-for-tat assassinations between Black Axe and other cult members in the week prior to those interviews alone. Several of those killed had been gunned down in the streets of Awka, and the violence had the effect of terrorizing local residents.²⁶⁸

Two members of the Vikings cult who had been involved in planning the February 2007 wave of violence compared Andy Uba’s gubernatorial campaign to an “oil well” whose revenues they should be entitled to share. ²⁶⁹One of them explained:

In our tertiary institutions we have a lot of secret cult families. The politicians use the secret cults. The problem [now] is other families are fighting the Black Axe so that we can come in and get work. Tony [Nwoye] is hijacking everything for the Black Axe because he is Black Axe. Other families are asking questions—why is the money meant for use in Anambra being hijacked for use only by this other group? That money is what they want to eat alone without sharing with other groups.²⁷⁰

The Vikings members were under the impression that Nwoye had recently distributed N10 million ($77,000) to Black Axe members to the exclusion of all other cult groups. Faced with this unacceptable situation, one of them said, “Either we attack them, to get Andy’s attention, or we go to another party.”²⁷¹

While police sources told Human Rights Watch that they were very much aware of the causes of the wave of cult violence ahead of the elections, they said that they were unlikely to carry out any criminal investigation implicating prominent members of the PDP “because we would not want to be kicked out [of the police force] or transferred or forcibly retired.”²⁷²

The 2007 Elections and their Aftermath

By the time Election Day arrived, Andy Uba was facing only weak and fragmented opposition. INEC had eliminated his two most prominent opponents, Governor Peter Obi and Chris Ngige from the ballot.²⁷³ Nonetheless the elections were meticulously rigged in Uba’s favor.

Human Rights Watch observed the gubernatorial elections in Anambra and corroborated the reports of other observers. Voting did not even take place across much of Anambra State, leaving out any possibility of unexpected developments at the polling stations. Human Rights Watch witnessed widespread evidence of the intimidation of would-be voters, fraud and the fabrication of results by electoral officials and members of the PDP.²⁷⁴ In most cases, polling stations across several different communities visited by Human Rights Watch simply did not open at all, with no officials and no voting materials present.²⁷⁵ Other independent election observers in Anambra reached the same conclusions and witnessed the same widespread fraud during the Presidential polls there one week later.²⁷⁶

Protest riots ensued in some areas as angry would-be voters and opposition supporters burned down government buildings, INEC offices and burned tires in the streets, but the heavy-handed efforts of the PDP to rig the election appeared to yield dividends. The official results indicated a crushing victory for Andy Uba as Governor and fabricated voter turnout figures far higher than anything observed by credible observers in any part of the state.²⁷⁷

When Human Rights Watch went to the INEC office on the morning after the gubernatorial polls to seek an official copy of the results, staff suggested the INEC officials with access to the results could be found at the Grand Hotel in Awka, where Andy Uba’s campaign was holding its victory party. At the hotel, no one had any idea of the results, but the victory party was in full swing as armed men and uniformed police mingled by the pool drinking champagne.

Uba’s celebration was short-lived, however. Months prior to the elections Governor Peter Obi had filed a lawsuit arguing that he had been robbed of his term in office because of the years-long delay in declaring him the winner of the 2003 election. Days after Uba was sworn in as governor, Nigeria’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of Obi in that case, granting Obi the right to serve a full four years in office. Uba’s election was null and void, and gubernatorial elections will not be held in Anambra State until 2010.²⁷⁸

That court ruling did not address the open rigging of the 2007 polls in Anambra; it simply ruled that gubernatorial elections should never have been held in Anambra in the first place. The fabricated results in other races across Anambra are being challenged but still stand as of this writing. The ruling itself is also not without controversy, as its effect will be to force Anambra’s voters to wait seven years from their last chance at voting for a governor to the next election. Nonetheless, in unseating one of the PDP’s most powerful and well connected gubernatorial aspirants, the Supreme Court highlighted the impartiality and independence with which the Nigerian judiciary has generally comported itself in political cases surrounding the 2007 elections.

Anambra’s example, however, also illustrates the limitations of what the judiciary can accomplish by itself. The authors of Anambra’s worst abuses—including murder, illegal possession of weapons, and the wholesale rigging of the 2007 electoral process in the state—continue to enjoy complete impunity for their crimes. Chris Uba no longer has the same political influence as previously, but this was largely the result of his brother Andy’s actions, and he remains a powerful member of the PDP’s national Board of Trustees. Andy Uba may have lost the election, but there has been no effort to investigate him or his associates for his campaign’s open recruitment of cult groups as political muscle. The government and electoral officials responsible for the brazen rigging of Anambra’s elections have not been held to account and there has been no move made to do so. There has also been no investigation into the use of corruption and the threat of selective prosecution to bring about Peter Obi’s impeachment in November 2006.

Anambra’s citizens have remained without a meaningful voice in the selection of their political leaders since at least 2003. Without sustained action against cult gangs and their backers, violence, fraud and corruption are likely to remain features of the state’s political landscape.