By Nwoke Ezeike
The controversy over the mismanagement of campaign funds given by Governor Hope Uzodimma to the Aboh Mbaise LGA Campaign Council in Imo State has raged on, with the Campaign Council Chairman, Barrister Iheukwumere Alaribe, breaking his silence.
In a posting on the Campaign Council platform forwarded to this writer, Alaribe claimed that the funds he handled were in good hands.
According to the former Campaign Council Chairman, "the campaign funds were carefully and diligently managed with a balance which is not in my pocket. I have patiently read some of these chats and believe that some of the crusaders stand will be different if I shared the balance," he said in response to a report by The White Paper newspaper in it's Wednesday, June 21, 2023 edition published in Owerri, Imo state capital.
Alaribe, who had also served as the Director General of the Rochas Okorocha Re-election Campaign in 2015, went on to add that, "I don't like talking in parables when I am not in a glass house. I am very confident with the facts and truth of the situation. Which LGA has rendered account or has a pronounced balance like Aboh Mbaise. I am proud of it."
Ogechi Njoku Ehirim Sole Administrator Abor Mbaise LGA
The questions many leaders in Aboh Mbaise are asking are: Why did Alaribe not utilize the funds given for elections fully? Why did he allow APC to lose in several polling booths in Aboh Mbaise when deployment of funds would have helped?
According to so many leaders this writer spoke with, the deliberate hoarding or withholding of campaign funds amounted to a designed sabotage of the campaign efforts. "Who was he working for?" one leader asked. "Certainly not for the APC," another leader responded. "By his own admission, Alaribe tied the hands of APC operatives by withholding funds from them? Who does that?"
The former Aboh Mbaise LGA Campaign Council Chairman did not, however, refute the report that he participated in the sharing of campaign funds to three different private accounts, which he told people were accounts that belonged to the Sole Administrator of Aboh Mbaise LGA, Barrister Ogechi Njoku-Ehirim, and the LGA Party Chairman, Sir Anthony Awusaku. These three operators reportedly made a decision to move campaign funds from the Central Campaign fund to their private accounts, without any discussion or agreement by the Campaign Council members.
It should be recalled that the Aboh Mbaise LGA Campaign Council included all government appointees from Aboh Mbaise LGA. These appointees include SAs such as Barrister Pat Ekeji, Chief Tanana Biaduo, Nze Milo Olewuike, Dr. Emmanuel Ogbonna, Chief Kenneth Iheonunekwu, Mr. Chigozie Ewunonu, and Dr. Ugorji O. Ugorji, to mention a few. Those among the appointees that this writer spoke to said they knew nothing about what the Campaign Council Chairman and his two collaborators did with the Campaign funds. Many workers during the campaign were reportedly not paid and many are still not paid.
Sir Tony Awusaku (Abor Mbaise LGA Party Chairman).
According to the former Campaign Council Chairman, many leaders, including respected leaders from Alaribe's Oke Clan, have counseled him (Alaribe) to give an account of the campaign funds, including the successes and failures of the campaign in Aboh Mbaise LGA. "Whether or not other LGAs gave an account, his kinsmen from Aboh Mbaise are asking their brother to do the right thing," one of the leaders reacted.
Mr. Chinedu Edward Ogwuni, who said he served as the Secretary to the Aboh Mbaise Campaign Council and followed Alaribe to all the campaign stops, told this writer that, "Dr. Ugorji Ugorji, the Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, who hails from Aboh Mbaise LGA, has given a full and comprehensive account of his contributions to the campaign efforts, including funds that came to him. Not a Kobo went to him personally. Instead, he gave a lot of his own money to the party and to the campaign council. That's the standard and the example most leaders I have spoken to want Barrister Alaribe to rise up to."
Another leader in Aboh Mbaise LGA, Chief Agrigwe, reacted to Alaribe by saying, "Barr., you people should hide your faces in shame, talking about the money here and defending your self. It is very shameful; you people didn't use the money as instructed and many people are still being owed and you are talking of rendering account to the Governor. Do you take us as fools?".
...Nwoke Ezuike, writes from Orji, Owerri, Imo State, South East, Nigeria. NNL.
