The above ridiculous and laughable hogwash was another mischievous jaundiced piece written by Mr. Chijioke Edeoga, the embattled self-styled governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Enugu State under the fictitious name of Simon Chukwurah borne out of frustration, weak political ambition and self-defeatism to malign his perceived enemies and greatest nightmares – the former governor Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, Dr. Peter Mbah, a renowned and accomplished international entrepreneur, and the good people of Enugu State.
It is understandable that all manners of fake news, lies, misinformation and diatribes are expected from an opposition camp whose stock-in-trade has been launching senseless media terror on those they perceived as a threat to their vacuous and dwindling political ambition for obvious reasons within the public domain.
When a certain incompetent, rejected, unpopular and soulless camp is slapped with the reality that embarrassing defeat is staring at them, the only thing left for such camp is to hold, obstinately, to even the weakest straw they could find. That is the true situation with Edeoga’s political camp at present. The camp has no ambition, no programme, no agenda, and literally nothing to campaign with ahead of the 2023 elections. The only weapon they have is campaign of calumny against other contestants.
The good news, therefore, is that the people of Enugu State and members of the public are aware that whatever comes out of Edeoga’s minions and social media goons should be thrashed as nothing but outright lies meant to deceive the public. This exactly was succinctly captured by the words of the popular English poet and satirist, Alexander Pope, that: “He who tells a lie is not sensible of how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more (lies) to maintain that one”. Nothing has ever come out of Edeoga’s slumping and fatigued camp that is not coated with lies and misrepresentation of facts.
Ordinarily, I deemed it unnecessary to even raise an eyebrow when I saw the lies peddled on the above subject matter as I knew members of the public would not bother reading the falsehood and imaginary fabrications since they will keep writing to reinforce their lies. Edeoga and his jobbers will want to sustain their misinformation by looking for what to write.
However, making this short clarification is not to dignify them with response but to reiterate my position for a decent, sane and civilized political system, and dispel whatever is glaring as fake, untrue and misleading. The innocent people being subjected to media attacks coming from desperate politicians of Edeoga’s low status should be protected by good men in the society. Like a celebrated writer, Barrister Nana Ogbodo, once said; “When evil people conspire, the good men must combine” to thwart such evil conspiracy.
Let me note this emphatically with confidence that, as a practicing lawyer, I have severally availed myself of public records from courts and EFCC’s documents scouting for any document or documents indicting Barrister Peter Mbah, or convicting him of any offence, or where he entered any plea bargain or whatever name or nomenclature it goes, with no success. I had to visit the EFCC office using the opportunity afforded me by the Freedom of Information Act to extract information about Peter Mbah and any record about him with the aim of verifying Edeoga’s usual claim that Mbah is being dragged by the EFCC.
The EFCC was unambiguous in their reply; *”DR. PETER NDUBUISI MBAH HAS NO CRIMINAL RECORD WITH US. WE HAVE NO CRIMINAL CASE PENDING AGAINST HIM HERE OR IN COURT. WE WERE ONCE MISLED BY ERROR IN 2012 DURING THE PETROLEUM SUBSIDY SAGA, AND WHEN HE PRESENTED HIS DOCUMENTS SHOWING HE COMPLIED WITH EXTANT LAWS, WE WITHDREW OUR CASE AGAINST HIM AND OFFERED PUBLIC APOLOGY TO HIM”*. This is the existing state of affairs about the industrialist even as I write.
Any other news about EFCC from Edeoga’s camp or anywhere else should be bluntly and brazenly treated as fake news and a lie from the pit of hell. Peter Mbah has been given a clean slate both by government agencies and in the court of public opinion. He is unblemished, impeccable and unsulliedy and cannot be dented by manufacturers of falsities and displaced political vagrants.
The records of Peter Mbah’s stainless and uncontaminated status are a public record and can be accessed by anyone. Inventing doctored documents and manipulating signatures by Mr. Edeoga and his cohorts seeking to hurt the integrity of Dr. Mbah will not reduce or wane the confidence the public has in him. Whether Edeoga and his co-travelers, already programmed for imminent failure, like it or not, the bitter truth for them is that, the people of Enugu State have long settled for the candidacy of Mbah and his running mate, Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai.
They are coming into the system with credibility and to inject new leadership discipline often referred to as transcendental leadership style. Indeed, it’s going to be a new dawn. There is no room for an *ACCIDENTAL CANDIDATE WHO ALMOST DESTROYED THE BEAUTIFUL CITY OF ENUGU WITH HEAPS OF RUBBISH BECAUSE OF HIS OUTRAGEOUS INCOMPETENCE AND INEPTITUDE*.
For the information of the Labour Party in Enugu State, the globally celebrated Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd, a brainchild of Peter Mbah, is the result of hard-work, resilience, dedication and commitment to give Nigerians a new definition of leadership. Mbah worked day and night for the successes of his business conglomerate, and he has continued to earn global recognitions for his uncommon feat in entrepreneurship. It is, however, not surprising that Edeoga, who has spent over thirty years in government, fleecing the masses and looting the state coffers, could not show anything meaningful for his sit-tight syndrome in power due to his life of prodigality, waywardness and womanizing.
A Greek philosopher once noted that lazy people, even with limitless opportunities before them, will always perceive every successful, hardworking people as having made their money by questionable ways. Every lazy mind is threatened by the wealth of others, and unable to account for while they are poor despite window of opportunities, can only explain the wealth of others from perspective of defeat and frustration. That’s what many of these social media goons and lazy jobbers are doing.
By Edeoga accusing the EFCC of not doing its work is an invitation to the EFCC to investigate Edeoga’s fantastically corrupt records in the Ministry of Environment and before then the Ministry of Local Government. The EFCC should beam its searchlight on the ministries overseen by Edeoga and interrogate him on what he was using the monies he was extorting from the 17 local government chairmen in the name of LGA News for. It is time for the EFCC to do its work. Edeoga has many cases to answer. He stole the government to blind, squandered it on alcohol, clubs and women, and the days of reckoning have come.
*Dr. Emeka Eleja, PhD, writes from Nsukka.*
