…says ’I’m being maligned because I refused to share council allocations’
By Larry Onwuta
The former local government Chairman in Enugu State Pastor Sam Iyiogwe has dismissed allegations of N200 billion frauds leveled against him during his tenure as Nkanu East Council Chairman which also recently published in the media as wicked, malicious, false and deliberately manufactured to tarnish his good image.
Addressing newsmen in Enugu yesterday Iyiogwe who vacated his chairmanship position on January 4th this year before he was appointed to work with the governor due to his outstanding records in rural development during his four years local government administration said he “decided to clear the air on the evil publication and disabuse the minds of innocent public.
“And I wish to categorically state that the publication is just an attempt to damage an innocent man’s name and to rubbish my hard earned character and to defame my family name. So I wish to state that all the allegations were borne out of hatred, envy, strive, jealousy and there is no atom of truth in all mentioned.
“Ordinarily I expected the management of the newspapers that published the sponsored report to sack the authors of that story; incidentally the petitioner who wrote the EFCC and ICPC is not somebody I need to respond to because of his character, behavior and antecedent which are well known in and around Enugu.
“He disclosed that the petition at the EFCC was written by a former chairman of the council Hon Ejike Anih who he alleged wanted him to share the council’s allocation having failed as a chairman himself but I was more interested in attending to the pains on my people.
“That is the height of stupidity and act of irresponsibility in people just to dent your brothers’ image simply because I refused to accept to wicked bargain for me to share Nkanu East money for you who served for four good years and did nothing.
“The same person sponsored communal crisis in the local government; and the communities have been calling on the state government to investigate the role played by some stakeholders in the Oruku/Umuode communal war where several lives were lost.
What happened to the Umuode and Oruku people are worse than what happened to Nimbo people and the former chairman of Nkanu East was in forefront of its sponsorship. It will be a failure on our govt if questions are not asked: who built a house on the family land of chief Sunday Inyagwu and chief Vincent Ngene at Oruku and when was these properties forcefully taken over and the house built?
“It is laughable for one to allege N200 billion frauds in a local government within a period of four years because even the state government has not received such amount within such a period. From their allegations it means I stole N4.3bn monthly; a local government?
“Also, I do not know the shopping complex they are talking about because I and my family have not, anywhere in the world owned a shopping plaza. I wish to categorically state that I never bought; I never built any shopping plaza in Enugu or anywhere in the world. I have never registered any company as a filling station; I never bought, I never operated one; I am not into any partnership with anyone anywhere in the world for such business.
“So it’s left for the authors of this petitions and publications to prove to the whole world where these things exist. They say that I pay my wife N1.5m monthly; I don’t know how they came with that kind of information. The accounts section of the council is there for verification; the auditors are there, the ministry is there to check every kobo we spent.
“More so, contrary to their claims it is a known fact in Enugu State that when I was leaving on 4th January 2016 that Nkanu East happened to be the only local government that wasn’t owning salaries to staff and I got a commendation for that and I believe it was part of the reasons with my numerous projects around the communities of Nkanu East that made His Excellency Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi within few days of my leaving office appointed me to work with him.
“My detractors were not happy with the development and that’s why they quickly tried to discredit a performing government by casting the headlines ‘Enugu Gov’s …’ just to drag the name of an outstanding governor into controversy but they will all be shamed.
“They said I refurbished a bus with N4m and I claimed that I bought it; “all through my tenure we never bought any bus so it is a false, cooked, wicked, malicious allegation.
I went into business in Oil and Gas industry after taking a voluntary retirement from Nigeria Customs Service in 1993 and if you go to the Niger Delta down to Lagos we have over 100 expatriate companies we have operated. If I have such character they are alleging I can’t do business with them; we work for Total TEPNG, Shell Petroleum Development Company Nig Ltd, pH Refinery, NNPC, Bourbon InterOil Nig Ltd, Dresser, Halliburton, Dawoo, Julius Berger and many other high class companies where integrity is the watchword.
The house in my village was completed in 1987 and from time to time I keep maintaining it but they alleged I used the Council money to build mansion in my hometown.
I have property across Nigeria for so many years. My coming to Nkanu East slowed me down. Where I leave in Ivory Estate CBN quarters, Trans Ekulu Enugu I built it before I became a local government chairman and all these property and my companies are all declared in the Code of Conduct Bureau in 2012, 2014 and as I was leaving in 2016 they were all declared. It’s there for anyone to go and cross check.
All the vehicles I use are all there and like I said throughout my tenure I never bothered buying a vehicle for myself. But these are people who don’t know anything about leadership; they don’t know anything about God; they say I used N7m to lavish for prayers; God will judge them, I am looking forward when I will be in a position where I would be using N700m in a month to sponsor the gospel and you can see that this battle is one between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God. We never used N7m nor N5m to organise prayers all through my tenure.
As a good citizen of this country I have answered both the ICPC and the EFCC because I have nothing to hide; I am one of the people who believe that you can be called at anytime to explain your activities. I have been explaining my activities; my performance is there for people to see; all we did in Nkanu East are there; the local government they left like where abandoned chickens were laying eggs; if you go there today you can see the difference.
The EFCC showed me the phantom and fabricated petitions and I have responded to all of them because all the allegations are wicked fabrications.
