Our attention has been drawn to the above mentioned publication in Punch Newspaper of Tuesday, October 29, 2013 and the Nation Newspaper of Wednesday, October 30, 2013 respectively. Our initial reaction is to ignore it but for the malafide, mischief and intention to mislead inherent in the story.
The complainants to EFCC in the matter first took it to the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of Nigerian Police who investigated the matter. After the said investigation, the SFU wrote a report in which they stated clearly that Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah and Capital Oil and Gas Limited have no criminal or fraudulent liability. That it is a civil matter, hence if anyone is aggrieved, he should go to court. Immediately Dr Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah declared his intention to vie for Governorship of Anambra state, the complainants saw it as an avenue to blackmail and embarrass him, hence their forum shopping at EFCC.
Dr Ubah, being a man not easily frightened and intimidated, but whose fundamental human right is under threat, approached the court to enforce and safeguard it from being breached. The intention of the complainants and their political opponents of Ubah who want to blackmail and extort money or distract him from his goal to serve his people after winning the November 16, 2013 will not work neither will it go unchallenged.
In this era of balanced journalism, we observed that the newspapers involved in this publication did not bother to reach out to Dr. Ubah for his own side of the story. That makes their intentions obvious. What makes their mischievous more blatantly obvious is the fact that heard in court five months ago is being reported and recycled as if it happened this week.
However, it is worthy of note here that EFCC was established to investigate Economic and Financial crimes only and not civil matters between individuals. They should not allow themselves to be used for witch hunting or vendetta by political opponents of Dr Ifeanyi Ubah to score cheap political point. It will be sad if they don’t guide against such abuse.
Signed
Afam Ilounoh
Director Media and Publicity
Ifeanyi Ubah Campaign Organisation
