Dr. Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah, the Labour Party candidate in the Anambra state elections has condoled Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha and the people of Uke, especially the Catholic church there, whose members must have formed the majority of persons who were adoring God Almighty in a night vigil before the All Progressive Grand Alliance party visited them with the may-hem that left about 30 worshipers dead and stunned the entire Anambra state, Nigeria and indeed the world at large.
Dr. Ubah is the Labour Party (LP) flag-bearer for the Anambra state gubernatorial elections. The out-going Anambra Governor Peter Obi had gone to the Uke vigil ground to campaign for his godson Willie Boy Obiano and the gunshots of their security details either killed or caused a stampede or both which resulted in the truly avoidable deaths of innocent citizens.
Dr. Ubah who described the deaths as “horrendous” said that the tragedy was heightened simply because it was totally avoidable – if only the worshipers were allowed to hold their night vigil in peace. Instead, the Friday vigil at Uke was forced to become a campaign ground – even at an “ungodly” hour for politics. People who came together to pray were being forced to listen to party political campaign.
Ubah said that “all people of good conscience and goodwill must condemn this tragedy at Uke where people who had gone to seek the face of God, and probably pray for Anambra state and Nigeria, were visited with death just because the APGA party, which was re-elected in Anambra state four years ago decided last Friday to change its style of giving death by slow motion through bad governance, to death on the fast lane – resulting in this tragedy of great proportions. According to reports, disaster was far from the vigil grounds at Uke until the out-going Governor Peter Obi and the party’s flag-bearer for this month’s gubernatorial election in Anambra state, Mr. Tony Nwoye arrived there. As though nothing is sacred anymore, they began to replace the word of God in the vigil with their insensitive, ridiculous and blundering politics.
Ubah said that the recriminations and varying reports between eye witnesses and APGA’s spokesmen would not be enough to throw light on this atrocity. He said: “This is why I am calling on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency institute a Judicial Panel to ascertain and punish whoever caused the deaths of those innocent Anambrarians. This matter must not be swept under the carpet. I will not allow it but I will fight to see that justice is done and the deaths of the innocent worshipers of the Almighty God in Uke is properly looked into, the guilty punished and due compensation must be paid to the families of the deceased. The lives of Anambra peope will never again be snuffed out with no questions asked and the merchants of death will never again be allowed to go unpunished.
According to Ubah, if over 30 worshipers died on the spot and many more could have died in the hospitals or in the quiet of their homes, then the fatality figure would surely be more than 50.
Dr. Ubah called the fatality number truly “horrendous”. He urged all Nigerians to join him in condemning “church politics”, but most especially he called on the Federal Government to “as a matter of urgency set up a panel to probe the may-hem, determine its cause, the actual number of those that died, punish those responsible for the deaths, and compensate the families of the bereaved. Anambra’s Governor Obi lacks the moral standing to probe the mayhem because he cannot be a judge in his own case; he and his godson Willie Boy Obiano are the accused persons here, and in this case where dozens of human lives are involved, there must be no sacred cows ” Ubah concluded.
