The people of Oraifite in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State are now making fun of the recent marriage between their controversial 58 year old son, Emeka Offor who is a leading government contractor in Nigeria, and a 24 year old daughter of the town, Adaora Ufondu, a beautiful dropout of the Law Faculty of the Enugu Campus of the University of Nigeria. Offor on Saturday, October 12, 2013, married Adaora as wife number four in a low key ceremony which many people describe as almost secret because of the likely opprobrium it would attract to the contractor.
Leading the pack of those mocking Offor in a satirical manner is Sir Sunny Igboanuzue, factional chairman of the Oraifite Improvement Union (OIU). Igboanuzue has since the marriage been referring to Offor as the Yerima of of Oraifite, after immediate past Zamfara State governor Yerima, who is now a senator. Yerima caused a nationwide as well as an international furore when some three years ago he married a 13-year old Egyptian, claiming that he was following in the footsteps of Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam, who is believed to have married a nine year virgin but had no carnal knowledge of her until three years later. The analogy between Offor and Yerima has been so well received by Oraifite people, especially coming at a time it is being rumoured that Offor is in the process of marrying Chineme Vivien Dike, another young damsel from Oraifite.
“As someone who has put our town’s name on the world map of firsts”, stated Igboanuzie, “Sir E (as Offor is called by his followers) is eminently deserving of his new title of Yerima nke mbu n’Oraifite (that is, Yerima the first of Oraifite)”.
Among other firsts satirically mentioned at the OIU meeting is the fact that ” Emeka Offor is the 1st Anglican knight, past and present dead or living in the whole of Oraifite to marry four wives, with three living him simultaneously. He is also noted to be the first Oraifite indigene ever to deliver a car gift of Range Rover SUV to a 24years old wife. Oraifite people observe that Offor is their first son to pledge 12million naira as a pledge to the donation to the development of the town in the presence of the Anamabra State governor, but without redeeming it, recollecting that the pledge was made during the Orai Ezue festival of 2008. they say he is the first indigene ever to pledge a donation of N10M for the development of the town, recalling his announcement to pay cash on the last day of the annual Afiaolu in 2009, but has refused to honour his word to this day.
They Offor is the first person in their hometown to pledge to give N2M each of the four traditional clan heads in the town called obi, but several years later has refused to redeemed the pledge.
They also satirise him for being the first person from their hometown to bear the name of his younger brother when he was escaping from law enforcement agents in the 1980s following a series of serious crimes. His name was never Emeka but Wilson Orakwue which his parents gave him. And theparents could not have possibly named him Emeka because this is the name of his younger brother, from the same parents. The real Emeka is now forced to adopt Menkus as his first name. Menkus is a modern, stylish corruption of Emeka, which is a common name among the Igbo people of Nigeria.
The Oraifite people allege that Offor is the first son, ” past and present, dead or living, to liquidate his own bank”, an obvious reference to Orient Bank (later renamed Afex Bank) which collapsed in 2009 when Offor became its chairman and was named by the Central Bank of Nigeria the biggest insider borrower.
The people remember Offor as the first person from their place living in Anthony Village in Lagos but never had water in the second tank because he used to hide in it anytime the police were looking for him when he was in “419” business, or advance fee fraud, with the late John Nebolisa of Awkuzu working as his superintendent. Offor was a gifted 419 operator, in close partnership with Hope Uzodimma who is now a senator
The immediate past governor of Bayelsa State, Mr Timipre Sylva, was a regular visitor to Offor’s country home at Irefi in Oraifite from 2009 to 2011. Unbeknownst to Sylva, Offor was swindling him of millions with promises and assurances of a second term ticket on the strength of his close relationship with First Lady Patience Jonathan. The credulous governor was showering Offor with sweetheart contracts, despite the failure and obvious willingness to execute the contracts. By the time he read the handwriting on the wall, it was all too late. By this time, Offor had stopped taking Sylva’s calls. The governor lost out. Today, Sylva and Offor are not on speaking terms.
