Probe Uke Disaster: Ubah Urges President Jonathan

As the Uke APGA bloody campaign fatalities of last weekend had by Monday climbed to 52, Dr. Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah has reiterated his earlier call that President Goodluck Jonathan should, as a matter of urgency, constitute a judicial panel of enquiry to get the root of the Uke disaster.

According to Ubah this call has become pertinent because of the contradictory statements and outright double-speak oozing from both Governor Peter Obi and various members of his All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Truth is truth and it is forever constant. But the stories being told by Governor Obi and his camp has not only been changing, some have been so contradictory that they are obvious lies. Ubah said: “I wish someone would remind Gov Obi that dozens of human lives have been snuffed out just because he and his party’s candidate in the November 16 Anambra state gubernatorial election as well as cohorts of Senator Chris Ngige’s All Progressives Congress (APC) tried to turn a Catholic church night vigil into a political podium. And now that the assault on true religion has turned bloody, they have added bare-faced lies to their crime. It is like they are striving very hard to find another justification to Jesus Christ’s words: “my father’s house of worship has been turned into a den of thieves” – and liars and killers!

First, Governor Obi said in a broadcast:  “It is worth-mentioning that when I was called upon by the Priest to speak as the Governor of the State at about 12 midnight when the mass ended, a group of people located in three different spots started chanting Ngige slogans and waving the brooms of All Progressives Congress (APC) and the pictures of Dr. Chris Ngige, the APC’s flag bearer in the November 16 Governorship election. It took up to 20 minutes for the priest to calm them down”.

Any right thinking person would wonder whether the Governor lied here because ordinarily worshipers would not take a party’s insignia, this time, APC’s broom to a night vigil. Second, was Obi lying when he said he was called upon to speak at a vigil in the dead of the night? The correct thing was that he was speaking as an APGA godfather who was introducing his unloved and unwanted godson, Willie Boy Obiano, and soliciting for votes.

But from Mr. Valentine Obienyem Media Aide to Obi comes this: “The crowd was so much as one never witnessed before. The excitement of the Governor’s presence was so high that it took minutes for the Governor to start addressing them”. Enthusiasm? But did not the Obi himself say that the crowd was against him and for another person?  So much for the “enthusiasm”  lie. That Obi claimed that the vigil ended around 12 mid night could be another gubernatorial lie because; the Uke vigil have always lasted till the early hours of the morning.

Ubah continued: “I thank God that Obi himself owned up on Channels TV thus: “I was trying to speak to the crowd and they were calling a particular name and, we have to find a way to stop that’. This put Governor Obi clearly on the spot. He admitted that he had to find a way to stop the peoples’ opposition to him. Now, did that way he chose to stop the opposition of the crowd lead to the stampede?

Something must have caused that stampede. That is why I am calling on President Jonathan to immediately set up a panel to unearth the truth. As Governor Obi has owned up that he was there at the night vigil where he was rightly opposed by the crowd, that makes him a part of the Uke night vigil disaster and should be among those whose statements must be taken before the truth is established. So, he should not be allowed to set up his own panel to probe the incident; this role now belongs to the Federal Government of Nigeria. Obi and his party, APGA as well as Willie Boy Obiano are all suspects in this massive blood-letting.

Reports reaching me indicate that more of the wounded people have died and the number of fatalities has risen to 52. This is why the Federal Government should step in right away to give Anambra people a sense of belonging in Nigeria. The second reason why Obi should not be a judge in his own case is that eye witnesses have said that Obi’s security details actually exploded some tear-gas canisters. Only an unbiased panel can ever hope to establish the truth; the people of Anambra state believe in President Jonathan; he should not fail them now – when a river of blood, instead of prayers and blessings, has been caused by crass politics to flow out of the Holy Ghost night vigil grounds, Uke, Anambra state.  Anambra people are crying like Biblical Rachel and refused to be consoled. Mr. President Sir, the dead and injured are crying for justice!

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