Even a child could easily see through Mr. Aloysius Attah’s pretence at being a witness of truth in his article; “Uke Adoration Tragedy: An Insider’s Account”. Yes, Mr. Attah may have actually been present at the adoration ground; he could even have come on his own accord too. But it has been said that he was there as a member of Governor Peter Obi’s entourage – he has such a cozy but unacknowledged relationship with Obi and their party, the All Peoples Progressive Alliance (APGA). He has refused to publicly acknowledge such an affiliation to enable him spruce himself up in borrowed plumes – those of an independent commentator and pretend to serve as an unaffiliated member of an otherwise widely respected NGO, the Civil Liberty Organization
Actually, the headquarters of the CLO can not be happy about the “prostitution” tendencies of Attah- with politicians. Now, to deodorize his brand of “prostitution” he has begun to add names of certain persons to manufacture certain reports under the nom de guerre of a certain Southeast Coalition; a purely mercantilist outfit playing the role of assassins for hire. Thus, he now fires off reports on matters before any sane organization would have had the time to investigate such. Then instead of releasing it under CLO’s name, he would go rogue and employ the name of a coalition
To begin from the beginning, and using Attah’s very own ropes to hang him, Attah gave a most graphic and minutely detailed account of how Obi’s entourage arrived at the Adoration Grounds, stopped somewhere far from there, parked the entourage’s vehicles, walked for 30 minutes (Attah’s very own words), left behind Obi’s SSS, Police and State Vigilante security details, but did not fail to first pass beside Attah –close enough for him to note all members of the entourage – before Obi got the attention of the officiating Priest. Attah must think Anambrarians an incredulous lot to think he could get away with his falsification of events – simply because he entitled his devil’s brew as “An Eye Witness Account”. Or he may actually adjudge them to be blundering fools. For instance, after claiming that he came alone and was never part of the Governor’s entourage, he failed to say how he learnt by telepathy how Obi got there. And even though Obi arrived after him and left before him, yet, he could know the exact spot where the Governor’s cars were parked and where the security details were stationed. If Attah was imbued with such miraculous powers, perhaps it is time for the officiating Priest, popularly called “Ebube Monso” (Holy Spirit wonder) to fade into retirement for someone greater than him (Attah of course has arrived). But pray, when did Attah walk on water?
Which fool would believe that any state governor will come to place where some one hundred thousand people have congregated, and ask his security details to stay 30 minutes away from him and they details would do just that? Or is Attah claiming that Governor Obi’s security details do not accompany him into churches while Obi, a Catholic, attends mass? He should know because this man who is supposed to be of the Civil Liberties Organisation school of independent thought is almost always a member of Obi’s entourage and has followed him as befits a vassal of a potentate.
On the exact cause of the stampede, Attah insulted the people’s intelligence with his version of events: “Few meters away from my presence, the pushing and shoving turned into a great fall and stampede. A woman frying akara by the road side in the compacted road was said to have shouted for people to beware of the oil fire. That the road was sloppy and the ground wet compounded the whole situation. Many tripped over and fell, others rolled on the ground while many stepped on people’s heads and bellies. The next thing was suffocation and exhaustion, injuries and bruises”.
The goofy claims would have been laughable did they not concern real tragedy. Pushing and shoving, could only result in a stampede if people were actually trying to escape from real and present danger. If not, the pushing and shoving would impede movement and thus actually slow the people down. And remember that we are talking about a people who had just come out from not only a mass but the adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament too. Or is Attah saying that the church service was not solemn at all? But then, with his own mouth, he has shouted to the whole world that his eye witness account resembles some given over two thousand years ago – when false witnesses turned their heap of lies against Jesus. But now, Attah has single-handedly outdone the Jewish mob; he too turned into Pontius Pilate and began to pass judgment as well. Oh he may be Judas too for his relationship with Governor Obi must have yielded some filthy lucre; over 30 pieces of silver.
Hey, if actually Attah was an eye witness who wanted to tell all he witnessed and nothing but what he witnessed, why did he go beyond the brief his elected by adding even rumours? “Few meters away from my presence, the pushing and shoving turned into a great fall and stampede. A woman frying akara by the road side in the compacted road was said to have shouted for people to beware of the oil fire”. Did he not know that he had transgressed into hear say? Of course, the fire claim had to come in because that was the official version embraced by the spin-doctors in Obi’s camp – and Attah, one of those spin doctors did not want to disappoint his APGA teamsters.
There are many more examples of the intellectual pit that Attah fell into but such will be left for another day. Also, even Attah will notice that nothing has been said in reply to his wild claims that Dr. Ifeanyi Patrick Ubah’s campaign posters were held high at the Adoration Ground. Not even real APGA officials went so far into the bush. Governor Obi has made statements about the events of that night, some of them totally contradictory, but not even he has said that Ubah’s posters were there. But then, the Ubah camp really pities Attah over this; after seeing people lift Ubah high everywhere he may not be blamed for having hallucinations. Wild claims should be left for wild people to contend with.
Now that he has attempted to spread the blame wide enough to touch on Ubah, we reiterate Ubah’s call on President Jonathan to please institute a panel of inquiry into the Uke APGA tragedy. Let the panel be independent enough to blame Ubah or any other politician that deserves to be blamed. Ubah also condemns the dragging of religion and the church into politics. We also hope that Attah and Obi and their party APGA will join us in this call to get to the root of this tragedy – and all those found guilty should be punished. And Governor Obi and Attah will have to explain to their consciences and their God why they have not joined Dr. Ifeanyi Patrick Uba in this wholesome call – if they have nothing to hide.
Afam Ilounoh Esq
Director Media & Publicity
Ifeanyi Ubah Campaign Organization
