Date Published: 05/02/10

Dear Sir,

Kidnap: Ezeife should approach Gov Obi

One of the wives (Onyedi) to the former governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, was kidnapped recently in Anambra State. Contact has been made with the assailants who demanded huge undisclosed amount of money as ransom. Ezeife is worried.

Ezeife became governor of Anambra State when he was elected under the banner of Social Democratic Party (SDP), of Banbangida experiment. His government was the only SDP-controlled government east of the Niger. During the first term of Obasanjo regime, he was appointed one of the Special Advisers to the President. He governed Anambra well without accusation of any financial mismanagement, which became the order of the day then for his colleagues. Ezeife was among those that shouted ‘foul’ when N255million cash was ferried in Governor Obi’s official car and the cash was later traced to Obi’s private office in Lagos; a case that the Police and the EFCC have today swept under the carpet, probably after ‘settlement’, Nigerian way.

Before the Anambra 2010 gubernatorial election, Ezeife formed a group that would like to see a level playing ground for a free and fair exercise. At the end of the election, he passed it as a sham; most registered voters in his domain, including him were disenfranchised. He attended the ceremony that swore-in Governor Obi for a second term. When interviewed at the venue, he reversed his earlier opinion when he said that the other contestants should not bother to challenge the election. Obi became governor after scoring about 79,000 from a total of 1,800,000 registered voters.

Now that Ezeife’s wife has been kidnapped, he has started lamentation of how unsafe the Anambra State remains, under Obi. If I were him I would request Obi to help out with the payment of the ransom demanded by the criminals. There is a saying “anyone that supports evil shall have evil live with him”.

DIKE OHIA, PhD, Road 8, Festac Town, Lagos