A former Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige, has denied allegations by another Governor of the state, Dr. Chinweoke Mbadinuju, that he (Ngige) is his (Mbadinuju’s) “boy.”
Ngige, now the representative of Anambra Central Senatorial District, said that the account of developments in anambra State given by Mbadinuju in a recent interview were false.
He said this was more so in the section of the interview where Mbadinuju said he was the secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party in Anambra State between 1999 and 2003.
Mbadinuju was quoted in the interview Ngige referred to: “Ngige was my man when I was Governor.
“He was the secretary of the party in Anambra and when he came to Abuja, I accommodated him, I bought a car and gave him to work.
“But when he became governor, he colluded with my opponents, the Ubas, and tried to reverse everything I had done.
“He did his best to try to reverse them. It is not fair.”
Ngige, in a statement on Saturday, said immediately he read the interview he called Mbadinuju who pleaded for forgiveness.
But he said he had to make the clarifications because of those who are not conversant with the issues in Anambra State.
He said: “First, he said that I was secretary of the party in Anambra State when he was governor. That is falsehood. I was never secretary of party in Anambra State when Mbadinuju was governor. I was a national officer of the party. I was the PDP assistant national vice secretary in charge of South East zone.
“I won the election to become the assistant national secretary amidst opposition from Mbadinuju and Chief Annie Okonkwo fielded one Barrister Okonkwo against me. As assistant national secretary/zonal secretary South East, I was based in Abuja and Enugu. In Enugu, I operated from Modetel Hotel at my own expense and in Abuja I stayed in my company’s guest house.
“Secondly on the issue of buying me a car, Mbadinuju donated an official Peugeot 406 car with registration number AN 76-01, a car in the Anambra State government house pool, to the party in the South East, just like other South East governors at the time did. Orji Uzo Kalu donated a Honda civic, which was assigned to the then zonal chairman Nze Ozichukwu Chukwu. Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani donated the zonal secretariat. Coincidentally, the car donated by Anambra was assigned to me to use and it was promptly returned by me to Anambra State in 2002 December when I resigned my position to contest for governorship primary.
“It is important to note that prior to my vying for governorship I gave the Mbadinuju administration all the supports they needed from the party because of my principle that the man on the seat of governance should be supported by all to succeeded. And in the process I quarreled and disagreed with Sir Emeka Offor, Chief Annie Okonkwo, Phil Agbase, and host of others who had formed the Anambra People’s Forum (APF) an organisation whose sole aim was to cause distractions and dethrone the Mbadinuju government.
“It is also pertinent to mention that during my 34 months as governor, I never mentioned the name of Dr. Mbadinuju in any media interaction, community town hall meetings or any official functions of government, let alone mentioning him in a negative light.
“It is true that I reversed three of his major policies and these are one; none payment of salaries to workers and pension to pensioners as at when due. I paid all from the first day I entered office, I went on to pay his accumulated arrears.
“Two, I reversed his illegal revocation and acquisition of the land previously allocated to the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN), which he revoked and gave to the Better Bread Organisation (BBO), an NGO solely own by his wife and members of his family. I did not only reverse the revocation, but also re- allocated the land to the original allotees – the CBN. I handed over the certificate of occupancy to the then CBN governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, and that marked the beginning of the construction of CBN in Awka, an edifice which has turned to be a pride of joy to the state.
“Thirdly, I reversed his policy of not doing any tangible project with budgeted capital vote of government and in the wise, I reconstructed and weaved many arterial roads and completed many abandoned building projects. These are the reversal of his policies that I undertook and I will gladly do same again, and I have no apology to either himself or his cohorts for taking those lines of action.
“It is laughable and amusing for him to say that my name is not in the list of governors. I am the one that has taken him to the few former governors forum meeting that he attended at Abuja. In fact at our last meeting, we visited President Goodluck Jonathan, who was the vice president then, and one of the issues discussed at the meeting was the payment of severance benefit and pension to former governors. I made the case for the former governors in Anambra including Mbadinuju who was seated at the meeting. Instead of telling Governor Obi that his selective approach in doing this is mischievous and un-statemanly, Mbadinuju went to Awka to collect his handsome accumulated gratuity and pension, instead of collecting it quietly and keeping his mouth shut, he decided to castigate me and my administration to appease Obi for giving a largess to him, by trying to paint me in bad light before the Government House media team.
“I have spoken to him, and for me, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. And if any other time I read any commentary from him about me or my administration, I will do what is not governmental by exposing to the public everything I saw and read from both public policy and confidential files which I regard as being anti-people of Anambra State.
“I also refer him to the various pronouncements of courts in Nigeria starting from the High Courts to the Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court on Mike Balonwu vs Anambra State, and of the recent the Supreme Court pronouncement on tenure of governors. That any governor removed from office, that all he did or actions he took while in office were valid and hence, he is governor de facto, de jure. Otherwise the High Court judges appointed by me would have been declared illegal judges and all their actions in court null and void. Same goes to permanent secretaries I appointed, civil servants recruited with my approval.”
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