Ochereome Nnanna
17 August 2008
interview
On Wednesday, August 6th 2008, the grounds of the Government House in Umuahia were under invasion of sorts. Solidarity contingents from parts of Abia State virtually crippled government activities. "This is what we see everyday since the attempt on governor's life" said a top government official, "but this is democracy and you cannot tell people who have come to sympathise with you to stop coming". The bitter and long drawn electoral battle for the Government House of Abia State has taken a heavy toll. Theodore Ahamefula Orji, a medical doctor, retired civil servant and former electoral officer, speaks on this and other burning national issues in this encounter. Please read on.
WHY do you think anyone would like to target you for possible elimination? What does it mean to you? Have you ever passed through that kind of experience before? Perhaps during the civil war?
Well, Nnanna, it is not difficult to find out why. I was targeted out of jealousy because of my popularity. What other explanation can there be? They wanted to eliminate me for revenge. You know, this is Nigeria. Nigeria is not yet used to refined politics that is played outside this continent. We are still playing politics with bitterness. You know how and where it all started, even before the election.
Then the election took place and I won and we went to the tribunal. The opposition knows that we are popular and we are performing. We are surpassing them in all areas in terms of positive things. That is why they decided to do away with me but fortunately for me and unfortunately for them it did not work out. I have been wondering aloud at the opposition: if you kill me are you going to occupy this position? They will not. And they cannot because God is guiding us. The whole world saw how cruelly and wickedly they shot at my official car.
They expended all their bullets on that car, except that the car is bullet-proof. They could have killed my driver. They pulled out my driver and drove away with the car. Having found that I was not in the car, they now abandoned it and we took it back. I have never seen where armed robbers attack a governor's convoy. Are you attacking a governor's convoy, is it a bullion van which carries a lot of money? You will not see anybody in a governor's convoy except armed security forces. Since they were not looking for money they were looking for a human being and they were emboldened by the sophisticated arms they were given for the job.
What have the police done so far? They were heard saying that they have apprehended the culprits. Are you satisfied with steps they have taken so far?
The police are still doing their intensive investigation to make sure that they bring the perpetrators and their sponsors to book. They have been here to interview me. And they are interviewing a lot of people. From the outcome of the interviews they will know what to do. They will come out with reports as to whether what we are claiming and believing to be correct, which is that the governor was the target of that attack, is correct. It is not only the police but also the SSS and other security agencies are all working on it.
I had written to the Inspector General of Police, Director General of the SSS, National Security Adviser and the President. They are all working and we have faith in what they are doing.
What happened to you is a symptom of the security situation in Abia State and the nation at large. As the Chief Security Officer of the state, don't you agree that the state of security in this state is below expectation?
The security situation right now is not what it is supposed to be. The security situation here should be calm and under control. You see, criminals are devising so many new ways of going about their nefarious activities. Before now, there was nothing like kidnapping. You could talk about armed robbery, but now we have this thing called kidnapping.
Innovation in criminality
Gunmen will come and take the relations of big people in society and government officials as hostages and demand huge ransom. When you pay them they release the person. That is an innovation in criminality not only in Abia State but also in the whole nation. It is one of the fallouts of the crisis in the Niger Delta. What we are doing now is to face it squarely. We are facing it, and we are making tremendous progress...
Can you tell us what you have done?
Thank you. First and foremost, you know we have this joint military and police patrol. It is patrolling the whole state to face this situation. The state government has helped that patrol team by making available vehicles, communication gadgets, finance and any other thing that is possible within the competence of the state government, we have made them available to the teams, and they having been doing their best.
We have given the police, the army, the navy and SSS up to fifty patrol vehicles. Also we have carried out sensitisation programmes among the traditional rulers and ndi eze and among the youths in the villages that this crime must be fought, and that people have a duty in helping government to fight the crime. We also announced that if you give information that will lead to the apprehension of these criminals, that we shall give you a reward of one million naira. People have been coming forward with information that has been helping us.
You know what sells so much is bad news. When these criminals make a catch it makes all the news. But when we catch twenty or thirty of them and take them to court it is no news because that is what people expect of us to do as our duty, except if you take them to Abuja and show them on television. We also have a vigilante outfit approved by a law of the state House of Assembly.
These are young boys who are eager to serve the nation by providing security. They are working under the police. They go, get information, catch these criminals and hand them over to the law enforcement agencies. Where the police cannot reach they will reach. These are the ones I can say here now. The rest are strictly security matters which we don't have to expose.
This attack may be an offshoot of the delays in the election tribunal process. Don't you think it is taking too long to bring this matter to a close finally?
I think the reason this delay is taking place is that they want to do a thorough job. They have to do a job that will stand the test of time. I don't think they are deliberately delaying. To what end? I would have been happier if they were faster because it will mean that those who lost will go and prepare again while those won will have all the attention they need to face the work they have been mandated to do.
But I want everybody to join me and let us be patient and allow them to do a thorough job. You don't have to lose your patience and begin killing your opponent because eliminating me will not force the Honourbale Justices to award a verdict to you if you do not deserve it. It will not in any way pave the way for you to mount the seat of governor because the winning party must complete its term of office.
I am sure this delay is distracting you.
I have to admit to you that this thing causes unnecessary distraction. Any governor who has a case in the tribunal who wants to be sincere with you will tell you that this is an unnecessary distraction. I am a human being. When I remember it I feel it. But I know that God will bring the truth to the surface eventually. Those of us who have implicit confidence in God, and those who believe that our mandate is divine, the distraction is secondary. It has not made me to lose focus. The problem I have here is lack of funds.
If I had the funds that my colleagues in the other oil producing states have I will perform maximally. There are not enough funds for me to do what I have in mind to do.
As oil producing state one expects that with oil boom, excess crude accruals and Nigeria's exit from the debt of the Paris Club, you will not be complaining so bitterly about lack of funds?
Why I complain so much when I see you men of the media is that I want you to go and investigate and find out whether I am shouting wolf for nothing. The opposition says I have all the funds in the world, but here I am telling you that I am financially constrained, and you know the sources of our common revenue. Go and find out for yourself. You are correct to say that as an oil producing state I am supposed to be better than those who do not produce oil. Our debt profile is so high.
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