Daily Independent (Lagos)
Maxwell Oditta
11 July 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
Many Nigerians have reacted to the clearance of the governor, presenting a mixed grill of views. Those who have reacted include an APGA governorship aspirant and eldest son of Obi's deputy, Emeka Etiaba, another governorship candidate on the PDP platform, Alex Obiogbolu, the National Chairman of Labour Party, Dan Nwanyanwu, a PDP NEC member, Tunde Daramola, and two Lagos lawyers, Chris Akiri and Zik Obi.
"I receive the news of the exoneration of Governor Peter Obi in the N250 million scandal with great relief and joy from a 100 per cent PDP House of Assembly that has already been warned by the PDP national leadership to do a thorough job of investigation and to go against the governor," began Zik Obi.
"For the PDP House to clear the governor, he must be truly innocent, and I have no reason at all to doubt the governor's innocence in the matter. The suggestion of blackmail by the state government is uncalled for and an insult to all concerned," Zik Obi reasoned.
His learned colleague, Akiri, believes that though the Anambra governor must be truly innocent but clearing him of allegations of money laundering is a judicial function, which the state legislature should not have dabbled into.
"In all probability, some people just wanted to give Governor Obi a bad name to exclude him from the scheme of things in 2010.
"But I think that the State House of Assembly, not being an anti-corruption agency or a court of law, has no right to trespass on the judicial realm! This has to stop," added Akiri, who contested senatorial election in Delta Central in 2003, on the platform of the then Alliance for Democracy (AD).
While Akiri contended that clearance of persons and institutions over alleged illegalities should be a judicial function, Obiogbolu said it is the preserve of anti-graft agencies.
"It is left to financial crimes agencies to determine any fraud. However, I still restate that there is fiscal irresponsibility by buying cars for local government officers when workers are being owed salaries. It is financial impropriety by using local government funds to buy jeeps for the police, when there is security vote, and insensitivity to people's agitation for democracy at the local government level. Instead, the government is spending the local government funds indiscriminately," Obiogbolu alleged.
The other persons are unsure. Daramola conceded that Obi might be innocent, or, the State Assembly might have been compromised.
"My take is you can't trust the House of Assembly. They make money with every opportunity, rather than being a check on government," Daramola said.
While Etiaba wants to be quoted as saying "No comment for now," Nwanyanwu offered that he was yet to ascertain the reasoning of the Assembly on the scam.
A 48-year-old graduate of philosophy of the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, Obi hails from Agulu, in Anaocha Local Government Area. He assumed office as governor, when he had reclaimed his mandate from PDP's Chris Ngige at the Election Appeal Tribunal, Enugu, after 33 months of intense legal battle. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared Ngige governor by default, sequel to the April 2003 poll. By virtue of the Supreme Court verdict in June 2007, leading to the sacking of Uba's nascent regime, Obi was given his four-year mandate.
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