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The Rivers mass killer, Don Wanni of Omoku, has died but the echo of his death continues to reverberate and disturb the living. Now, the state chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Felix Obuah, has hit back saying those who mentioned him as a sponsor of the late mass killer were mere detractors.
Jerry Needam, a Port Harcourt-based journalist, in a detailed article, said success attracts not good alone but evil attention. He said: “Ascribing the quality of a political enigma to the person of the chairman of PDP in Rivers State, Felix Obuah, not only in his native Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) but in Rivers State as a whole, may seem contrived to some, but it is unquestionably true when viewed in the context of his fame and popularity.”
And so, while dismissing their misleading and fabricated allegations, Obuah said: “The accusation against him by a section of the so-called Civil Society Groups and some members of the Orashi National Congress (ONC) after their kangaroo meeting at Omoku Civil Centre, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 of sponsoring the late notorious cultist, Don Wanni, is shocking, false, unfounded and malicious”.
The State PDP boss described the accusation as yet another plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his political detractors to drag his name to the mud to make way for their sinister plans ahead of the 2019 general election.
According to him, Obua’s emergence as the Executive Chairman of ONELGA in 2004 signaled the beginning of an era as he took the political scene by storm and left a bold statement that the much-sought after ‘man of the people’ had at last materialised in that LGA.
Obuah’s nature, he added, typifies the sobriquet which translates to the futility of raising a voice against the lion. Obuah, politically, is a lion in ONELGA, hence his opponents who are the weaker ‘animals’ quake and dread at his fame and popularity.
He went on: “In line with the truism that success not only attracts friends and admirers, but also brings with it, foes whose primary preoccupation, regrettably would be to ‘Pull Him Down’ (PHD), Obuah who is presently the Sole Administrator of Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA) has not only been enjoying wide support from his army of friends, relations, supporters, political associates and aides; he has also on many fronts become the subject of unsubstantiated abuse, castigation and slander carried out by self-seeking, jobless desperados and faceless political jobbers acting on the prompting of paymasters and political opponents.
“That quickly brings to mind one of these faceless hirelings who recently launched another smudging campaign against the person of the State PDP Chairman through a purported World Press Conference in which the group masqueraded as ‘Civil Society Groups in Orashi Region of Rivers State”.
Obuah chided what he described as the “tele-guided so-called” Orashi National Congress members, all of them being APC card-carrying members, for turning their gathering at the Omoku Civic Centre into a jungle court for delivering unsolicited judgment against him perceived as an enemy of their paymasters, describing them as a liability to humanity.
It’s also regrettable, Obuah, noted, that rather than join hands with the State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to fight insecurity in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (Onelga) and elsewhere in the State, the so called ONC members prefer taking sides with desperate power-seekers to run down those who mean well for the people and those that have committed their time, energy and hard earned resources to build and develop Onelga while the real enemies of the people are being provided cover and glorified just for a pot of yam porridge.
Reassuring that he would not be deterred by the false and malicious accusation, but will continue to ensure that Onelga people are liberated from the shackles of poverty and ignorance, Obuah said he has invested more than any other person in Onelga and cannot possibly turn around to promote insecurity or support any effort that will destroy his investments or his people for whom he has invested.
The State PDP chairman also noted that he too has been a victim of insecurity and other acts of lawlessness, with several attempts on his life during which he lost his police orderly and driver in one of such attacks.
In the recent New Year mayhem, Obuah said he lost six of his relations in the senseless killing including his in-laws.
“I cannot but conclude that by this false accusation against me, my accusers are rather jubilating and celebrating over my predicament. Their actions are very understandable as none of them has any investment whatsoever in Onelga nor has invested in the welfare of the people.
“Otherwise, they should be sober and thankful to the security agencies for helping to bring life back to normalcy in Onelga by killing Don Wanni and some of his gang members,” Obuah observed.
He wondered the wisdom in his accusers to have kept quiet while Don Wanni and his gang ravaged all the nooks and crannies of Onelga while he lived only to speak out now he is gone, saying their only fear was not to be exposed by the notorious cultist who was their hatch man.
Warning his “accusers and detractors” against treading the path of unreasonableness and danger, Obuah said all that is needed now is not “pointing fingers and looking for scapegoat to satisfy the cravings of overzealous and power drunk politicians” but to join hands with the Wike administration and complementing the efforts of the security agencies in sustaining the peace and security in Onelga and the state generally.
Obuah insisted he never knew who Don Wanni was until he saw his pictures after the amnesty was granted to the repentant militants and cultists by the state government and had neither related nor supported him in any way.
“During the previous administration under Rotimi Amaechi, Don Wanni and his group had a field day, operated unchallenged and were readily used by that government and not until this present administration came up with the amnesty programme, Don Wanni would have remained uncovered and committed APC member.
“These enemies of the people are at it again. They never supported the amnesty programme that exposed their hatchet men who are being trailed by security agencies and this is their sole reason for wanting to incite another round of crisis in Onelga through these unfounded accusations against me,” he said.
Obuah had repeatedly alerted the world of alleged grand plots by the APC to malign him.
He said he would not be deterred in his quest to serve humanity and be “the good neighbour as entreated by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ”. A wise posture though, given the fact that 2019 is around the corner and the sycophants are up again working out their heads in mudslinging just to please their paymasters.
For Needam, some of them who were in touch with reality and having followed the antecedents of Obuah, a philanthropist par excellence and selfless servant of God would not be silent in the face of flagrant misinformation and falsehood orchestrated by a group of people “whose angst would not be quelled on account that they lost the gubernatorial election in Rivers in 2015, hence the heavens must fall!”
According to the PDP faithful, “They adopted different tricks to pull down and rubbish the laudable paths which Governor Nyesom Wike is treading, but they have failed in all their attempts to run Governor Wike down. They declared that the inroads being recorded in infrastructure and other sectors of the economy were mere completion of projects initiated by their leader, and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation.
“Again, their propaganda failed as Wike rather than being discouraged, swung into an infrastructural blitz that has won him many national and international accolades.”
“They tried unsuccessfully to promote the narrative of insecurity in Rivers State which was aimed at persuading the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the state, but they failed,” he added.
Having run out of lies and falsehood, they have turned to this infamous “Civil Society Group in Orashi Region” as a willing tool, using the Don Wanni saga as their latest stunt.
“Why is it that it is just this last one (Don Wanni) that the President would order to be killed?” retorted Governor Wike during a recent interview he had with a popular radio presenter in Port Harcourt, explaining that it was the Rivers State Government and not the Federal Government that funded the logistics and operation that led to the death of the notorious cultist kingpin.
They blabbered about the enormity of losses suffered by the Orashi region as a result of unwarranted killings which has been known to have predated the administration of Governor Wike.
At the same radio programme mentioned above, Wike revealed among others the harrowing killings under the administration of Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi.
“It is inconceivable that someone would make these investments in a place and for a people he never meant well for. It follows logically too that anyone who kicks against any individual or group that has demonstrated such commitment to his land and people is what my pastor referred to as ‘witch’ and deserved to be caged,” the governor had observed.
Ignatius Chukwu
