The former Governor of Anambra State and vice-presidential
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, has described
as sheer fabrication, wicked and inhuman, the allegation being circulated by
the opposition that he demolished mosques when he was governor of the state,
snubbed the Sultan, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar III, drove Hausa people away
from Anambra State.
The allegation also included that he shunned the then
Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman’s attempt to mediate as well as did not visit schools in the North.
Responding to journalists questions at Southern Sun in
Lagos on Thursday, Obi regretted that rather than some political elite to focus
on resolving the plight of several millions of Nigerians without livelihood,
over 10 million out-of-school children and many more unemployed youths, “they
are busy engaging in hate speeches and spreading concocted falsehoods in their desperation to be elected
into public office so that they will continue impoverishing the country and the
people.”
Recalling the circumstances under which he became governor
in 2006, Obi revealed that he never had malicious relationship with any group
resident in Anambra State nor demolished any mosque in the state as alleged.
As a matter of fact, he went on to state that the
mosque at Onitsha was destroyed before he became governor. “During that crisis,
many groups, including northerners, took shelter in the army barracks,” adding
that indeed, some of the first measures he took on assumption of office was to
visit those displaced persons, restore normalcy and encouraged everybody to
return to their normal, peaceful life in the state.
Describing the allegation that he snubbed the Sultan
of Sokoto in the state as ridiculous, Obi asserted that irresponsibility and
disrespect for elders and leaders were not in his character.
According to him, “The irony of this concoction is
that I have been a friend of His Eminence, the Sultan, right from my first year
at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in 1980 throughout his tenure as
Nigeria’s Defence Attaché in Pakistan till date. The fact is during the visit
of his Eminence, which I was alleged to have snubbed him was purely a courtesy
call after which I personally accompanied him to see the Obi of Onitsha, Obi
Alfred Achebe, with whom he had a meeting. I also requested the Sultan to visit
the Hausa community in the state; and in their interaction, the Hausa
complained about the destruction of their mosque before I became governor,
which I offered to rebuild and subsequently gave them the funds for that
purpose. Thank God, the Sultan and the Obi of Onitsha are still alive and
available to confirm my submission.”
Additionally, Obi revealed that shortly after the
visit to the Hausa community, he accompanied the Sultan to the state-owned Chukwuemeka
Odumegwu-Ojukwu University which conferred an honorary degree on him.
He said: “I did not have to be there, but I
accompanied him to receive the award as a gesture of friendship. If we were not
on good terms as my traducers alleged, he could have still be given the honour
in the in the spirit of the university autonomy, but I would not have
accompanied him to the event.”
On the allegation of having driven away Hausa people
from the state, Obi asserted that the only groups which could have run away from
Anambra State during his tenure as governor were kidnappers, armed robbers and
predators on the state treasury. He said that the head-bridge dual carriageway
the ‘wicked liars’ were referring to was merely cleared of several groups of
squatters and illegal markets that occupied three of the four-lane carriageway.
The vice-presidential candidate revealed that the
clearance was done without any recourse to ethnicity or religion at a time his government
was collaborating with the federal government to expand the road to six lanes, which has solved the traffic
gridlock in that area to the admiration of all commuters, vehicle owners and
transporters.
As for not visiting schools in the North, Obi said it
was unfortunate trying to politicise the visit to school he was just engaged in
as a passion borne out of his love for education.
Obi explained that “I have visited schools in all the
states of Nigeria. Last year, I visited two schools in Sokoto State, the seat
of the Caliphate.”
Answering a question on how he had a disagreement with
the then Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, Obi said he had known the
gentleman before he became governor when he was the CEO of one of the
commercial banks and thereafter as the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN), and since then, they had remained friends and had not had any
reason to disagree on any issue.
Ending on an advisory note, Obi called on all hands to
be on deck to save the country from collapse rather than engage in idle talk
and fabrication of tales as a substitute for state policy.
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