SPONSORED FALSE MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO WHIP UP SENTIMENTS, MALIGN THE JUDICIARY AND PERPETRATE INJUSTICE AGAINST ME
By Chief Moses Nnamani
The sponsored publication on Sahara Reporters and other social media platforms on 19th November, 2023 is another overt act by some desperate individuals who are using the crisis in Oruku Community to cover their acts of criminality while using some individuals in the corridors of power to shield themselves from the punishment they richly deserve.
The said publication was sponsored by Ejike Ani, Agozie Ani and their cohorts who are desperate to keep Chief Moses Nnamani in detention to prevent the continuation of the criminal charges pending against them for extortion and threats to his life while armed with guns and by so doing subvert the course of justice.
In the year 2020, when Chief Nnamani came back to the village to renovate his house, he was approached by a group of men led by the late Emmanuel Mbah, who subsequently metamorphosed into the Igwe of Oruku Community through and by some inexplicably strange happenstance, his younger brother Ejike Mbah along with others who came to his house armed with guns and demanded from him the sum of N2,000,000.00 (two million naira).
Chief Moses Nnamani requested to know the basis for their demand since they were neither community vigilante nor did they hold any public office in the community. They simply responded that they only approached him peacefully because they considered him an elder, otherwise, they would have just taken him away and he would have had to pay a lot more to regain his freedom.
Chief Nnamani responded that he had settled those who work for the community including the vigilantes. He stated that he had nothing to give the gang.About two days later, Mr. Ejike Gerald Ani visited Chief Moses’s house and complimented the renovation work going on and while they were discussing, he asked Chief Nnamani why he refused to settle the boys that came around the other day. Chief Moses responded that he had settled those whom he knew that did legitimate work for the community. Mr. Ejike Gerald Ani informed Chief Moses that the boys who came to demand for money from him had their own work which he was unable to explain but insisted that he would advise Chief Moses to settle them to avert trouble. Chief Moses Nnamani pointedly asked Mr. Ejike Ani if he was asking him to give money to the men, to which he responded that he should give them what they asked for to avert trouble.
Eventually, Chief Nnamani accepted to give them money but informed Mr. Ejike Ani that he did not have N2,000,000.00 (two million naira) to give them but that he would give them whatever sum he could not because they deserved it but for them to stay away from him.The next day, the gang came back but this time demanded for the money to be given to them with menace. Chief Nnamani insisted he had no money and after they left, he called Mr. Ejike Gerald Ani and requested that if he insisted that he must give money to this gang for peace to reign, that he (Mr. Ejike Ani) must be present when the money would be handed over to them. They agreed on the day Chief Nnamani was to give money to the gang led by late Igwe Emmanuel Mbah. Chief Nnamani withdrew the total sum of N400,000.00 (four hundred thousand naira) with the intention to give N200,000.00 (two hundred thousand naira) to the gang and apply the balance of N200,000.00 (two hundred thousand naira) towards paying the labourers working in his compound.When they all arrived, including Mr. Ejike Gerald Ani, Chief Moses Nnamani brought out the N200,000.00 meant for them and handed same over to Mr. Ejike Ani, but late Igwe Emmanuel Mbah and his gang rejected the sum of N200,000.00 (two hundred thousand naira) from Chief Moses Nnamani. He later increased it to N300,000.00 (three hundred thousand naira), which they still rejected.
Chief Moses Nnamani was running out of options as these men were armed all the while they were coming to make these demands and having little or no option, was forced to give them the entire money at his disposal which amounted to N400,000.00 (four hundred thousand naira). The said money was handed over to Mr. Ejike Ani who handed same over to late Igwe Emmanuel Mbah who then handed the money to his younger brother who was equally there with them by name Ejike Mbah.To the utter dismay and outrage of Chief Moses Nnamani, the gang members informed him that they were coming back for the balance of the N2,000,000.00 (two million naira) they demanded from him. Chief Nnamani in response told them he had nothing more to give to them as he only gave them the N400,000.00 (four hundred thousand naira) because they kept rejecting what he gave them. That the money was actually meant for other expenses.
True to their threat, the gang came back two days later to demand for the balance as they had indicated they would. Chief Nnamani declined their request. They subsequently came around and threatened the security man he employed to guard his house. The security man informed Chief Nnamani about development and he was forced to hurry out of the village and they came and confiscated the iron rods he bought for the renovation work in his compound. They kept threatening to eliminate Chief Nnamani if he failed to give them what they tagged “the balance of their money”. All these were happening prior to the presentation of staff of office to late Igwe Emmanuel Mbah as Igwe of Oruku by the administration of HE, Governor Ugwuanyi of Enugu State.Chief Moses Nnamani, fearing for his life and having done his best to avoid any confrontation with this gang was left with no other option than to report the threats of morbid dimensions and extortions to the Nigeria Police through and by his petition to the Inspector General of Police dated the 1st day of June, 2020 and when they were eventually arrested and investigation commenced Chief Nnamani was shocked to discover that a highly influential personality from the Umuode Community with which the Oruku Community had been engaged in continuous war of attrition personally came to the Force Headquarters to facilitate their release.
Chief Nnamani’s attempts to get the intervener to do a wholesome intervention and get the group to stop the threats and extortions were surprisingly unsuccessful as the man stopped physical appearance at the Force Headquarters but continued working behind the scene, not wanting to be noticed again.
By the man’s intervention from behind the scene, the group was taken on a purported arraignment before the Upper Area Court, Abuja which they knew lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the charge. The Court subsequently granted them bail and they never showed up again. The man of influence who had been a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in connivance with the Police frustrated the investigation of Chief Nnamani’s petition. The man who was procured by the aforesaid former Minister to sign their bail bonds later informed Chief Nnamani that he did not know the circumstances of their arrest and regretted signing their bail bonds and further expressed regrets that the erstwhile Minister did not explain the details to him. Because of the intervention of the said Minister they were emboldened and became brusque and arrogant in the course of the interviews. The former Minister deployed his influence and contacts at the Force Headquarters with the assistance of a highly placed retired Police Officer to frustrate the case against the gang and they continued with their criminal activities unabated and untrammeled.
It should be noted that Oruku and Umuode Communities have been at cross purposes for years and have been embroiled in a bitter communal conflicts. Some individuals which include some of this gang members were those recruited by the influential and Powerful indigene of the Umuode Community from Chief Moses Nnamani’s Oruku Community to assist them achieve their morbid purpose against Oruku. Subsequent events made Chief Nnamani realize that he was actually deliberately targeted for a reason which he is yet to fully understand. This was why despite his position during the interviews at the Force Headquarters when he said he was not interested in the gang refunding him the N400,000.00 (four hundred thousand naira) they already took from him if they undertook to leave him and his family alone, but they did not accept his proposal. This is verifiable from the Police records. An aide to the Former Minister who was present while some of the interviews took place expressed disappointment at the level of insolence and palpable arrogance exhibited by the men being interrogated and was taken aback by the despicable state of involvement of the Former Minister and the retired high ranking Police Officer of Nkanu extraction who were supposed to ensure peaceful co-existence in the communities but who were grossly abusing their privileged and exalted positions, deploying it to promote disunity and brigandage. The investigation eventually led to the preferment of several criminal charges against them in courts which included the following as they continued uninhibited and unabated. E/203c /2020- I.G.P vs. Emmanuel Mbah & 7 Ors. Ani Gerald Ejikeme is the 3rd defendant. E/181c/2020- I.G.P vs. Emmanuel Mbah & 7 Ors. Ani Gerald Ejikeme is equally the 3rd defendant.FHC/ABJ/CR/148/2020 – I.G.P vs. Emmanuel Mbah & 5 Ors.
There are verifiable from the courts.It is worthy of note that prior to their targeting of Chief Moses Nnamani, Emmanuel Mbah had been known and feared as a violent criminal within his Oruku Community and its environs. He had numerous criminal charges pending against him and his gang members ranging from murder to armed robbery which included the following;Charge No: MEN/92c/2006 –Commissioner of Police vs. Simon Nwatu & Emmanuel Mbah. Both of them were aged 19 and 22 years old respectively at the time.Charge No: E/76c/2006 – The State vs. Simon Nwatu & Emmanuel Mbah.While the above charges were pending at the Agbani Judicial Division of the High Court of Justice, Enugu State, Emmanuel Mbah manipulated his way out of the prison custody by falsifying documents by which he was released by the then Chief Judge of Enugu State who was on prison visit as they presented false documents by which he was purportedly shown as standing trial for a minor offence while his co-accused, Simon Nwatu, escaped from Court while the court was in session at the Agbani High Court. Copies of the information and charge sheets as well as the newspaper publication reporting the escape of Simon Nwatu are available and verifiable.Upon his erroneous release from prison custody based upon presentation of false facts and falsified documents, Emmanuel Mbah literally disappeared only to resurface after a long time with inexplicably stupendous affluence. Emmanuel Mbah became very close to Ani Ejikeme Gerald who was listed as the second prosecution witness in Charge No: E/76c/2006-The State vs. Simon Nwatu & Emmanuel Mbah as the offence leading to the filing of the information was committed against Chief Charles Ndubuisi Nnaji who is uncle to Ani Ejikeme Gerald and Agozie Ani and at the time of the robbery which was committed against Chief Charles Nnaji at Oruku by Emmanuel Mbah and Simon Nwatu, he was the Director of News and Current Affairs at the ESBS, Enugu where he later retired as the Managing Director.
The newly established relationship between the duo of Emmanuel Mbah and Ani Ejikeme Gerald with others later metamorphosed into series of criminal activities which included threats to lives, destruction of properties and extortion of individuals in the Community. This led to their recruitment to serve the interest of the highest bidder and became invincible instruments of operation in the hands the aforementioned Nkanu Men of Power and Influence. Chief Moses Nnamani was a victim of such threats and extortions in the year 2020.Despite the late Igwe Emmanuel Mbah’s criminal antecedents, the powerful men who backed him up were able to convince the former Governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to present him with Staff of Office as Igwe of Oruku because he was serving their parochial interest in Oruku Town.
When they continued with their destructions and extortions, Chief Nnamani was forced to write another petition which led to the attempted re-arrest resulting in his death on 26th December, 2020 as his thugs engaged the Police Officers in a gun battle while he attempted to escape from arrest. These powerful individuals are still using influence and their contacts to frustrate the charge against the other members of the gang who are still alive. Recently, they attempted to use their stooges at the Force Headquarters to facilitate the dismissal of CSP Ezekiel Rimasomte the legal officer assigned to prosecute the charge against the defendants, while they are also working hard to rope Chief Nnamani into the murder charge of late Emmanuel Mbah who actually died while he was escaping from re-arrest by Police Officers from the Force Headquarters Abuja. They recently sponsored an article carried by Sahara Reporters which was facilitated by Agozie Ani who is a blogger and all aimed at harassing the Judiciary and mounting pressure on the State Government to keep their victims in custody in perpetuity so that their own trials could be stalled indefinitely while they continue arresting innocent and dissenting voices in the Oruku Community. In their calculated attempt to rope Chief Nnamani into the death of late Emmanuel Mbah, they claimed that he contested for the Igweship stool of Oruku Community against the late Igwe Emmanuel Mbah and lost but which claim is baseless and false as the Igweship was not contested because the process which produced Mbah was akin to self appointment and those who were not satisfied with his self appointment went to court against same. Chief Nnamani Moses was never interested and never got involved in same at any point including the litigation that followed.The publication of 19th November, 2023 on Sahara Reporters and other Social Media platforms forced the presiding Judge Hon. Justice R.O Odugu to remit the case file back to the Chief Judge for re-assignment to possibly the same judge whose Judicial Commission of inquiry report on the crises in Oruku Community they are relying upon to continue with their atrocities. The Commission’s report was one sided as they ensured that those who were supposed to give a different perspective to their narrative were not heard, they having been marked for death and could not come before the Commission to testify or even submit any memorandum.
The one sided report was not accepted by the government and no White Paper was issued in respect of same. Because the commission of inquiry was not afforded the opportunity to hear all sides, the commission formed an opinion based on their narrative and therefore the judge would be biased if he is to preside over the trial of Chief Moses Nnamani. Hon. The said judge is reported to have been reached by them and is waiting to receive the case file to assist them achieve their purpose.In the mean time, they have succeeded in aborting the bail application and kept Chief Moses Nnamani in custody for more than 4 months now without trial, notwithstanding the fact that he had just lost his wife in a ghastly accident and the remains are yet to be interred. They have continued to inform his relatives that they will ensure he is detained for the rest of his life. It will be bad for the Government to allow individual interests to subvert the course of justice. Chief Moses Nnamani was targeted using late Emmanuel Mbah and Others because he was perceived as independent minded and would be standing against the interest of powerful individuals in the Oruku/Umuode crises. The unfortunate death of late Emmanuel Mbah as he was about to be re-arrested was an unforeseen fall out from a well orchestrated scheme which Chief Moses Nnamani had no hand in and which never came within his contemplation.
The Houses which the sponsors of 19th November, 2023 publication alleged were burnt after a defendant was granted bail in 2022 were burnt as a warning by the sponsors to the government that unless they are kept in custody in perpetuity they are ready to wreck more havoc whenever an innocent man from Oruku who is being held at their pleasure is allowed to go home. This is not the kind of society we want for the people of Oruku who are bona fide citizens of Enugu State and Nigeria. Their constitutional rights cannot be put on hold simply because these perceived influential individuals of power and might want it to be so. The government is encouraged to rise above sentiments, guarantee and protect the constitutional rights of its citizens as the previous administration, realizing although too late that they were being deceived and misled by the former Minister, the Former Governor His Excellency Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi reversed all his decisions on the Oruku/Umuode via the Executive Order No. 1 of 2023 Published in the Enugu State Official Gazette No. 3 Vol. 32 on 26th May, 2023.
The sponsored media distortion of the facts of the matter will not abate unless the Government demonstrates political courage and brushes aside the negative influences of self seeking individuals and their cohorts who have brought no progress to their communities using their big name and influential positions, but instead have continued to oppress, suppress and trample upon the rights of their people for their selfish ends. They do not wish to emulate the likes of Igbinedion and Alex Ekwueme who selflessly deployed their personal resources and influence for the benefits of their respective communities which they placed on the world map. Government should not look the other way while the unjustified suppression persists and continues untrammeled and unabated. Justice beckons on the Government of Enugu State to take up the gauntlet, demonstrate political will and courage and stop the carnage and injustice. That is the true essence of democracy and justice, not otherwise!!!
Chief Moses Nnamani
Oruku Community, Nkanu East Local Government Area, Enugu State
7th December, 2023.
