18042021 - Ex-Gov Aliyu Lied, not all northern govs worked against Jonathan in 2015

ROW: Ohanaeze to
get IPoB, ESN to
work with Ebube-
Agu – Iwuanyanwu
By Chinonso Alozie
Elder statesman, Chief Emmanuel
Iwuayanwu, in this interview, speaks on the
row over Ebube Agu, the security outfit just formed
by the five governors of the South-East.
Ebube Agu was recently formed by
South-East governors. What are your
expectations from the regional security
outfit?
Everybody in this country in the last few
years must be worried and concerned about
the security situation in the country. It is the
same thing from the South-East to North-
East. Criminals attack, kill, rape, kidnap
school children and even security personnel
who are supposed to protect
us.
These have never happened
before in the history of this
country. The question now is:
what do these people really
want? As I said earlier, every
militancy or war must have a
reason. Even the first and second
world wars had reasons
that led to hostilities. The Nigeria/Biafra
War had reasons
that led to it.
Did you foresee what is
happening today?
When these bandits and terrorists
started, I warned the
South-East not to take anything
for granted or to be
complacent. What is happening
today is nothing but a war
against Nigeria.
Their strategies are part of
the strategies usually adopt-
ed for
war. Most often, some people say, that it is
By Levinus Nwabughiogu
Hon. Victor Afam Ogene was a
member of the 7th Assembly of the
House of Representatives. A veteran
journalist, Ogene spearheaded the robust
public engagement that led to the emergence
of the Aminu Tambuwal /Emeka Ihedioha
leadership. He is currently the Spokesman
for the All Progressives Congress, APC Patriots,
Anambra Chapter. In this Interview, he speaks
of the party’s chances to win the November 6,
2021 gubernatorial election in the State.
What informed the setting up of APC
Patriots?
The singular reason for the coming on board
of the group, APC Patriots, Anambra Chapter
is to “capture” political power in Anambra
State. When I say, “capture” power, I use that
word advisedly, and deliberately. As you may
have observed, the bulk of APC Patriots
membership is drawn from people who have
at one time or another sought elective position,
many without success. Yet, their failure to
secure success at the polls was most often
inversely propelled by extraneous factors not
directly associated with their electability. To
properly situate our dilemma, let me cite one
very recent example. In the last gubernatorial
election in Anambra state, our party, the APC,
despite claims of widespread unacceptability
still managed to come second, ahead of the
People’s Democratic Party, PDP which is often
passed off as the largest political party in the
state. After the polls, the APC set up a factfinding
committee which carried out a near
forensic post-mortem to find out what was
responsible for what, in our estimation, was a
the Indigenous
People of Biafra,
IPoB, and
Eastern Security
Network, ESN, that are behind this but I do
not think so. The IPoB boys are Igbo and no
right-thinking Igbo man can just wake up
and take arms to kill his fellow Igbo man.
This is why we should find out what is
happening. In 2019, the
leadership of Ohanaeze
Ndigbo met with governors
of South-East states,
and they decided to have
a common security outfit.
The elders of
Ohanaeze Ndigbo
Worldwide will take
steps to get the IPoB
and ESN to work
with Ebube Agu
We held meetings in
Enugu and Ebonyi, and
a retired Army General
was appointed to head a
committee that was established
to bring the
security outfit to fruition.
Every state in the
South-East was represented
in that committee
that was set up. We
also agreed that all state
Houses of Assembly in
the South-East should
pass a law to back it up
and also recruit people
into the regional security
outfit.
not-too-satisfactory outcome. Now, it will
shock you to know that besides official
indulgence with the ruling All Progressives
Grand Alliance, APGA, internal party
sabotage arising from a bitterly fought
primaries counted hugely in diminishing the
fortunes of our party. With this realization in
mind, and given the likelihood of another eight
years stay outside the power loop in the state if
we do not get it right on November 6, 2021,
some key stakeholders came together and
birthed the group, APC Patriots, Anambra
Chapter.
Your continuous use of the term,
Anambra chapter, presupposes that
your group has a nationalistic fervour
with branches across the country. Is
your group, therefore, something of a
national movement?
You will not be wrong to come to such
conclusion, even when all you hear about the
Patriots now revolves around Anambra. In
more ways than one, our dear state, Anambra
holds an enviable position as one which opens
up hitherto uncharted pathways. But for the
sake of this discourse, let me limit myself to
the political terrain. Even before other states
started making a song, and dance about
combating the menace of godfathers,
Anambra, through the current state leader of
our party, Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige,
had liberated the state from the stranglehold
of godfathers. So, the idea of the Patriots, as
an internal self-cleansing mechanism, is sure
to set off positive reactions across states and
political parties once we succeed, as we plan
to do, with the Anambra model.
•Iwuayanwu
No political party is more accepted
in S/East than APC — Hon. Ogene
*Speaks of party’s chances of winning the Nov 6 Anambra guber election
Is the floating of Ebube Agu a product
of the decision taken at the meetings
with South-East governors?
At a recent Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide
council meeting, the elders gave the governors
of the South-East the directive to float
a security outfit and that was how Ebube
Agu came about.
As I said earlier, talks about Ebube Agu
had been on and now that it has been established,
it requires experienced personnel,
training, and adequate funding.
IPoB and ESN, which came on board before
Ebube Agu, acted in all honesty to defend
us and nobody is against it. The elders
of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide will take
steps to get the IPoB and ESN to work with
Ebube Agu.
Do you think it will be possible
since IPoB has already opposed the
outfit?
I know that some people in the South-
East may kick against this move, but we
want a situation where all hands should be
on deck for us to heave a sigh of relief. We
want an end to banditry and terrorism.
We acknowledge their, ESN, interest and
enthusiasm to protect our people and it
would be good if they work together with
Ebube Agu. Nobody should say it is illegal.
There should be no conflict between them
and, as I said, the governors of the South-
•Ogene
As a group within the political
framework, how do you intend to
achieve your goals in a way that does
not conflict with the role and
responsibilities of statutory organs of
the party?
Following the formation of APC Patriots,
many party loyalists, analysts and observers
have been worried stiff regarding what some
of them termed the likelihood of a hidden
agenda. But I can tell you here and now, that
there is no hidden agenda anywhere - and
anybody who embarks on a search for one
would only end up chasing a wild goose. For
the sake of emphasis, our goal is to make sure
that the process leading up to the emergence
of our party’s candidate is not strewn with
bristles, thus compromising the cohesion of
our party in the run up to the main election on
November 6, 2021. In fact, conventional
wisdom dictates that once a party’s candidate
emerges through a credible, fair, rational and
transparent process, there will not only be less
acrimony, but also the entire gamut of those
who contested the party primaries will
willingly team up with the candidate to go
SUNDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 18, 2021, PAGE 9
East should get IPoB and ESN to work with
Ebube Agu. Terrorists have different strategies
of operation.
Do you think the synergy you are
proposing between Ebube Agu and
IPoB can bring an end to insecurity
in Igboland?
For instance, the way they operate in Enugu
and Imo might be different from the way
they operate in Ebonyi and Benue. Recall
how they killed many soldiers without any
of the soldiers escaping.
Not long ago, an aircraft belonging to
the Nigeria Air force suddenly disappeared
in the air and nothing has been heard of it
up until now.
It seems the perpetrators of violence
in the South-East are getting
emboldened by the day…
Our prisons should have policemen and
military men guiding them. I want to ask:
can such an incident happen without the
collusion of security forces? They were here
for more than three hours. Something is
wrong somewhere.
As I said, we should share information
with South-South and other regions. We
should also provide intelligence to the federal
government. This is war. I am speaking
from experience, and the solution is intelligence
gathering.
Those saying it is IPoB may not be right.
That does not mean we are in support of
IPoB, because we know the group has been
proscribed. However, we expect the federal
government to move quickly to identify
those behind these attacks.
That is why I said the hoodlums behind
the attacks are the greatest threat to Nigeria’s
unity. This is very important to stop
this whole thing from escalating. I am saying
this because nobody wants to stay in a
country where people are killed for no just
cause. In fact, all we need to end these attacks
is just intelligence gathering.
I also urge the federal government to set
up an enquiry to know what happened in
the recent plane crash involving our security
agents in Niger State. I don’t like it when
things like this happen and they end like
that.
The way these people are going, they are
coming very close and I would not be surprised
to find them overrunning the whole
country one day. How can these things be
happening and we are keeping quiet?
I could remember what Gen T. Y Danjuma,
retd, said some time ago. He said the
security situation is going out of hand and
that it may come to a point when people
will start protecting themselves.
That is why I am saying that everybody is
afraid and something must be done. We have
come to a point the safety of lives and properties
is what we care about now.
Over 1,800 inmates were released from
Owerri Correctional Centre and security
agents did not fire a single shot. What does
that mean? This incident happened in a state
with many security agencies.
The hoodlums release those they wanted
to release freely when we have the police
and military men around. That is why we
need Ebube Agu to stop the trend.
into the general election as a cohesive unit. As
a matter of fact, unless the disparate power
blocs which are in contention morph into one,
the end result would be disheartening. And
because we don’t want such a scenario, party
stalwarts, operating under the auspices of the
Patriots began working from the problems to
the solution.
Y o u seem to have an uphill
task up your sleeves,
especially as political
parties are known to
have preferred
candidates.
In deed, we will be kidding
ourselves to think that party
officials and its hierarchy
would not want to have
certain individuals emerge
as candidate from a pool of
other highly qualified
aspirants. As humans,
officials are bound to have
preferences, but we’re insistent that even in
seeking to do family and friends favour, the
process must accommodate the feelings of the
other aspirants; thus necessitating that the
process must not only be credible, but also
acceptable to a wide spectrum of critical
stakeholders.
So, how does the APC Patriots intend
to achieve its lofty goal of winning the
Anambra gubernatorial election?
First, the steering committee of the Patriots
began with a face to face interaction with the
aspirants. With that concluded, we are taking
the message down to the South east; to
Anambra.
Already, we have outlined a schedule of
activities that will lead up to the primaries
sometime in June. Beginning with courtesy
visits to the governors of Imo and Anambra
states, other leaders such as Ngige, Sharon
Ikeazor and top national leaders of our party,
we are going to spend the month of April
engaging with the party members across the
board.