By Johnbosco Agbakwuru
Senator Chris Ngige, was governor of Anambra State and later, the Minister of Labour and Employment in
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He’s a educated medical physician and rose via ranks within the civil service to the directorate degree earlier than his foray into politics.
On this interview, he speaks on how he was taken to Okija shrine to swear an oath of loyalty earlier than he turned a governor.
He additionally speaks on his unlawful abduction as a sitting governor, his efforts to make sure that Buhari launched the Indigenous Individuals of Biafra chief, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, amongst different points.
Excerpts:
When folks discuss Okija shrine, they at all times point out your title, why is it so, what’s your involvement with Okija shrine?
I used to be taken to Okija shrine by drive. By midnight, I didn’t know the place we have been going, and it was a couple of days to my election. So that they mentioned we should go there to swear an oath of loyalty. In fact, I do know that these shrines and people small deities don’t work. God Almighty is above all of them. So I went with my Bible and holy water. After we acquired there and I checked out what they have been doing, one in every of them now opted to go and swear for me.
I mentioned, advantageous and he did. However once I turned governor and the safety report confirmed what they have been doing there, swindling folks, I don’t know the way it occurred, however the then president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo gave instruction to my CP via the IGP, that the place needs to be dismantled. The CP known as me and we went and leveled the place. So, that individual shrine is not there. However there are such a lot of little shrines in Okija. It’s now that individuals have forsaken these issues, having famous that it was being operated by a swindling gang.
Once you have been kidnapped, who have been the people who got here to your rescue, and the way have been you rescued?
I’ve mentioned so many issues about my unlawful abduction, and there have been many individuals who rescued me or got here to my support. The primary particular person was my driver from my hometown who was driving my personal automobile once they seized my official automotive. I went with my personal 406 automotive.
By some instinct, I instructed my personal driver to come back with us within the convoy. So, on that day, once they had seized the opposite automotive, rolled up the flag and closed the crest, I entered my personal automotive and detailed one DSP, the one who was standing on the door with an AK47 to additionally accompany me in that automotive.
He was contained in the automotive, and we have been on our strategy to Alor, my hometown. He mentioned they’d directions to take me to my village. So, once I got here to a spot known as quarter, I spoke to my driver in Igbo, as a result of, happily, that man wasn’t Igbo, and he detoured to my lodge. After we acquired to the lodge, he mentioned this isn’t a part of the instruction, and I mentioned, sure, however should you’re taking me to my village, I’ve to get my baggage and my garments and so they’re right here. So after an extended argument, they allowed me.
I got here down and once I acquired to the realm the place you will have a staircase to go as much as my room on the third flooring, one in every of them determined to comply with me and I mentioned no, it’s my PA that ought to comply with me. However they mentioned no, that I needs to be with two of them now as an alternative of even one particular person. I smelt a rat and I mentioned I used to be not going wherever anymore. So I carried one plastic chair, put it within the courtyard and sat down there. So that they began radioing their AIG that the person was within the lodge and had refused to go to another place. So, he blamed them for even detouring and despatched some senior officers. By that point, my elder sister had arrived, my Chief Press Secretary, the media man, Fred Chukwulobe had additionally arrived.
So that they got here to the iron barricade and spoke to me about whether or not they need to put it on the Anambra radio about what was occurring and I mentioned sure. So that they went and blasted it on the radio there that I used to be nonetheless alive. Then one conventional ruler, Igwe Anugwu, who was my buddy within the Alex Ekwueme Marketing campaign Group ALEKCO, and was our treasurer however belonged to APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance), noticed me there and handed me two occasions and on the third time he noticed that there was hassle, when he noticed policemen encircling your entire courtyard.
He spoke to me from the housebreaking proof that was utilized in fencing around the courtyard and I mentioned, sure, that these folks mentioned I used to be not governor and that they’d seized my workplace, seized my automotive and I used to be right here. Earlier than I went into that courtyard, we had a fistfight as a result of one of many policemen pushed me and I gave him a heavy knock. I instructed him I used to be a black belt holder, that I’d kill him if he made any try once more, so he ran away.
So, I went to the courtyard and so they didn’t come to assault me bodily once more as a result of they noticed what occurred to the opposite one as a result of I hit him very exhausting and once I hit him, he knocked his head on the wall and he ran away. He dropped his gun and ran away and the opposite folks now rescued him, so that they left me. The normal ruler then mentioned he would name Dr. Alex Ekwueme to inform him.
He known as Ekwueme, and I spoke with Ekwueme. He mentioned, ‘Igbo chief,’ which is what he calls me. ‘What’s occurring?’ They mentioned some policemen arrested you, I mentioned sure. He mentioned, arrest a governor with immunity?
I mentioned, nicely, they mentioned I used to be not the governor. He mentioned okay, so the person got here again and requested if there was another particular person I wished to talk with. I mentioned sure, I want to converse to somebody in my occasion. So I gave him the variety of a land line which he dialed.
The land cellphone belonged to Prince Vincent Ogbulafor’s workplace, however then Vincent was the secretary. We had labored from that workplace when Nwodo was the secretary, as a result of I used to be the assistant nationwide secretary. The quantity was in my head. So, the one who picked up the cellphone was Vin Ogbulafor himself, and he mentioned, hey, who’s that? I mentioned, it’s me. He mentioned, you might be who? I mentioned Dr. Ngige. In fact, he didn’t consider me that it was Ngige. He mentioned look, my buddy cease taking part in right here, we aren’t taking part in, we’re in search of our governor, our occasion’s governor, we’re in search of him and you might be presenting your self as him. I mentioned no, it’s Ngige. I then known as him Vinoo as a result of that’s the pet title I name him, Vinoo, prince of the Niger. He mentioned, eweeh, he spoke in Igbo and mentioned ‘owu gi’ (is it you?).
So, that was what occurred and from him the cellphone was handed to Dikibbo who spoke to me and mentioned, are you continue to alive? I mentioned sure. Then the cellphone was handed to a different NWC (Nationwide Working Committee) member, Bode George. I spoke with everyone there. Then, Eddie Iroh, the Director-Common of FRSC (Federal Radio Company of Nigeria) was within the ready room of Ogbulafor, and once they mentioned, it was me on the road, he ran out and introduced his crew and linked us on the 4pm information the place he spoke with me asking me questions and I answered that I used to be alive. He mentioned, the place are you? I mentioned I used to be in Alternative Lodge.
Awka, that was the place I used to be being held. So, Nigerians heaved a sigh of aid. And from there the Vice President spoke with me via the identical cellphone and he instructed me, should you didn’t resign, there’s no want for anyone to drive you to resign. Resignation is by selection, not obligatory, it’s voluntary.
So after thirty minutes, the IGP known as me and mentioned he was sending folks to come back and take me again to my workplace and I mentioned okay, advantageous. In fact, once they got here, it was about half previous six. It was getting a bit bit darkish already, so I instructed him I used to be not going to my workplace once more. They mentioned, no, that their instruction was to take me to the workplace. I mentioned, no, I don’t need to go to my workplace, so that they left me.
They knew I had a brawl with one in every of their males, and I had an earlier brawl contained in the workplace with the AIG, once I was making an attempt to pack my bag to come back out. He mentioned I ought to depart all the things, however I mentioned, no, so we struggled for the bag inside my workplace and I got here out. In order that was how Nigerians knew I used to be alive, and the remainder is now historical past.
You as soon as talked about that you just had confronted many disciplinary committees whenever you have been within the civil service, what number of did you face and what have been your alleged offences then?
(Laughs). No, I didn’t face many, this one was the main one. This different one was as a result of they mentioned I used to be breaking the civil service guidelines which they claimed made my Supreme clinic in 1004 unique to civil servants, not even public servants. You realize, should you’re working in a company or a corporation that isn’t a ministry, then you’re a public servant.
So I flouted all the principles as a result of public servants have been dwelling there with their households, and so they additionally mentioned we shouldn’t attend to pediatric circumstances there. I mentioned, no, as a result of if a mom is disturbed as a result of the kid is sick, she wouldn’t go to work.
So, in case your little one is just not nicely, and you’re a civil servant, what it means is that you’d take your little one to go and search for a physician elsewhere, and then you definitely received’t go to work. However should you stroll into our clinic in 1004, we might deal with your little one after which let you know to watch her or him, and if the sickness continues, you come again and we might provide you with a referral to Mercy’s Kids’s Hospital. In order that was why I confronted the committee, and naturally, I defeated my traducers.
You have been near Buhari, how did you obtain the information of his demise?
Buhari didn’t die on the time that I assumed he would die. That’s what is giving me disappointment and sorrow. We anticipated this unhealthy information in 2016-2017 when he went for that lengthy remedy, got here again and went again once more. In actual fact, when he got here again, he mentioned he had by no means been sick like that in his life.
In order a doctor, I checked out all the things then and I knew he had a slender escape. However this time, earlier than he left for that remedy, I spoke with him and when he was within the UK. To the perfect of my information, he didn’t even go to the UK as a result of he was sick. He was going for his checkup. So I acquired the information with plenty of disappointment. However like I instructed you, I’m a stoic thinker and believer. That was his time.
He has performed his personal half. And God now wills him to come back again. And that’s what he has executed with out discover to lots of people. I used to speak to him, perhaps as soon as in a fortnight, I’d converse to protocol. Even when he got here to Kaduna. So, I used to be wanting ahead to seeing him in Kaduna, as a result of I used to be overseas when he moved to Kaduna. I used to be away from Nigeria for as much as three months. So the information was like a jolt from the blues for me.
However once more, that’s God’s will. And we’ve got to want him nicely as a result of he was one man who additionally wished Nigerians nicely, particularly those who have been down-trodden. We don’t have to show all the things to the media, however I do know the combat that went on all through his eight years on the difficulty of devaluation of the Naira. He was against it, he fought it with all his energy, he didn’t need to hear about devaluation.
What is going to you inform individuals who believed Buhari disenchanted you within the sense that you just have been among the many distinguished Igbo sons who went to him to plead for the discharge of Nnamdi Kanu?
Sure, I used to be disenchanted and I instructed him as a result of in 2022, I organized for him to satisfy with Igbo leaders. The late Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, led a delegation comprising the late Chukwuemeka Ezeife, Bishop Onuoha, myself, Chief Uwazurike, and Chief Ogbonnaya Onu needed to be part of us as Minister from the South East.
The publish How I was taken to Okija shrine in the midnight—Ngige appeared first on Vanguard News.
