The International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) this evening came down hard on the All Progressives Congress (APC), accusing it of launching a campaign of calumny against the group.

Intersociety in a statement issued from its head office in Onitsha, Anambra State, described the attacks on its leadership as “another war against Igbo gods and a boarding pass off Anambra 2013” governorship election.

Below is the text of the statement signed by Intersociety Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, and Head, Publicity Desk, Comrade Justus Ijeoma:

Name-calling, blackmail and character assassination using highly sectionalized Nigerian media have remained major weapons of many gullible groups and individuals in Nigeria including the leadership of All Progressives Congress and its tribal media war mongers. Those who did not have effective counter forces to tame them, especially those in plum public offices, have been consumed by such weapons. The list ranged from the likes of Prof. Bath Nnaji, Immigration CG Uzoma, Senator Chuba Okadigbo to Eze Festus Odimegwu. The likes of Diezani Allison Madueke, Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika and Ministers Okonjo Iweala and Stella Odua are still sitting on the keg of gunpowder.

The weapons were also used to scuttle Prof. Charles Soludo’s second term as Nigeria’s CBN Governor about eight years ago. The worst victim of such destructive campaigns is President Goodluck Jonathan. Among few that have survived are the leadership of this organization, Governors Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo and Peter Obi of Anambra states. Where statutory tenure of office is provided, planted disloyalty among the subordinates and “forced resignation” are applied. The ill-fated resignation of Eze Festus Odimegwu from the chairmanship of the National Population Commission is a clear case in point. Political appointees from the Southeast and southern and northern Christian minorities are recklessly eased out through internally and externally instigated set ups or scandals, whereas those of the Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba extractions remain untouchables. The case of retired Justice Aloysius Katsina Alu is another case in point’ so, too, that of retired Justice Ayo Isa Salami.

In the CSO community in Nigeria in general and rights community in particular, any activist, especially that of the Southeast, who proudly asserts his or her ethnic origin and culture is hated ruggedly, except he supports Southwest or Yoruba agenda. You are addressed as “progressive comrade” if you belong to the latter and called “tribalist” if you are of the former. CSOs’ meetings are unduly interrupted in other to observe “minute’s silence” in honor of an obscure quantity that once lived in the Southwest zone. Till date, many of the rights leaders in Nigeria especially those with Igbo identity, are highly “yorubanized” and brain-washed with the so called “progressive (Yoruba) agenda”. This age-long warfare is also imported into the economy, government ministerial and parastatal appointments and the media. The police, army, custom & excise, immigration, navy and air force, etc, are not exempted.

The major cause of insecurity and political tensions in Nigeria today is the refusal of the Hausa-Fulani and the Yoruba sections of Nigeria to let go their age-long political slavery sustained through old North and West political dominance of Nigeria. The recent formation of All Progressives Congress; a fusion of CPC sympathetic to Hausa-Fulani/Boko Haram cause, and Action Congress of Nigeria sympathetic to Yoruba cause; is a clear return to this age-long political dominance of the country. This is as a result of the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan, who is of Nigeria’s small Ijaw tribe. To the Hausa-Fulani and the Yoruba political slave masters, the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan, this if unchecked, may lead to the emergence of a core Igbo person as Nigeria’s President. This is considered a taboo that must be cleansed to facilitate the restoration of the Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba political slavery of other members of the Nigerian Federation.

The International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety) is not unaware of a sustained campaign of name calling, blackmail and character assassination being carried out against our leadership by the All Progressives Congress including its Anambra State chapter. Though Intersociety was founded in 2008, but such attacks against our Board Chairman, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, date back to the Mbadinuju’s inglorious epoch during which he was accused of being paid N4 million by the Emeka Offor group to fight Mbadinuju’s infamous policies. Then he was the Anambra State Chairman of the Civil Liberties Organization. During the illegal regime of Dr. Chris Ngige, he was reported to the SSS and the Anambra State Police Criminal Investigation Department in July 2003 through a criminal complaint personally signed by Dr. Chris Ngige whereupon he was labeled “seditionist”.

This was followed by a 2004 civil suit personally instituted by Dr. Chris Ngige whereupon he claimed that the Anambra CLO leadership under Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi libeled him. In 2005, our Comrade’s CLO leadership was again accused of receiving N6 million from Mr. Peter Obi to fight the Ngige’s illegal regime. The accusation was sequel to his group’s public condemnation of an attempted poisoning of Mr. Peter Obi through the inducement of his then personal aide (John Bosco Muonanu), who was later smuggled out of the country to Cameroun when he leaked the plot.

Prior to the 2010 staggered governorship poll held in February 2010, the Anambra ACN and its Dr. Chris Ngige maliciously alleged that Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi and his Intersociety were paid N12 million by the Peter Obi administration to carry out “campaign of calumny against him and his party”. Since then, there have been countless print, electronic and audio-visual media attacks by the ACN and its Chris Ngige against our leadership. As the Anambra 2013 governorship poll drew nearer, the APC (former ACN) again renewed its country-wide attacks against our leadership, calling us all sorts of unprintable names.

The latest of such destructive campaigns by the APC is consistent harassment and threats to some leading media houses in Nigeria including print and social media to stop our facts boggling public advocacies from seeing the light of the day. Those media establishments said they are
under threat and have been told by the APC to give our public information a news blackout. Other torrential calls to that effect have continued to come our way from our idolized associates in the media industry. Just some days ago, one of the assistant editors of a national daily reportedly summoned his Anambra State correspondent to Lagos where he was grilled for over an hour. One of the reasons for summoning him was that the APC complained that the newspaper was giving our publications undue public attention. The correspondent was asked severally to say all he knows about Intersociety, Emaka Umeagbalasi and Peter Obi.

While the leadership of APC is doing all it can to put us out of social equation and existence through “konja” processes, it has never for one day challenged, statistics by statistics, facts by facts and law by law, any of the issues we raised. Instead, it prefers to chase shadows and seeks our destruction, which is an act of impossibility because Igbo gods are not asleep! In the case of Obiano’s alleged double registration, for instance, the APC is yet to challenge our legal citations or come out with counter factual facts that there are verifiable records available at Anambra INEC and Obiano’s sources showing that he never engaged in any voters’ card transfer within the stipulated time frame as allowed by Section 13 (1) (2) (4) & (4) of the Electoral Act of Nigeria 2010. Also, its unfounded allegation that N500 million was given to an Anambra INEC ICT official, named Chidi Ahanotu, to effect the deletion of Obiano’s voter registration data from the Aguleri unit in Anambra State suffered further damage because if that is the case, then with which voters’ card will he vote in the election?

•Photo shows Anambra APC guber candidate, Dr. Chis Ngige.

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