Senator Chris Anyanwu has tackled former Imo State governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, over a statement credited to the latter, alluding that the celebrated journalist who was incarcerated by the military junta wrote a letter to the late maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha.
Ohakim has said to have made the statement in an interview while he reacted to Anyanwu’s recently released autobiography titled “Bold Leap.”
The senator who represented Imo East Senatorial District between 2007-2015, said that the position of governor or onetime governor was highly esteemed to the extent that such persons should not indulge in gossips and beer parlour talks.
According to her, Ohakim had not read her much-talked about book, but may have gleaned snippets from the reviews. Therefore, it was despicable and uncharitable of the ex-governor to comment on a book he had allegedly not read especially claiming that she wrote a letter to Abacha.
She accused the former governor of having deliberately set out to deceive and manipulate the public with ‘egregious lies’, hence, her attempt to publicly put the facts straight before an idea from an old habit of lying and making up stories got taken for truth.
Anyanwu said: “I observe that Governor Ohakim had not read the book when he spoke. He spoke in rambling generalities not on specifics; went into the book review to borrow the observation of the reviewer on production. But with all the hot air he blew, he totally avoided talking of my accounts of some of the unforgettable things he did as Governor. He spoke like a man who took one look at himself in the mirror and went berserk. No, he should relax and read the full book. Then reflect. Things have got to change in Imo.
“And finally, that bizarre story about a letter to Abacha, (may his soul rest in peace). How does a man of Governor Ikedi’s age and standing in society sit down and conjure up an asinine, egregious lie about someone writing apology to Abacha and the federal government. Is it intelligent to tell tales that are so hair-brained they can make a dog laugh? No one could write Abacha or his government and it became Nigeria’s greatest secret. How did it happen that a document that could have provided the propaganda hungry administration its greatest campaign weapon globally got locked up and no one else mentioned it, wrote about it in the numerous books written on that era in these 30 years? Except Ohakim!! Where was this letter written; when was it written, by whom and to whom was it given? And how did it happen that it was only lkedi Ohakim that had access to it? And by the way, where was lkedi Ohakim 30 years ago, in the days of terror when people were fighting, dying, escaping and suffering for democracy? Was he helping the oppressors? There had to have been a relationship with the administration for them to have handed him this “dud.” Ohakim must explain this; explain what he did for a living at the time and what qualified him to keep Abacha’s secrets. When we get a glimpse into his opaque professional past, then we will appreciate why it is not beyond the realms of possibility for him to weave and fabricate this great lie.
“I don’t know anybody that wrote Abacha. I don’t write or talk of things I don’t know. What I know is that as far as I was concerned, that kind of heinous idea could not be contemplated, uttered, let alone written by me, even under the gun. End of story.
“And now, I dare Governor Ikedi Ohakim to produce the letter in his possession in court before forensic experts before the eyes of the world.”
Source: Sun newspaper
