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Nze Ebubeagu Ekenulo is an activist, a businessman, with interests, in real estate publishing and car hire service. He speaks to ANAYO OHAEKELEM on how Senator Hope Uzodinma infected his wife, Ukachi Ekenulo aka Ukachi Amaechi a former member of Imo State House of Assembly with HIV plus how the Senator forged his West African Examination Council (WAEC) and Federal University Technology Owerri (FUTO) certificates.
So where do you operate from Owerri?
I have an office in Lagos; I have been in Lagos all my life. That was where I grew up, I also went to school in Lagos. But my car hire service operates from PortHacourt, Lagos and Abuja and I have few of those cars in Owerri.
Do you have any political interest?
No, my political interest is because I am a political activist, and the essence is to campaign for good governance. You talk of good and credibility to operate the governance. If a leader is not a good person he can’t be a good leader. You don’t give what you don’t have. So I basically campaign against corruption.
What specific steps have you taken against corruption and bad governance?
I have written petitions to the Economic and financial Crimes Commission against certain government officials, and against some under hand dealings that I felt were corrupt. I have written petitions against the Imo State house of Assembly, against Local Government Chairmen that use public funds to go and collect awards in Abuja. I went to the Imo House of Assembly to defend my petitions. I also campaigned against ex-governor of Imo-State, Ikedi Ohakim, even though I am a people’s Democratic Party (PDP) member.
Was your campaign against Ikedi Ohakim on corruption or bad governance?
To start with Ikedi Ohakim as a person is very arrogant. One of the greatest qualities of a good leader is humility. You have to be humble. You don’t become a governor and forget your party manifesto, constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. You don’t come and introduce your own template. There are processes that propel governance You don’t become a governor, senator or a leader or your own constitution. Ikedi Ohakim to a large extent was not a good governor, that was why he couldn’t make it for a second term. He was arrogant and boastful, etc.
Do you have a good relationship with the present Administration of governor Rochas Okorocha.
As an activist I don’t have a permanent enemy or a permanent friend. Even in my family, when I see things being done improperly, I react against it. I am like that, it is in born. Governor Rochas Okorocha is a combination of the good, the bad, the ugly and the magic.
It will be interesting to know the magical side of Governor Okorocha
it is very simple, he says things that he can’t do. He creates magic and behaves like an angel, that he is not. You build roads everywhere that the state don’t have money to finish those roads and you create impression that you can construct roads for the people is most welcome, but for God’s sake, do a quality road that can stands the test of time. It does not make sense doing roads that will pack up within six months.
How would you assess the free education in all levels of education as declared by the Imo State Government?
Naturally, I like his spirit. He has got this big spirit to work. I like the schools he is building but they are so massive, there is no money to complete the schools. I don’t like low quality roads. Roads are public project, you do this roads to stand the test of time. You don’t do roads for the sake of doing roads. Perhaps, he is laying foundation for the incoming administration, that will have these roads to construct in the future. I would love a situation where few roads are selected and constructed on a very high quality, that they can last longer.
What would you consider to be governor Okorocha’s greatest achievement so far? Is it the free education, road constructions or the numerous parks?
Even though the roads are of low quality, they are still better than nothing. The school blocks are still okay – plus cleaning of the markets.
Let’s look at the free education, that is making the governor both popular and unpopular
The language free education, sound good and wonderful. If there is free education in the real sense of free education, wonderful. If free education is a mixture of complaints everywhere, it becomes questionable. I don’t agree that the state government has the money to give free education at the primary secondary and university levels.
A lot of criticisms has trailed the free education in Imo-State, what do you think is wrong?
I have interviewed Some students in Imo State University on the issue of the free education some would say you have to pay this or that amount before you get the State government’s cheque. There is no free education as you can see, the free education is not a straight forward thing. The idea of free education is good but, the same students who are suppose to be enjoying the free education are complaining, so why are they complaining, if it is free in the real sense. There is a lot of confusion.
Why are you in court?
I am in court with Senator Hope Uzodinma over his degrees and certificates he claim to have,when he granted an interview to This Day and he said I Senator Hope Uzodinma went to Government Secondary School, Etche, I finished from there and went to Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and graduated from there and went to Washington University in America. As a Public officer, and a distinguished Senator I was expecting that whatever he is saying about himself should be the truth. So I told my lawyer to write these schools.
My lawyer wrote Government College Etche through the freedom of Information Act (FOI) The school didn’t waste time to reply that Sen. Hope Uzodinma attended Government Secondary School, Etche, between 1978 and left in 1981, at class three and didn’t sit for West African School Certificate (WASC). This is the same person, as a Senator he filled in his form CF 001 that he went to Mgidi Secondary School, Oru West Local Government Council of Imo – State, the same academic year 1981 – 82. How can a distinguished Senator representing my senatorial zone be lying?. We went to Government Secondary School Etche in River State, Nigeria, no certificate, he went to Mgidi Secondary School, the same academic year, I am questioning the claims of dropping out from Government College Etche, Rivers State and obtaining certificate from Mgidi Secondary school, Oru West Imo – State, same academic year.
I dragged him to court and I dragged WAEC to court. As I speak to you WAEC is yet to release the so called certificates Sen. Uzodinma is claiming to have, either from Government College Etche or from Mgidi Secondary School Imo – State. I want to use this medium to plead with WAEC to help us. WAEC will not lose anything, the senator will not lose anything, instead it will be in favour of the senator. If WAEC releases and complied with the Freedom of information Act (FOI) and for me as an ordinary person, if someone is a public officer and a Senator says he has certificate, and it is being challenged, the best is for WAEC to release the result. The day WAEC releases that certificates court matter will be over. On the issue of Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) they can’t tell me that they issued Ordinary National Diploma Certificate to anybody. It will be criminal on the part ofFederal University of Technology Owerri FUTO to say that, because FUTO was not established to run any programme on Ordinary National Diploma (OND). The University was not established abintio to run any programme on HND or OND. But you know we come from a society where institution wants to take over individual problems that is not their problem. Infact, FUTO, withholding those documents that are supposed to be released to me, compelled me to drag them to court. I don’t want to believe that FUTO is an institution where certificates are manufactured.
How does this certificate scandal concern your matrimonial affairs?
Senator Hope Uzodinma is my Senator. I want to be proud, that have a responsible and credible Senator. Also everyone from that Orlu zone, who is close to the senator know his up bringing and background will accept he ever got admitted into any University, not to talk of graduating from FUTO because we all knew him in his growing up days, As far as I am concernedSen. Hope Uzodinma is a secondary school dropout. He worked in a bakery in Lagos and also worked as a driver to Maurice and Goddy Ibekwe. He was also a driver to the Evuleocha family in Mbaise. None of these people will tell you that this man ever went to FUTO or any University. Why would a Senator who didn’t attend any University be lying?
On my marriage, I am a victim of Sen.Hope Uzodinma. I was married to a young woman I trained in the University. The lady finished from the University as a teenager, after which she did her youth service at my office in Lagos. She never worked or engaged in any business. She was in my house, I was taking very good care of her, Somehow we ran into Owelle Rochas Okorocha, and we started politics, then it was All Nigerians People Party (ANPP) that was how my wife Mrs. Ukachi Ekenulo joined politics, with my approval and my consent, I trusted her a hundred percent. The next thing my wife was HIV Positive. Before that time, I have been hearing that my wife is messing up with sen. Hope Uzodinma. You know of course if someone’s wife is messing up, her husband will be the last person to know. People will know and will be gossiping about it but you the husband will be the last person to know. Then I took my time and investigated and discovered that my wife was actually messing up with Hope Uzodinma.
After my investigation I discovered that something was actually going on and I discovered my wife was actually HIV Positive. She went to Advance Medical Centre Owerri and conducted a test and it was then she called me that she was HIV Positive. I said you have HIV she said yes, I said how come she said she doesn’t know I now told her to take the next available flight to Lagos and she did. Upon her arrival in Lagos, I took her to Havana Specialist Hospital Limited, Surelere, Lagos, and a test was conducted on both of us and she was positive and I was negative. I still didn’t believed it. We went to Lagos State Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and a test was conducted again on both of us and hers was positive and mine was negative. We now went to World Health Organization Centre, Yaba, for another test and it was the same thing. So gentlemen of the press it was then I now believed that she is HIV positive.
You know what I did? I wrote a letter to Sen. Hope Uzodinma I posted the letter to him with the results of the series of test conducted on both of us and told him to please leave her alone, that I have heard that he is messing up with my wife. But after that, do you know what happened? My wife moved out of her matrimonial home to Sen. Hope Uzodinma’s house in Abuja. You know Uzodinma has no wife, He divorced his wife since 1996 and since then he is yet to re-marry. My wife abandoned her kids and her marriage. What I heard was Sen. Uzodinma boasting all over the place that he wants to marry my wife, a woman with four children although a boy and a girl are dead, but two girls are still a life.
When I discovered all these, I complained to very close friends of Hope Uzodinma, people I thought are responsible and told them that my wife is HIV positive, you know the saying that bird of the same feather flock together, so they started saying all sort of things about me. One of them even told me that a man who is broke, if they collect his wife is it a bad thing? This person is not as rich as I am, he is not from the kind of family background I come from. I come from the family background that except God, nothing on earth can make me poor. Before I was born my parents were rich, my grandparents were wealthy.
Do you still love your ex-wife?
We are not talking about love here. It is not an issue of love, the issue here is this are people who are HIV positive, they are spreading it everywhere in high and low places. Sen. Hope Uzodinma is busy sleeping with all sorts of women, including married women and prostitutes. He destroyed the marriage of one time minister of petroleum and moved in with his wife, Ngozi. My ex-wife is also busy sleeping around.
When you say Hope Uzodinma sleeps with married women besides your wife, do you have other examples and proofs?
I have a lot of examples to give but I can’t talk about other people’s wives. I can talk of my wife because I have legal and moral authority to say what I am saying. I know of other women, infact one of them died either in 2012 or 2013 of HIV, a married woman. But I cannot begin to mention names.
You also accused Sen. Hope Uzodinma of Advance free fraud (419), what is your proof?
Sen. Hope Uzodinma is a well known 419 kingpin. The police knowns. Even the present Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) chairman will not pretend he doesn’t know that Hope Uzodinma is an advance free fraud kingpin. He is also involved in contract scam, he gets contracts, but he never executes those contracts. He was awarded the contract of Coco Shore line for about N3.1Billion. He abandoned the contract. Federal Government should tell Nigerians what happened and why that Niger Delta Development Commission contract awarded at the cost N3.1 billion to Hope Uzodinma’s company was abandoned.
Have you petitioned the senate on this allegations?
I have not done that, I have been waiting for the court, but since the court is taking so much time. I will write to the Senate on Sen. Uzodinma’s educational background. Let them investigate him properly.
Efforts to get Sen. Uzodinma’s response to the allegations proved difficult. Text sent to his Mobile Phones were not returned.
