The Citizens Centre for Democracy Awareness (CCDA) has drawn the attention of opposition lawmakers to the antics of Ikenga Ugochinyere, the member-elect for Ideato South and North federal consistency of Imo State.
In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Dr. Emmanuel Ani, the Centre described Ugochinyere as a serial scam artist who has taken his mischievous craft to the House of Representatives.
The Centre gave this warning following Ugochinyere’s pronouncement that 63 opposition members-elect had endorsed Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu for Speaker and Deputy of the 10th National Assembly.
Dr Ani said Ugochinyere has over the years demonstrated questionable character, with a penchant for deception and blackmail, especially under the guise of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).
According to him, not only is Ugochinyere a threat to the National Assembly and everything the legislature represents but also to the nation’s democracy.
“Ugochinyere’s claim of the endorsement of Mr. Tajudeen Abass for the Speakership of the House of Representatives by a so-called 62 members-elect under his control is a sad development knowing fully well that Ugochinyere has no other person in his phantom ‘group’. It is for this reason that members-elect of the opposition political parties must distance themselves from his fraudulent claims,” Dr. Ani said.
“We sound this alarm because of the extreme measures that Ugochinyere has been known to adopt in pursuing any agenda he sets his mind on. He has in the past fabricated stories to tarnish public officeholders to extort them and even went as far as staging attacks on his own home before the elections to win sympathy votes. So, the extent he will go to prove the phantom endorsement should leave the opposition members-elect fearing for their lives.
“In addition, any member-elect worth the votes of their constituents will urgently disown Ugochinyere, a terrorist sympathizer and supporter of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), who is using their purported endorsement of Abbas and Kalu as a test case for how he will use the House to buy legitimacy for the terrorists that have decimated the southeast of the country.”
The Citizens Centre for Democracy Awareness, therefore, warned Ugochinyere to stop using the name of the opposition to broker his deceitful deals in the country.
“He must respect the fact that the members-elect whose reputation he is tarnishing are the representatives of other constituencies who should not be distracted from the errand their constituents sent them. We demand, on this note, that he should keep his scam and pro-terrorist ideology out of the National Assembly,” Ani warned.
“While we urge the relevant law enforcement agencies to keep Ikenga Ugochinyere under close watch because of the threat he has demonstrated himself to pose to democracy in Nigeria; we appeal to the people of Ideato South and North federal consistency to begin perfecting the process of beginning the recall of Ugochinyere from the very day he is inaugurated because he has already demonstrated he is not going to the National Assembly to represent them.”