Leader of Aniocha North Legislative Arm Responds to Allegations of Assault

The Leader of Aniocha North legislative Arm, Hon. Ekene Nwaonye on Saturday granted an interview with selected online journalists in his house at Issele-uku, where he responded to the allegations of Assault published in an online Newspaper – Hardreporters.

THE INTERVIEW:

Good morning Hon. Leader. We heard this report that on Thursday, February 8, 2018 at the Aniocha North Local Government Council, you allegedly assaulted the Clerk of the Legislative Arm where you are the Leader and that after beating her up you snatched the mace from her and absconded with it. Can you please respond to this allegation sir?

LEADER: You don’t expect the Leader and members of the Legislative Arm of Aniocha North Local Government to abrogate their functions which the people of Aniocha North voted them to do, in the hands of a callous and wicked Clerk who ab-initio has been detailed to frustrate members of the Legislative Arm.

Sponsoring bad press messages or using a section of the press against the people of Aniocha North by Hon. Oseme will not help him or our Government.

Don’t forget we all have all it takes to sponsor bad press against him as a person and his office as the Executive Chairman of the local government.

How can you juxtapose a situation where as a Legislative Arm, you direct a Clerk to arrange for a sitting of the House and she flouts the instruction.

She has done it on two occasions and we allowed it, just for peace to reign.

Just last Wednesday again, she was directed to arrange and prepare for the sitting of the Legislative Arm for 8:00am on Thursday, even though she questioned the rationale behind our sitting that day, she was however briefed.  On that Thursday, all the fourteen (14) Councillors were seated at the Chambers, as arranged by 8:00am, but we could not sit until after 10:00am, because she came late with her husband, who is not our staff, carrying the mace of the Legislative Arm of the Aniocha North. And you expect us to continue like that? Even at that, we allowed her. We were elected by the people of Aniocha North and not the Clerk and her husband alone.

So, what we did after the sitting, in-line with the collective decision of the 14 councillors, which included the Deputy Leader, Hon kidochukwu Offor, the Majority Leader,  Hon. Ekene Eziunor and the Chief Whip, Hon. Uche Chiejine, we directed the Sergeant-At-Arms to at all times leave the mace in the Leader’s office, whereby, instructions and directives in respect to the movement of the mace, which you know is the symbol of Authority of the House, will always be given to him by the Leader.

About 10 minutes after the directive was given to the Sergeant-At-Arms, the Clerk barged into my office where we were meeting and went straight to the mace. It was at this point that the councilors who were taken aback by the rude interruption of the Clerk, tried to force her to drop the mace, before I stepped in and dragged the mace out of her hand. She indeed flared up, called us unprintable names and boasted that so long as she remains the Clerk, that she will frustrate our agenda of working against the Chairman of the Council. My colleagues were about to actually beat her up, but I calmed them down and collected  the mace, put it in my car, came back to my office where we concluded our meeting before I left for Oleh for a meeting of Leaders of Legislative Arm that day.

I did not abscond or run away with the mace, it is my symbol of Authority and I have the moral and legal right to safeguard it for the overall interest of the people of Aniocha North.

So the Chairman of the Council, Hon. Chuks Oseme now telling a section of the press that I beat up the Clerk and tore her clothes is unfortunate. Thank God, the Legislative staff were all around when the incident happened, because as the Executive Chairman, will he allow a disgruntled element to abrogate his function as the Executive Chairman of the Council?

With due respect, Hon. Oseme should brace up towards giving the people of Aniocha North good governance and stop behaving like a child, it will not help him and the Local Government.

Ok, recall that we were inaugurated through a letter he sent to the Legislative Arm, proclaiming the House, but he said he did not author the letter and our amiable and peace loving Governor, His Excellency, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and the able State Chairman of our great Party, PDP, Barr. Kingsley Esiso directed that the inauguration should be repeated with a view for Hon. Oseme to doing the needful. We all agreed to the directives.

We were at the local government council by 11:00am that faithful day which was the time given to us, but Oseme and this same Clerk refused to come until the intervention of the police commissioner through his DPO in Issele-Uku; Oseme with the Clerk showed up at about 2:00pm and he inaugurated us, yet he is still telling the press that he did not inaugurate us, that the Hon. Member representing Aniocha North, Hon. Engr. Nwaobi and Chief Dan Okenyi did the inauguration, not forgetting that the Delta State Government, the State Party Chairman and the various security Agencies as well as the media sent their representatives to monitor the ceremony.

Sponsoring all kinds of negative stories in the press against the Hon. Member will not help him. What he refused to know is that, Hon. Nwaobi remains a delight to the members of the Media in Delta State, for his focused and unprecedented attraction of developmental projects to Aniocha North and can afford to sponsor massive negative stories against him too.

He has more than enough negative and damaging stories that can pull Oseme down, but he is too busy, passionately achieving his mandate to the people of Aniocha North, not given to sponsoring of negative stories against any constituent.

Honestly, I expect Oseme to emulate this young and charismatic man to work for the progress of the younger generation of this local government area, instead of joining forces with retrogressive elements that have held this area hostage for too long.

See my brother, he is the Executive Chairman of the Local Government, he should work towards enduring peace and progress of this Local Government Area; we cannot progress in an atmosphere of rancour.

Now, do you know that the first official assignment of Hon. Oseme on assumption of office was to collect the two official buses allocated to the Union in the Council and you expect the workers or the Union to help him achieve his goal for the people of the area?

He is sponsoring sensational banner headlines in the media, calling his local government area and well-meaning personalities who helped him to power, all kinds of negative names in the media. And the whole world is seeing Aniocha North as crises ridden, where as you can see, that peace is prevailing and he is the one instigating crises. Are you not aware that Hon. Oseme has refused to release the official car and the bus meant for the Legislative Arm? Is he not the one heating up the polity?

Anyway, go back to him and tell him that we are giving him up till Tuesday, February 13, 2018 to hand over the various official vehicles to the Union and the ones for the Legislative Arm to them, with a view not to cause unnecessary crisis in the Local Government.

As I speak to you, he is using about five official vehicles, and the Legislative Arm of the same Government has none. Can you see how he is preparing the local government for war? My brother, we are more than ever ready to protect the mandate given to us by the good people of Aniocha North. No Clerk or husband to any Clerk or any other disgruntled element can prevent us.