Chief Frank Ojiakor’s Pyrrhic Victory At Nkwerre Judicial Division Over Ogwuaga Abba Town Union Leadership & The Untold Story 

NJOKU MACDONALD OBINNA 

Having watched the height of ignorance in jubiliation flagrantly displayed by a number of uninformed young men, blind supporters and obviously tired Umunneato kinsmen of Chief Frank Ojiakor, who trekked from Abba to Owerre Nkworji to witness and eventually celebrate a rather pyrrhic victory of a Court judgement pronounced by His Lordship, Hon. Justice E.N. Eke of the Imo State High Court at the Nkwerre Judicial Division in favour of Chief Francis Ojiakor, I can only say that “laughter in the midst of tragedy can never be really funny”. 

Regrettably, the rented crowd, who were jumping up and down while some had already declared free drinks for Ogwuaga Abba youths; Hero, Life lager beer, Star, 33, etc,  did not know the name of the Presiding Judge or the territorial jurisdiction, pecuniary jurisdiction and jurisdiction with respect to the subject matter of the case. Chief Frank was also not ‘frank  enough’  to tell his supporters, who were basking in the euphoria of a  temporary victory that the matter is subject to be challenged at a superior Court through strong appeal given the lacuna inadvertently created in his claims as the substantive President General of Ogwuaga Abba United Front, OAUF, instead of the Ogwuaga Abba Interim Committee Chairman appointed  with a mandate to draw up the guidelines and modalities on how to conduct elections for the Executives of Ogwuaga Abba United Front, as the town union leadership is known.

For all intents and purposes, Chief Frank Ojiakor’s interim committee, by design and formation, was only meant to be a forerunner to the incoming Executives of Ogwuaga Abba Town Union. Just as John the Baptist was anointed to pave a way for Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah and Deliverer of the Israeli test (Isaiah 40:1-11, Mark 1:1-18).

Granted that he is a respected community leader and academic of repute, whose words must always  match with his actions, Chief Frank Ojiakor as the interim committee chairman appointed by Ogwuaga Abba leaders with a core mandate to conduct and supervise the elections for the new Executives of Ogwuaga Abba Town Union was supposed to have given  notice to all the aspirants jostling for the various vacant positions to declare their interests at least for 31 days. 

Ironically, he “maradonically” ended up with mere 4 days notice in a hurry, after which he nominated himself and handpicked his loyalists to fill up all the positions. The next was a hurriedly conducted election, which majority of Ogwuaga Abba people boycotted since it was allegedly shredded in secrecy with a hidden agenda of self-sucession;  just like Nigeria’s most notorious Military President, the late Gen. Sani Abacha,  who removed his ‘Army Khaki’ to wear Civilian Agbada as a democratically elected President. 

Known for his notoriety for always wanting to be heard and seen as being  in charge, he however, attempted to succeed himself and almost succeeded himself against the wishes and aspirations of the majority of Ogwuaga Abba people until God stopped his  dangerous moves as Nwangele Interim Management Committee (IMC) under the Chairmanship of Hon.Chief Cosmos Iwuogo, acting on the instructions of the Imo State Government, swore in all the President-Generals of Town Unions in which Ogwuaga Abba Autonomous Community produced a former Transition Committee Chairman of Nwangele LGA and Imo Commissioner for Special Duties, Trade and Investment, Chief Bona Akwiwu, as the duly recognized consensus President General of Ogwuaga Abba Autonomous Community.

As expected, Chief Frank Ojiakor, who is one of the avowed supporters and promoters of the ezeship ambition of Chief Okezie Akwiwu, kid-brother of Nze Obinna Akwiwu (Oshimiri lll of Abba), resorted to the Nkwerre Judicial Divison to challenge and possibly upturn the inauguration of Bona Akwiwu as the substantive President General of Ogwuaga Abba Town Union.

THE UNTOLD STORY: 

Given the expiration of his four-year administration as President General of Ogwuaga Abba United Front in 2019,  Chief Azubike Akwiwu (Omemma of Abba) heeding to the suggestion  of Chief Johnbosco Ozigbu, PhD, in a Town Hall leadership meeting at the Ike Ozigbu Hall to appoint an interim committee that shall be running the affairs of the OAUF pending when there is a substantive Executive through the ballot box.

Following the above, On 31st December, 2019, the leadership of Ogwuaga Abba Autonomous Community in their wisdom, unanimously constitued an Interim Committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Frank Ojiakor from Ukwu Ubemgba, Mr. Uchegod Ubechu from Uriabia as Vice Chairman, Mr. George Ekegbu from Amato as Secretary, Chief Ralph Okoroha from Dim Agu as member and Chief Ferdinand Ikeata from Mbara Uhuala as member;  with a clear mandate to draw up  guidelines and modalities on how to conduct a free, fair and credible election which would produce a substantive executive of the Town Union and a timeline of  Easter- April, 2020, was  given to the committee to submit their report.

Unfortunately, the Frank Ojiakor led Ogwuaga Abba Town Union Interim Committee failed in this assignment as they did not meet up with the time frame or deadline of April 2020, to conduct the election. And since nature abhors vacuum especially, with the growing concerns of insecurity in some part of the state, which the State Government mandated the various traditional rulers and their towns Unions’ President-Generals to be in charge of the community policing, directing all Interim Management Committee Council  chairmen to inaugurate the President- Generals unanimously presented by their various autonomous communities as  His Royal Highness, Eze Godwin Ndubueze Ejiogu (Kara of Umunakara) headed Nwangele LGA Advisory Committee for the selection of Town Union President Generals with Eze Boniface Uzomah Onunenyi (Ekiti ll of Ekitiafor Abba) and Prince Ferdinand  Akano are members of the 3-Man Delegation. Ogwuaga Abba leaders, having known the track record and political trajectory of Chief Bona Akwiwu, nominated him for the position and he was inaugurated on 6th April 2021, but the devil’s advocate and his cohorts objected his choice as it did not go down well with them because of a premeditated plan to install their choice -candidate as the Ohamadike ll of Ogwuaga Abba.

What did they do? Scheming startegy as usual. They went ahead and conducted their kangaroo election that produced Chief Frank Ojiakor as President General  after the entire Ogwuaga Abba Autonomous Community had already presented a consensus candidate that had been inaugurated in his capacity as the duly recognized President General of the Town Union, recognized by Ogwuaga Abba people, recognized by Nwangele LGA and gazetted in the State Government’s records for officialdom.

As Ogwuaga Abba leaders expressed their concerns in the following words:

✓ What is the time frame between resignation and elections?
 ✓ where and how is the PG position zoned? 

✓ What is the notice for the declaration of interest and campaign period?

✓ Why reduce it to 12 days instead of the 31 days time frame?

✓ How are contestants vetted, screened and identified? Any nomination forms sold for the elections?

It is obvious that he threw caution to the winds as he broke the established modalities and guidelines unanimously  put up by the leadership of Ogwuaga Abba United Front to guide his interim committee in midwifying the elections that would eventually produce the income Executives. Where is their report? Instead, he hurriedly threw  himself up for election using a temporary interim committee mandate given to him by Ogwuaga Abba as a vehicle to ascend to his aspired President General position of this strategic community in Nwangele LGA, Imo State.

However, disturbing questions that sane minds should be asking about all this socio-political melodrama and brouhaha over Ogwuaga Abba Town Union leadership jigsaw are:

✓ Are there oil companies in Ogwuaga Abba?

✓ Are their gold, diamonds or other natural deposits in that community?

✓ Why all these fights?

The answer is very simple! They wanted to use the Ogwuaga Abba Town Union leadership to get at Nze Nwachinaemere, Oshimiri lll of Abba, Nze Oshimiri Ukege, and possibly frustrate his already ordained and sanctioned Ezeship enthronement as the worthy successor of the late HRH, Eze Justice G.G.I. Ojiako (Rtd, KSM, CON ) (Ohamadike l of Ogwuaga Abba). And some people had already made themselves available as willing tools for the following reasons; inter alia. 

1. To play a spoiler game as to keep the community in the dark age of communal clash.

2. To further deepen the divison already created by ‘umunnadi’  in the respected and celebrated Akwiwu Dynasty. 

3. To further keep receiving gratifications from their sponsors especially, the innocent man, whose interest they claim to be protecting.

Nevertheless, while the judgement favoured Chief Frank Ojiakor given the narrative and his line of argument, which was dangerously and allegedly twisted before the Honourable Court, the good news remains that the truth, established evidence and affidavits contained in the case file of the defendants, have shown a number of discrepancies and lacuna that must be challenged as the mischievous claims made by the plantiff  or complainant, Chief Frank Ojiakor, has given grounds for the defendants, Chief Bona Akwiwu, his legal team and Ogwuaga Abba leaders involved in the case, to ask for a stay of execution as they head to the Appeal Court to challenge the judgement of the Imo State High Court delivered at the Nkwerre Judicial Divison by  His Lordship, Hon. Justice E.N. Eke.

To the ‘data boys’ and ‘little minds’, who do not even understand Court proceedings but are always in a hurry to announce Court judgement on the social media, it is not yet uhuru as you cannot fight a man with the mandate of his people to stablize the community rather than one who is known for creating  controversies just like the proverbial “devil that fishes in troubled waters.” 

– Njoku Macdonald Obinna, 
Media Consultant, Peace Advocate| PR-Expert, 

Publisher, 4th Estate Reporters.