Nigerians should hold Peter Obi accountable for Ezu River Mass Killings

By Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe, PhD

Let me begin by telling those Igbo ethnic bigots that I can only be vilified for what I write but not disputed for the facts. In fact, one memory verse I picked from my once favorite Christian devotional writer Selwyn Hugh in his monthly devotional booklet titled “Every Day With Jesus” during my High School days and, which has guided my footsteps since is, “When everybody is singing your praises, watch it, you might be going downhill.”

I am not a perfect man; neither do I claim to be a decent man as Peter Obi is said to be. I have my dark-sides like every other man or woman on earth. But one fact is undisputable and that is, my imperfection revolves round my principled stand on any matter of public interest and collective wellbeing of the people I represent.

I am Igbo by every ethnic definition and from Ibusa in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria.

My pedigree of principle is clearly defined among my people and I stand to be challenged by anybody from my town. I was invited by my village to assume the traditional mantle of Odogwu of Ibusa at a time I had no job, having being sacked from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka on the orders of the Federal Government.
When I complained then that I had no money, they insisted they were not interested in my money but my services.

When I warned them that they would later abandon me in the course of the struggle, since my opponent also an uncle from the same village, was backed by the Traditional ruler of the town, Obi (Prof) Louis Nwoboshi, who incidentally is my uncle also, the elders opted to take collective oath of commitment called “Iseli-Oji” prepared through ritualized kola-nut and gin.

Even those elders who do not take alcohol opted to use water in place of gin, just to assure me of their support. Tell me why I should not die for my people if the need arises?
I did my High School at Anglican Boys Grammar School, Akwukwu-Igbo in Delta State and, my classmates can attest to that. In my High School I was overwhelmingly elected the Senior Prefect by both the students and staff in line with the school’s tradition.

But the Housemaster Mr. Udema from Ubulu-Uku strongly opposed my election because as a Class Prefect, I refused to name the student who shouted his nickname “Avenger”, then his car, from the classroom one afternoon.

He then decided to give me a portion of his farm within the school compound to clear as punishment, which I refused and insisted my punishment must be school field. He eventually gave me a large portion of the football field, which my entire classmates joined me in clearing.

At the end, the Principal, Mr. S. O. Nzekwu insisted that I should be appointed the Deputy Senior Prefect and not Labour Prefect as Mr. Udema suggested.
Indeed, in my form four, the entire Form Five Students in the Boarding House protested that I should be expelled from the Boarding House for challenging the Senior Prefect for his highhandedness against junior students, which was against the tradition of previous Senior Prefects acting as their protectors against bullying.

The Principal punished the Senior Prefect and in reaction, his entire classmates revolted against me. It took the Senior Housemaster, Mr. Nduka from Ugbodu town, later Professor of Geography at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Asaba, to calm them down.
I was trained and worked briefly for four years as a Civil Aviation Air-Traffic Signals Technician at Enugu Airport Emene, Enugu and, during my absence I was elected Propaganda Secretary of Civil Service Technical Workers Union of Nigeria (CSWUN) Enugu Airport Branch at a very young age.

I left Aviation technical profession to study history at University of Nigeria, Nsukka willingly and not because I was not qualified to study engineering.
At University of Nigeria, Nsukka, right from my stage as an undergraduate, through my National Youth Service Corps primary assignment at the same University, to my stage as academic staff, I maintained that principle of struggles against injustice; and I stand to be challenged by anybody in University of Nigeria, Nsukka today. I threaded where my contemporaries feared to thread.
At a point, precisely in 1989, then as a Youth Corper, the entire students of University of Nigeria paradoxically banned me from entering the University for fifty years, for backing the then Students President, now Barrister Geo-Jackson Egbo from Enugu State in his opposition against the willful destruction of school property in the name of demonstrations.
Geo-Jackson Egbo, with my colleague then, now Barrister Obasi Igwe from Ebonyi State and, the Chief Security Officer of the University Sir Ken Ejeckem from Isulo, Anambra State, later to become the first Sergeant-at Arms of Anambra State House of Assembly, were beaten black and blue by student mobs. My own case was a clear death sentence, but I escaped by the whiskers by jumping from the fourth floor of Samuel Ladoke Akintola Hostel which left my pursuers awe-stricken.
Still in defense of justice at University of Nigeria, Nsukka, I was arrested and detained several times by the Police and SSS (DSS); charged to court five times and acquitted in all. Suspended five times from the university and recalled each time I was acquitted by the court. I was finally dismissed from the University on April 30, 1999, on the orders of the Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and later recalled nine years after under the President Olusegun Obasanjo by the Vice Chancellor Venerable (Prof) Chinedu Nebo, before going into my present exile.
In one of the episodes of my arrests, I was arrested together with such senior academics as Rev. Fr. Prof Onyenwuenyi of the Department of Philosophy, Mrs. V. Oguakwa of Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, and Prof B. Onyejekwe (Uncle B) of Department of Mechanical Engineering. We were transferred to State CID, Enugu, where they were detained at the open counter, while I was detained in the notorious Cell One.
They were released after four days, but I continued my sojourn in Cell One for the next three months, where I rose to become the Cell President, then known as Babangida of the Cell One. This particular case of subversion against the Nigerian State under General Sani Abacha was eventually killed with the timely intervention of my kinsman, Lt. Col. Emmanuel Nzekwue then Commander of the PT Department of 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu. Col. Nzekwue then the highest paratrooper-jumper in Africa popularly known as Animal-Power is currently Obi (Col) Emmanuel Enwelim Nzekwue, the Ozoma-Onya and Eze-Imanokwa of Ibusa.
Those who passed through me as my students starting from Humanities Department of the School of General Studies, through the Department of History and International Studies, to Institute of African Studies, can attest to this principle, and I challenge any of them to state otherwise publicly on the social media. Indeed, instead of demanding money from my students, those in need of financial or academic assistance came to me for assistance which I did in my own meager way. Students came to me begging that I should be their degree project supervisor and even those not assigned to me still came to me for advice and assistance.
As the Director of Centre for Igbo Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, I was the first academic staff in the University who, after the successful organization of an event, invited members of the Committee to my house and treated them with sumptuous meal with monetary rewards. I was the first and still the only academic staff of University of Nigeria, Nsukka who treated the students and staff of his Department to sumptuous meal. I repeated the same at the institute of African Studies.
I formed the Igbo People’s Congress (IPC) in Lagos State in 1999 after my dismissal from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for the sole objective of protecting Igbo ethnic interest in Lagos State against the frequent onslaughts by members of Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) led by Dr. Frederick Faseun and Aare Gani Adams. This was after I was mocked for being of the cowardly Igbo ethnic group by Chief Frank Ovie-Kokori, then General Secretary of NUPENG with whom I was serving as his Personal Adviser after his incarceration by General Sani Abacha. Senator Adams Oshionmole, then President of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is aware of this fact.
Through my memorandum of understanding with OPC under Dr. Frederick Faseun which required my associate membership of OPC, I eventually stabilized collective Igbo protection in Lagos State against OPC attacks and harassments. I created a forum where any Igbo resident of Lagos State with complaints of OPC harassment and attacks could come and make his report at Dr. Faseun’s Century Hotel, Okota, Lagos.
I settled the Eze Ndigbo Lagos State dispute between the now late Chief Hyacinth Ohazurike of Tokas Water from Ihiala, Anambra State and ,Chief Christian Chukwu of Obodoukwu, Imo State, before the Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs under Oba Oyekan II. Oba Oyekan asked for my views on the dispute which would be their official position; and I informed the Council that since the position of Eze Ndigbo Lagos carries no official political role or traditional roles in Lagos State, both men should be permitted to continue holding their courts respectively as Eze Ndigbo Lagos State, provided they did not engage in acts that could be considered inimical to the peace and security in Lagos State.
That was the official position of Lagos State Council of Obas and Chiefs till the recent demise of Eze Ohazurike. There was no sole Eze Ndigbo of Lagos State. Both men reigned concurrently, except that being wealthier than Eze Christian Nwachukwu with mostly Anambra people backing him, Eze Hyacinth Ohazurike seemed to have overshadowed Eze Nwachukwu. Eze Christian Nwachukwu is alive today. He can attest to this fact. Okwadike Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, then residing at Apapa, Lagos, Rear Admiral Godwin Ndubuisi Kanu both of who are dead now were aware, and indeed that was what brought us together. Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe and of course Joe Igbokwe are also aware of these facts.
Peter Obi was nowhere at those points in time. All these I did not in contest with Peter Obi with his billions of naira, but as a matter of principle that one must give out to those who deserve to be given whether in financial terms or by selfless services. It is a matter of principle which does not require any form of campaign or image laundering to prove. It does not require decency in public carriage but principle in sacrifice.
So the matter before us Nigerians currently, especially the Nigerian Christians, including my Igbo ethnic bigots, is not about decency in politics which Peter Obi cannot even prove substantially. It is about principle, which Peter Obi clearly lacks. If anybody wants to see how decent people look like, let such person go to the Roman Catholic Monastery at Awhum, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. Of course these are not the kind of people Nigerian Christians need presently to salvage the current ominous political and security situation in our country.
So Peter Obi’s pretentious carriage of political decency in paradoxical imitation of the Blessed Father Tansi can only deceive his gullible Igbo ethnic bigots. Decency without principle is like what we refer to in physics as scalar quantity—a physical quantity with magnitude but lacking in direction. In other words, Peter Obi and members of his Obidient Movement can display their fictitious magnitude but they lack defined direction in the context of the current state of political storms in Nigeria.
It is therefore absurd for anybody to think that Peter Obi is too sacrosanct to be criticized for his absurd activities which are inimical to the collective interests of Nigerian Christians under the protective garb of fictitious decency. What decency? If I may ask! Tell it to those who are blinded by his highfalutin rise to national prominence orchestrated by collective resistance of Nigerian Christians against the dangers of ridiculous Fulani political dominance and jihad.
Obidient Movement was not about Peter Obi as a person but the conscious desire for liberation from political bondage. How do we then explain the fact that the same Peter Obi created by this conscious desire to liberate our people from Fulani bondage, is bringing us back to the same bondage called political alliance with the same Fulani?
The point is that even a goat fixed in Peter Obi’s position at that point would have assumed the same emergent popularity. Maybe, if a goat was accidentally placed on the same political saddle as Peter Obi was, by now we would have Goati Movement and, not Obidient Movement. So Peter Obi would be hallucinating to think that his accidental popularity is all about his fictitious decency.
Most importantly, I wish to challenge any of those Igbo bigots vilifying me to prove my facts on Peter Obi wrong ipso facto and, not engaging in ethno-sentimental stupidity. Let any member of the Obedient Movement, those paid and unpaid prove that they supported and defended the course of Peter Obi’s 2023 Presidential ambition more than I did without any financial reward.
I have the right to criticize Peter Obi in the same manner I criticized his opponents through my writings more than any Igbo ethnic bigot during the 2023 Presidential election. I supported Peter Obi during the 2023 Presidential election because of the political exigencies of the time and not because of his acclaimed political decency.
Indeed when Asari Dokubo came calling Peter Obi as a political scam in 2023, none of these limbless members of Obidient Movements could raise a voice to challenge him. I alone did it, not because Asari Dokubo was not speaking the truth, but acting in the tradition of my people,which states that, at a point of exigency, you cover the shit with leaf to collect the Udala (Cherry). That was exactly what I did.
Peter Obi is only reveling in institutionalized ideological hypocrisy conceived by customary political lies incidental to Nigerian ethnic politics and, I am going to prove him and his credulous followers including the agnostics otherwise.
There is no denying the fact that Peter Obi is one man with a gift of mercurial political personality that often works to his greater personal advantage. His soft-sounding mosquito-like twitter voice often mistakes him as a man of sublime sincerity, noble character, pious religiosity, contrite heart and uncommon humility. But to those who had worked closely with him or closely followed his policies and strategy in politics, the contrast is the case.
In reality, he is a man of unequalled ruthlessness, subtle arrogance and self-infested demi-godism hidden under the cloak of political simplicity. And this readily explains why the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) died a natural death in Anambra State as soon as the party was handed over to him. It also explains why APGA did not feel his exit from the party in any manner as a former State Governor under the party. This again explains why Labour Party is in its present state of terminal illness.
Speaking of political decency, let us even begin with the recent past. Peter Obi is touted as having graduated from the Department of Philosophy, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Was it part of his decent personality that made him to present his secondary School certificate and his Harvard University short-term non-academic certificates to INEC for Presidential screening without presenting his degree from University of Nigeria, Nsukka?
If you speak of the most ruthless Southeast Governors ever elected in this fourth republic, after Peter Obi of Anambra State, comes Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, followed by Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State, then Chinwoke Mbadinuju of Anambra State. Neither Orji Uzor Kalu nor Hope Uzodinma killed or has killed the number of Igbo people slaughtered under Peter Obi as Governor of Anambra State. This explains why he carries no atom of conscience with respect to slaughtered Christians by Fulani jihadists when he engaged in donation sprays to Almajiri jihadists-in-training.
Orji Uzor Kalu during a visit to his Asokoro Abuja residence, just a stone-throw to Aso Villa, once narrated to me how President Olusegun Obasanjo summoned him to Aso Villa over petitions accusing him of killing his people. He informed me that when he arrived, Gen T. Y. Danjuma was already seated with President Olusegun Obasanjo. However, he insisted that he was not summoned by a Minister but by the President as a Governor and that Gen Danjuma should not be there. After a headed protest, Gen Danjuma had to leave.
He narrated to President Obasanjo how travellers were constantly menaced on Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway by armed robbers mostly from Aba axis and so he decided to act with precision. First, he used his connections to locate one of the armed robbers who eventually became his informant. Consequently, instead of just revealing their names for possible arrest, it was agreed to confront them in action. So his informant continued briefing him on daily basis on their operations, until the D-day when all the robbers were going for Highway operation. The informant provided the number of the vehicle, the time of their departure from Aba, and the point of their operation on the Highway.
Their modus operandi was that while some would often board the luxury bus as passengers, others would wait at the designated spot of operation where those inside would force the bus to a stop, while those in the bush would emerge and swoop on the bus and then jointly rob the passengers. On that very day, he informed his informant to put on a special cap for easy identification so that he would be spared in the course of the operation.
What Orji Uzor Kalu did was to tactically avoid relaying the information about the operation to the State Police Commissioner to avoid leakage. He then gathered a crack team of the Police from his escort team and instructed them to be fully armed for a special tour without still telling them their actual mission so that it would not be leaked. It was while on the way that he informed the commander of the squad their mission.
As they moved, he followed them from a distance in a tinted private car directing the operation through the commander. He watched from close distance how the bus was accosted and before the robbers could carry out their operation, the security swooped on them and eliminating every one of them while sparing only the informant.
The success of the operation without official Police participation did not go down well with the Abia State Commissioner of Police, hence the flurry of petitions to the President. From that moment till the end of his term, there was relative peace along Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. According to him, after narrating his case, President Obasanjo gave him a handshake and said “you’re a Man.”
Now let us compare the Oji Uzor Kalu killing operation with the 2013 Ezu massacre of 50 hefty Biafran Igbo agitators on the instruction of Governor Peter Obi and, dumped in Ezu River separating Anambra State and Enugu State. The corpses were later discovered awfully floating on the river one morning.
Just about three weeks ago, the Deputy President General of Ohaneze Ndigbo Okechukwu Isiguzoro, demanded for full investigation into Peter Obi’s role in the said heinous 2013 mass killings of 50 Igbo youth. In a statement made available to the press, Isiguzoro stated:
“For over a decade, there has been a conspicuous silence surrounding the events that transpired during your tenure, Mr. Obi. Ohanaeze Ndigbo firmly asserts that your repeated avoidance of private discussions and inquiries on six separate occasions, dedicated to elucidating your role in this tragic narrative, is untenable. The families of the victims and the global community deserve to know the truth. Therefore, we demand immediate clarification from you, not only as a matter of public interest but as an ethical imperative. The suspicions surrounding your complicity in these egregious acts must be addressed with the urgency and seriousness they unequivocally warrant.”
But it was the statement made in the respect of the killings by the notorious commander of the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) Unit at Awkuzu, Chief Superintendent of Police James Nwafor that eventually laid bare Peter Obi’s complicity in the killings. In his statement, CSP Nwafor wrote:
“Obi called me around 11:30 pm in the night on that fateful Thursday and requested for my immediate presence at the governor’s lodge Amawbia, but I told him I’m in Abuja for two days security summit organized by the then-national security adviser, so he said I should send my second in command that there is an operation we must carry out that night, he was smart not to mention it on the phone but I insisted he brief me to enable me to know the kind of men to select, so he had to cut the phone and called back with another line (not his mainline) and he told me we need to terminate selected ‘Biafran agitators’ before they kill his administration in Anambra. I quickly suggested to him, why killing them why not arrest them and prosecute them through the court but Obi said no that he is convinced that Sir Emeka Offor and Engr. Arthur Eze is secretly sponsoring them and will go and take them on bail and still use them against his administraton therefore they should be killed.”
Ironically, the only defense presented by Peter Obi in respect of the massacre was a statement made by him in his X (Twitter) account: https://x.com/PeterObi/status/1312670655628947456 4:27 PM • Oct 4, 2020, when he stated, “When the Ezu River issue came up, I had to cut short my foreign trip, returned home and did the needful, including directives that autopsy be carried out as part of a full investigation.”
Regrettably, neither the result of the autopsy nor the outcome of Peter Obi’s full investigation is known to any quarter in Anambra State till date. At least a well-acclaimed decent man should have since his vacation of office as Anambra State Governor properly stated his actual role in the killings and the result of his State’s investigation. What then is decency about Peter Obi in this notorious matter of Ezu River killing of 50 young Igbo men?
It needs to be further pointed out that much of what today constitute the highly-prized infrastructural developments in Anambra State, particularly as defined by the admirable network of roads, which Peter Obi tends to lay credence to his perceived good and quality political leadership, were indeed conceived, created and institutionalized by Dr. Chris Ngige and, further advanced by Dame Elizabeth Etiaba.
Peter Obi’s subtle clannish mentality and sublime political arrogance coloured in sectarian bigotry created more political gulfs among the people of Anambra State and the wider Igbo community than the presumptuous unity he claims to represent. To state the obvious: In the 2011 Senatorial election in Anambra State, he canonically relieved Dr. Nwangwu of his popular mandate as the consensus APGA candidate for Anambra Central Senatorial contest and forcibly imposed his Agulu relative, the late Professor Dora Akunyili, who was married to a Nanka man and was at that point a card-carrying member of PDP. Was this what political decency is all about, to those who call Peter Obi a decent man?
At the same time, still displaying his iniquitous clannish bigotry, Peter Obi went further to impose another Agulu relative of his, Senator Joy Emordi, a serving PDP Senator married to an Onitsha man, on APGA members of Anambra North Senatorial District as their Senatorial candidate. Was this also the act of a decent man?
As Providence would have it, Senator Joy Emordi was soundly and roundly beaten by the PDP candidate Senator John Emeka Okey; while former Governor Chris Nwabueze Ngige of the unknown Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) proved his popularity over Peter Obi by beating Prof Dora Akunyili of APGA. Senator Andy Uba equally won Anambra South Senatorial District under the platform of PDP. So Peter Obi as the Governor of Anambra State did not produce a single Senator under his party APGA, even with his demi-god mentality in the party.
Indeed Peter Obi was able to institutionalize his demi-god mentality through the tactical edging out of Chief Chekwas Okorie, the founder and first National Chairman of APGA and the subsequent imposition of his Agulu kinsman Chief Victor Umeh from Aguluuzoigbo as the National Chairman of the Party. Was this also the act of a decent man?
With this presumptuous carriage of a demi-god status clothed in naughty pomposity, Peter Obi defiantly ignored the popular choice of the people of Anambra North Senatorial District for his successor-APGA gubernatorial candidate and imposed Chief Willy Obiano on the people.
The Anambra North Elders Committee chaired by the respected Obi of Onitsha, Agbogidi Nnaemeka Achebe selected Dr. Chike Obidigbo of Umunya as the consensus candidate of APGA. But Peter out rightly rejected him on the ground that he wanted a Roman Catholic to succeed him and Dr. Obidigbo being an Anglican was not qualified to succeed him. Was this equally the act of a decent man?
It is on record that during his tenure as Governor, Peter Obi’s devious strategy of pro-Roman Catholic political carriage was characterized by subtle presentation of himself as the champion of Roman Catholic liberation from perceived Protestant political domination in Anambra State. That action created the current denominational dichotomy in Anambra State between Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Was that an action of a decent man?
Peter Obi was the only Governor of the present Anambra State who constantly and exclusively featured in the annual Roman Catholic Harvest and Bazaar activities and other related Church functions in several communities without reference to the multi-denominational character of the State. Was this how a decent man should act as the Governor of such a multi-denominational State as Anambra?
After decamping to PDP from APGA that made him politically, Peter Obi not only singularly appropriated the Structure of the party in Anambra State, but used the same to impose his erstwhile Secretary to the State Government, Eseoloka Obaze as the PDP flag-bearer in the November 2017 governorship election. The outcome was a total Waterloo for him, as the people of Anambra State rejected both him as Peter Obi and his new political party. Again, did such act define a decent man?
In the same 2017, Peter Obi donated a large expanse of land in his Agulu hometown for the construction of an ultra-modern Muslim Centre and Mosque in exchange for his Vice Presidential candidature under a Fulani Presidential candidature in the coming 2019 Presidential election. Although that Islamic project was kept in abeyance following widespread protests, that tract of land still belongs to the Islamic Empire of Sokoto Caliphate. Was that equally part of the orchestrated accolade of a decent man too?
This is the same Peter Obi we have today parading as the political messiah of Nigeria and described with virile audacity as a decent man. Well, let it be taken as my Ibusa people often say, that, “a man who was not present when a dead body was buried would often exhume it from the legs.” For those of us who were present when the dead body was buried, we can only but exhume it from the head. This is exactly I have set out to do. Those who were not present when the dead body was buried can only exhume it from the legs. This is exactly what those referring to Peter Obi as a decent man are currently doing.
In conclusion, let us remember that every single Christian murdered by Fulani jihadists means not only a minus-one Christian vote in any Presidential election, but the end of a future generation of Christians yet unborn. So the ambition of one man called Peter Obi should not override the quest for the collective security of Nigerian Christians.