RAYMOND OZOJI reports
Anambra state commissioner for Youth Development and Sports, Hon. Chief Patrick Aghadinuno Mba has stated without equivocation that the allegations of financial fraud levelled against Hon. Tony Nweze Nwora ex-chairman of Onitsha-North LGA and Hon. Emeka Joseph Orji ex-chairman of Onitsha-South LGA are false, describing the allegations as calculated attempts to tarnish their images and ruin their reputations.
Mba who spoke to journalists at Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe's palace during the 24th edition of his Ofala festival, said that the aforementioned duo served their respective council areas with diligence and rendered quality services to the people. He maintained that they are innocent of the allegations because they both have no skeletons in their cupboards having served the people meritoriously.
It would be recalled that the immediate past chairman of Onitsha-North Local Government Area, Hon. Chief Tony Nweze Nwora, who is also candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for Onitsha-North and South Federal Constituency election next year, was invited by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for alleged financial improprieties while his Onitsha-South counterpart, Hon. Emeka Joseph Orji, was captured in a viral online video being booed out of the local government secretariat for alleged maladministration and bad governance.
But Mba held that the allegations were mere campaigns of calumny because it is the political season and people could go to any lengths to pull any person down. He was of the opinion that the ICPC is an organisation constituted by law to ensure that public funds were deployed properly, stressing that everybody is entitled to visit the ICPC, if invited.
He therefore stressed that Nwora's invitation by the ICPC was not for criminal reasons. That anybody occupying or has occupied public office must be invited by the ICPC or EFCC for questioning, emphasizing that Tony Nwora is innocent of the allegations and was not found culpable by the ICPC.
On the Onitsha-South ex-chairman saga, he said it is traditional with election seasons for political opponents to sponsor content creators and social media influencers to run down their perceived opponents. He maintained that the Onitsha-South immediate past chairman Hon. Emeka Joseph Orji served the people accountably.
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