By Patrick Ochei
The former PDP Woman Leader in Ward 4, Onicha-Olona, Aniocha North LGA of Delta State, Madam Rose Okonkwo a.k.a Lady B has alleged that her life was being threatened by a PDP stalwart from Onicha-Olona and current Chairman of Delta State Waste Management Board, Mr. Emma Bazim Chinye for refusing to continue to do anti party with him in Accord Party against the PDP.
The woman who claimed to have been in PDP right from inception said that Emma Chinye openly declared her an enemy for refusing to attend Accord Party meetings which was his (Emma Chinye’s) idea to drag them into his political antagonism against Hon. Emeka Nwaobi.
She said the night after the threat, a group of 7 boys came heating on her house door, compelling her to open and later left after several efforts to force themselves in. She said she also escaped from the house to seek refuge elsewhere.
Narrating her ordeal in the hand of the alleged political terror, Lady B said, “We were drafted into Accord Party by Emma Chinye being one of the leaders here in PDP ward 4. We started regarding him as one of our leaders when he returned to PDP and was appointed a Commissioner.
“He told us to be holding meetings under Accord Party to work for Fidel Onwodi, the Accord Party Candidate against Hon. Emeka Nwaobi, the PDP Party Candidate for Delta State House of Assembly. We obeyed and we were holding the meetings. But recently, my conscience started troubling me after our Party the PDP had warned everybody against anti party and insisted on 5/5 support for all the party’s candidates at several campaign rallies. I started thinking of the years and efforts I had put in, working as a politician in the PDP and now I would just lose everything because I want to continue to obey one Leader. While I was pondering over this, Hon Nwaobi approached me and appealed to me to come back to PDP to support all the PDP Candidates, emphasising that it is PDP 5/5 as against the lies Emma Chinye had told us that Governor said we should vote “Accord Party” in the House Of Assembly position.
“So I stopped attending the meetings. One day, one Ndidi Azuh called me to ask why I stopped attending Accord meetings. I told her I was no longer interested, that I wanted to work for my Party all the way and not spoil my chances of becoming somebody in the party tomorrow. She asked if anybody offended me, I said No. One Madam Theresa, we know her as ‘Kpakpando’ also called me and I gave her same response.
“Not too long after my conversation with Ndidi Azuh and Kpakpando, Emma Chinye called, repeating the same questions. I asked him if he was no longer a PDP member, he said he was a PDP member but he is working for Fidel Onwodi in Accord Party and that he wants us to work against Hon. Nwaobi. I told him well, I am no longer interested in doing anti party, that I want to work for all the candidates of PDP. He then started threatening me, saying that I have now become his enemy, that henceforth he does not want to see me anywhere close to him, that he was going to deal with me. He said I would know that he is Emma Chinye.
“I did not take the threat seriously until some boys came to my house at night, trying to force their way in when I refused to open the door. I later escaped to another location where I passed the night.
“I have made up my mind to work for PDP all the way, I don’t care anymore what he does. I have been a Woman Leader in PDP, I am known as a mobilizer. But recently we have been organising meetings, me and one Uju Chiazor who also left Emma Chinye’s camp. And each time we called meetings, Emma Chinye tries to stop it by telling people not to attend.
“But as a typical grassroots mobilizer that we are, we used the town crier and other means to gather crowd yesterday when Hon. Nwaobi and other party leaders came to see us in Onicha-Olona. Even when Emma Chinye used his boys to chase many back, most of them ignored him and attended the meeting. We had well over 300 persons in attendance.
“Thank God the Director General of the PDP State Campaign Council, Rt. Hon. Funkekeme Solomon and State Woman Leader, Mrs. Kanwuli are in the know of what transpired yesterday in Onicha-Olona. They called me and I explained what happened. They have asked me to continue to support my Party and all the candidates and not to be afraid. They told me to call them when I have any challenge again.
I can tell you that PDP is getting stronger in Onicha-Olona by the day because we are committed to pulling our people from Accord Party back to PDP, she narrated.
However, responding to Lady B’s accusation via telephone conversation, Mr. Emma Chinye denied ever threatening her life, adding that he cannot be blackmailed.
According to Chinye, “The accusation is laughable. I cannot even threaten a man’s life let alone a woman, and not just a woman but my Woman Leader. She is a woman that is my Woman Leader in my ward and in the pressure group that I belong to, so how can I threaten her life? Is it me that owns life? It’s God that owns life. Nobody can take anybody’s life, that is number one.
“Secondly, she is an adult, nobody is a baby, everybody has a right to whatever he or she wants to do. If she has not been doing PDP, that is her own problem, me I’m a PDP man. I don’t know what she is saying about 4/5, I can have personal issues with anybody, any candidate whatsoever, even in my Party. I can have issues with you. The candidate is not who we are voting for, we are voting for party. I am a PDP person. So if I am voting, I am voting for PDP and not for that candidate. Had it been that the ballot paper has that candidate’s name, ehen, I can say I am not voting for that candidate, may be Nwaobi for instance that we are talking about. I can say this name Nwaobi I don’t like him and I am not voting for him o, but unfortunately, the ballot paper has the party’s name and not Nwaobi.
“You know people are just being ungrateful, when you have helped people they turn back to stab you. For people like us, blackmail does not change our opinion. If you call me in any form that you want to blackmail me, that one na you sabi. It will even make someone like me stronger. You can say Emma Chinye did this or that, it doesn’t concern me so far I know what I am doing. Thank you”, he said.
When contacted to give his view in all of this, the member representing Aniocha North Constituency in Delta State House of Assembly and PDP candidate for the State House of Assembly election, Hon. Engr. Emeka Emmanuel Nwaobi said he was still surprised that a PDP Faithful of Emma Chinye’s calibre could still be playing an old game as anti party.
He said there was no significant dispute between him and Emma Chinye, except that he pitched camp with his opponent during the primary election, which he affirmed was normal.
Explaining further, he said, “During the primary, the 11 of us who contested came together and agreed that the primary would go peacefully and that anybody who emerges should be supported by others in the interest of the Party. We went into the election and I won.
“It’s on record that Fidel Onwodi was the first aspirant amongst us to have walked up to me to congratulate me on that day in the field. The same Fidel Onwodi was the person Emma Chinye and others asked to move to Accord Party to challenge me in the general election, which is against our party’s rules and guidelines. This is outright anti party. And why is he forcing his agenda with impunity on our party members who want to willingly support me?
“Honestly, I don’t have anything against Emma Chinye, he is my brother and fellow party man. But he should have a rethink as a party member, and work to support PDP 5/5. I had engaged him and will keep engaging him as a Candidate of the Party who needs the support of everybody until he retraces his steps”, Nwaobi posited.