THE simmering open quarrel between the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili, and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 6 election in Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, boiled over again yesterday.
While apparently reacting to Prof. Akunyili’s allegation that he sent thugs to attack her during the funeral of her elder sister, who is Soludo’s mother-in-law, the former CBN governor said that the minister was angry with him because she wanted to be the party’s governorship flag bearer in Anambra State.
Specifically, Prof. Akunyili had alleged that her in-law sent thugs after her and that they chased her and her guests away from the venue of the event.
But, reacting through a detailed statement by his media assistant, Mr. Bonaventure Melah, yesterday, Soludo not only denied the allegation of thuggery, he also called Prof. Akunyili a propagandist, pointing out that the problem the minister has with him could be traced to her failure to secure the governorship ticket of their party.
According to Soludo, Prof. Akunyinli had lobbied the wife of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Hajia Turai, to persuade her husband to make her the party’s candidate in that election, an assignment the former First Lady allegedly refused to carry out.
Soludo argued that ever since the minister lost the race for the ticket to him, she has never relented in attacking him.
The statement reads in part: “It should be noted that Dora Akunyili’s allegations were made at a ‘press conference’ called several days after the burial/funeral ceremonies. Is it not curious that Dora Akunyili, who attended the burial/funeral with blaring sirens and a horde of heavily-armed policemen and SSS (State Security Service) personnel would be attacked by ‘thugs’ who also chased her to her village, and to date, there has been no formal report of the incidents or threats in any police station, and there was no arrest of any of the ‘thugs’.
“We only read about ‘thugs’ on the pages of newspapers. Or, was Dora Akunyili referring to the over 8,000 guests and politicians from all the 21 local government areas in Anambra, who came to condole with Prof. Soludo as the PDP flag bearer in Anambra as thugs? Furthermore, it should be noted that Akunyili was in the church praising Prof. Soludo for taking care of her sister and announced to the guests that all those who had come for her and her family would be entertained at her father’s compound in Nanka.
“Were the ‘thugs’ chasing her before or after the praises and announcement at the church service?
“From the church, she joined the thousands of people to walk all the way to the sister’s compound and personally observed the burial. After that, she again personally caused a public announcement to be made to the effect that her guests should follow her to Nanka (as the custom demands). There is a video tape of her activities, with her acknowledging greetings after the burial until she entered her car.
“When did the ‘thugs’ come in and only Akunyili (out of the thousands that attended) saw them? You can fool some people some of the time, but never all the people all the time.
“What makes the allegation laughable is that one of the major contributions of Soludo so far to the Anambra and Nigerian politics is his insistence on non-violence and absence of thuggery. It is on record that during the February 6 governorship election in Anambra, about 400 thugs were arrested and none was from the PDP. This is the new politics that Soludo is spearheading! “Furthermore, to imagine that Soludo who was deeply mourning the death of his beloved mother- in-law (whom he described as his own mother) would be organising ‘thugs’ to disrupt the funeral, which he personally organised says volumes about how far Dora’s fertile mind could go in concocting imaginary threats.
“Anyway, Nigerians are used to the crocodile tears and faked threats – all in attempts to woo public sympathy. Dora is taking her propagandist skills rather too far. Dora Akunyili knows more than she was willing to tell the public. She knows about her age-long quarrels (as usual) with members of her family and her elder sister. Her age-long quarrels with her late sister are also public knowledge and her late sister personally told their stories to lots of people in Anambra several years back.
“They had nothing to do with neither Soludo nor the 2010 elections. Dora did not talk about her desperate attempts to disrupt the burial/funeral by attempting to organise a parallel funeral site beside her sister’s compound (which is an abomination).
“She did not talk about the fact that the traditional ruler, the community and her own kindred resisted her abominable act as reported in some of the dailies. “We are aware that she decided to concoct the stories and go on the offensive after the newspaper reports clearly indicted her. She had to find a fall-guy, and of course, her phobia for Soludo provided the convenient alibi.
“Soludo would resist any attempt to drag him into Akunyili’s unending quarrels with her family, nephews and nieces.
