Why Akunyili Is Fighting Me – Soludo
• Says Minister Lobbied For Anambra PDP Ticket
By Obiora Ifoh, Assistant Editor, Abuja

The politics of ego between former Central Bank Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, and Information and Communications Minister, Dora Akunyili, got messier on Monday with the disclosure by Soludo that she had failed to persuade the late President Umaru Yar’Adua to anoint her the consensus candidate in the Anambra State Governorship poll on February 6.

This is why the woman is fighting me, he alleged.

Soludo also narrated how Akunyili and Turai Yar’Adua fell out after the former First Lady refused to influence her husband to ‘anoint’ her the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a ticket 47 people vied for.

A statement issued by Soludo’s Media Assistant, Bonaventure Melah, said Akunyili was the clandestine “48th aspirant” who did not have the courage to resign her job as Minister and face the people through the primaries.

“She rather devoted all her energies to lobbying (Yar’Adua) to appoint her as ‘the consensus candidate’ – and there are several witnesses and evidence to this fact.

“Since she lost the nomination to Soludo, she has never spared any opportunity to vent her bitterness. Most politicians know that Dora has negative electoral value in Anambra and cannot ‘make’ a Councillor let alone a legislator.

“Indeed, Dora knows that any candidate who publicly associates with her will lose election in Anambra. To ascribe to herself any influence whatsoever in the making of a Governor smacks of a huge dose of delusion!”

Soludo said he was reacting to the “outlandish and childish accusations” levelled by Akunyili that his thugs prevented her from attending her sister’s funeral and also followed her to her father’s village in Nanka.

She alleged that Soludo was probably angry with her because she could not make him Anambra Governor.

He noted that while her intention could be her usual “infantile propaganda,” the allegations are weighty enough to warrant a response.

He said the aspect of Akunyili’s allegations that sounded childish was the futile attempt to link the Governorship election to her imaginary threats.

The statement added: “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 (she) 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 Soludo as the PDP flag bearer in Anambra as thugs?”

Soludo said it is recorded on tape that Akunyili praised him in church for taking care of her sister and announced 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 Dora 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!”

According to Soludo, what makes the allegation laughable is that one of his major contributions to Anambra and Nigerian politics is his insistence on non-violence and absence of thuggery.

He said it is on record that during the Governorship vote, about 400 thugs were arrested and none was from the PDP, which is the new politics he 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 organise 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!”

Soludo alleged that Akunyili knows more than she is willing to tell the public, knows about her age-long quarrels “as usual” with members of her family and her elder sister.

He said her age-long quarrels with her late sister are also public knowledge, and that her late sister personally told her 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, reported in Tribune and Daily Independent on July 17.”

Soludo said he is 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.”

He, however, vowed to resist any attempt to drag him into Akunyili’s unending quarrels with her family, nephews and nieces.

He recalled that he was the first to congratulate Governor Peter Obi after the election, to demonstrate “a rare sense of sportsmanship uncommon in this part of the world.”

He said he has since reconciled with all the major political gladiators in Anambra, and they were all in his village to condole with him during the funeral.

“Akunyili should find another excuse to explain her abominable acts during her sister’s burial/funeral. She has misfired in this one!”

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poster u are very stupid

poster go find work do