How Chris Uba and Clement Ibeto bought Anambra State PDP
Written by Sahara Reporters, New York
Thursday, 01 October 2009 06:10





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Chris Uba
Two top-ranking officials of the People's Democratic Party have given Saharareporters details of how the Anambra State chapter of the party was sold to Chris Uba and Clement Ibeto by party members acting on behalf of Umaru Yar'adua and his wife, Turai.


The sources said Chris Uba doled out N1.6 billion to members of the PDP's National Working Committee (NWC) to perfect the deal to hand him the state chapter. In addition, a source close to cement mogul, Clement Ibeto, said the Nnewi-born businessman paid N1 billion to Yar’adua’s closest pal and cross-border smuggler, Dahiru Mangal, with clear specification that more than half of the amount is to be handed to Yar’adua and his wife, Hajia Turai Yar'adua. The talkative Chris Uba has also boasted to associates that he also gave a token fee of N50 million to Nigeria’s gluttonous Attorney General , Michael Aondoakaa, who then wrote a legal opinion that cleared the way for Uba and Ibeto assume control of the state party structure. In order to smoothen the deal, the duo gave N250 million to Abba Ruma, Yar'adua's Minister of Agriculture, to secure his help in persuading Yar’adua to sign off on the deal.



Our sources said the financial deal to sell the Anambra PDP to Chris Uba and Ibeto was likely to turn the state into a deeper state of mayhem and anarchy beginning next year. Chris Uba was at the center of the political crisis that embroiled the state after the 2003 elections after he exploited his closeness to former President Olusegun Obasanjo to unleash mayhem, including the abduction of former Governor Chris Ngige, whom he had imposed, and the marshalling of thugs who terrorized the state for three days, engaging in widespread destruction of public property. “It’s amazing that the party, with the consent of the president, would ask a notorious political gangster to once again be the face of the party in Anambra,” said a top PDP source.



Our highly reliable sources said Chris Uba, a younger brother to Emmanuel Nnamdi Uba (popularly known as Andy), former President Olusegun Obasanjo's domestic aide, has subsequently anointed his candidates for the February 6, 2010 governorship election. Chris, who never finished his secondary school education, has picked Dr. Harry Oranezi as his candidate for Anambra governor while Uchenna Emordi has been tapped to be deputy governor. Oranezi, a former member of the House of Representatives, is described as Chris Uba’s former "thug-in-chief." For his part, Emordi ran the state’s chapter of the PDP under Uba’s tutelage.




A knowledgeable source told Saharareporters that, in the event that Oranezi is rejected for any reason, Chris Uba has lined up a spare candidate in the person of Damian Okoli. Okoli is Chris Uba's in-law.




A member of the ruling party in Abuja told Saharareporters that, with Uba’s choice of the duo of Oranezi and Emordi (and with Okoli on standby), the fate of the former governor of the central bank of Nigeria, Charles Soludo, is effectively sealed. Supported by corrupt maestro Tony Anenih and the unprincipled former Vice President Alex Ekwueme, Soludo had made a splashy entry a few weeks ago into the contest for governorship. Some political analysts have argued that Soludo’s gubernatorial ambition is fueled by a desperate desire to buy himself immunity for the monumental financial shenanigans perpetrated by him and several fired bank CEOs currently under indictment.



Meanwhile, a PDP source told Saharareporters that Chris Uba and the PDP hierarchy have decided to shut out Andy Uba from the gubernatorial contest on the platform of the PDP. Ibeto has not forgiven Andy for helping Aliko Dangote in a move to squeeze Ibeto out of the cement market. The junior Uba is also at loggerheads with his brother, Andy, who in 2007 hijacked the Anambra PDP from Chris and effectively sidelined his brash younger brother. Chris has told his associates that Andy used his closeness to Obasanjo to muscle his way into political prominence in Anambra, but states now that his brother is “finished politically.” One of Chris Uba’s closest associates said “Only Chris could have made Andy governor, but Andy thought that Obasanjo and Professor Iwu would be able to do it.”




Meanwhile, Andy Uba is currently engaged in a bizarre legal maneuver aimed at wresting power from current Governor Peter Obi without going through an election.
A source close to Andy Uba said the former domestic aide “has virtually been throwing a party to celebrate a ruling” given by the Supreme Court earlier this week


. The source said Uba has interpreted the apex court’s refusal to grant an order sought by Nicholas Ukachukwu to compel the electoral commission to conduct a governorship election in Anambra as an implicit recognition of his claim to be a so-called governor-in-waiting. But an Abuja-based senior advocate of Nigeria, who is familiar with the intricacies of the Supreme Court’s ruling, said Andy Uba “would be delusional if he thinks the court’s ruling translates into a tacit endorsement of his hare-brained rigmarole to become a governor without standing in an election.”



Our sources revealed that Chris Uba and Ibeto are planning to cash in big after actualizing their plans to smuggle their anointed candidates into office. Several sources told us that the two PDP “owners” have made all the local government delegates to swear to blood oaths of “full loyalty.” Uba and Ibeto have also compelled their gubernatorial candidates to swear to blood oath to pay their sponsors N4 billion every month from the state coffers.



Chris Uba rose to notoriety in 2003 when he resorted to hiring thugs to destroy public infrastructure after he fell out with Chris Ngige, his anointed candidate in the 2003 governorship elections. As soon as Dr. Ngige reneged on an arrangement to hand the resources of Anambra State to Uba, the enfant terrible conspired with Obasanjo and former Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, to abduct the former governor. But the plot to dethrone Ngige proved more difficult than Uba and Obasanjo expected. It was only in March of 2005 that a Court of Appeal removed Ngige from office, replacing him with Peter Obi of APGA, the rightful winner of the 2003 gubernatorial election.



Obi and Ngige are also positioning to run in next year’s election, but one of our sources within the PDP said Maurice Iwu has already promised that, regardless of how the votes turn out, he would declare the candidate of the PDP as the winner.

http://www.saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3845:-how-chris-uba-and-clement-ibeto-bought-anambra-state-pdp&catid=42:exclusive&Itemid=160




Can't Chris Uba and his brother just be assasinated?

Anambra state again?

The guy looks like a real goon, may allah help anambra state and save it from these thugs.

a single man holding a whole state to ransom?

Dont you guys worry. That guy is just a dreamer.
If Ngige ALONE can withstand him, his brother, Obasanjo and the now dead AIG, how do you think he can win the rest of the state, APGA, AC,  his brother and fellow PDP crooks.

That guy is just too dumb to do anything again.

Everybody in the state knows everything about his antics.

A proper joke, one man holding a whole state ransom.

A country with no law and useless leaders.

Shocking

The above article is just full of gibberish.

People,

This is Yoruba press trying to run down an okoro state. Please beware of this poison.
Among others, the fact that the motivation for Ibeto to dole out such amount of money was not discussed in the story makes it what it is: a ruse

jay bee:

a single man holding a whole state to ransom?

How! He is not in charge of government house(he got booted out !). He is not even in charge of PDP in the state as various interests are seemingly rooting for Soludo including the presidency and the likes of Anenih and Ekwueme. He is so scared that he sneaks in and out of the state.
That doesn't look like holding the state to ransom to me . You guys and people in the press are giving him just too much credit.

mekuslogan:

People,

This is Yoruba press trying to run down an okoro state. Please beware of this poison.
Among others, the fact that the motivation for Ibeto to dole out such amount of money was not discussed in the story makes it what it is: a ruse

No sir, we are all familiar with the unbelievable tales from Anambra state and this is not an exception. The onus is on the people of the state to reject this evil machination. Don't blame anybody or section for it, we have seen it happen before with Chris Uba /Ngige and Emeka Offor / Mbadinuju.

Again and again, this article shows that sahara reporter is full of vodoo journalists who are always ready to fabricate lies that can be easily assimilated by Nigerians.

IGWE_USA:

Again and again, this article shows that sahara reporter is full of vodoo journalists who are always ready to fabricate lies that can be easily assimilated by Nigerians.

The individuals named are known and the people behind Sahara Reporters are not faceless, so advice your kinsmen to sue for libel and defamation.

IGWE_USA:

Again and again, this article shows that sahara reporter is full of vodoo journalists who are always ready to fabricate lies that can be easily assimilated by Nigerians.

The individuals named are known and the people behind Sahara Reporters are not faceless, so advise your kinsmen to sue for libel and defamation.
As i have said before, when it comes to Anambra and Godfatherism, anything is possible!

The question is why is the story on Ibeto inconclusive?

asha 80:

How Chris Uba and Clement Ibeto bought Anambra State PDP
Written by Sahara Reporters, New York
Thursday, 01 October 2009 06:10

Can't Chris Uba and his brother just be assasinated?

Folks, you see where we have arrived? Soon somebody will assasinate somebody and Anambra will turn into the wild wild west of the mid-60s and early 80s. The main question should be this: Who is behind Chris Uba? And don't tell me Chris Uba is stronger than even the Uga youths not to talk of Anambra youths or Anambra people. The question should be: Why is this guy so heavily protected by the federal security agencies? Is he an ex-official of any substance? Methinks that someone in Abuja is gradually sponsoring chaos in Anambra using an illiterate criminal, and ndigbo are completely powerless -that is if they continue to swallow the lies about Igbo disunity. That disunity myth is gradually being disproved by an unarmed highly organised group known as MASSOB. With time, all these nonsenses would be brought to an end. The days of the lies are coming to an end!

how any sane person can believe this article bothers me.
If for any reason the outlandish tales in this article come through, then,

mbulela:

how any sane person can believe this article bothers me.
If for any reason the outlandish tales in this article come through, then,

Thanks very much for the the lines above . . . .
I'm not an apologist of the Ubas in anyway, but these sahara reporters are full of balderdash and gotcha journalism.
Again, the above article is full of trash . . . . . . .it's only meant for diasporeans that knows nothing about Anambra politics.

Sahara reporters have been proved right several times in the past, so you better believe the story.

kuramo:

Sahara reporters have been proved right several times in the past, so you better believe the story.

i read sahara regurlarly and i find their stories are often accurate but that does not mena that i should take leave of my senses.
i am most cynical about Nigeria, yet i believe that that story is a waste of bandwidth.