Nnia Nwodo and Chijioke Edeoga have reportedly been embroiled in hot exchange of words. A reliable eyewitness account has it that Chijioke and Nnia had it dirty over Chijioke's desperate need for funds, running into hundreds of millions of naira, with which to bribe the Supreme Court judges in order to obtain a favourable judgement over Odengene's appeal case before the Supreme Court.
Chijioke had reportedly approached Chief Nnia Nwodo, his godfather, to help him with the Supreme Court, as he feared that Odengene who himself is very rich would be able to find his way through the Supreme Court , moreso as the judgement he obtained at the high court may be sustained by the supreme court.
Nnia had told him he did not have the money such as he hadrequested. Nwodo was said to have told Chijioke he was not supposed to ask him for money when he singlehanded made him the candidate of Labour Party in Enugu State when he could not even buy the forms. Nnia told Chijioke that having done all to stand, he should take whatever outcome of the case with the spirit of sportsmanship. Nwodo also queried what became of the N2 billion Chijioke allegedly scammed the 17 local governments in the state using his LG News Magazine. Edeoga was said to have told Nnia he invested the money in properties. "The sell some of them and raise the money, if you must bribe the court,' Nnia allegedly told Chijioke, a piece of advice which did not go down well with him.
Our eyewitness told us that Chijioke was incensed at Nnia's reference to sportsmanship. He was livid with anger, and retorted to Nnia that he first took the result of the PDP gubernatorial election with every bit of sportsmanship, and pledged his total support to Peter Mbah by also collapsing his support base to him, only for Nnia to drag him out and railroaded him into the race yet again through Labour Party without any financial support. Our informant said Chijioke had felt Nnia had subtly traded him off and exchanged him for his personal support for Atiku Abubakar and the largesse thereof.
It was reported that all this while, Chijioke had sustained his campaign with donations from his brothers in US: Ndubuisi and Chimaroke Edeoga, practicing medical doctors in the US. His immediate younger brother, Eugene Edeoga, had all this while carried the burden of Edeoga's campaign untill he was exhausted and rendered broke. Pockets of donations had come from the Diaspora but had ceased to come upon realization that Edeoga's governorship bid would amount to nothing. They had considered it a wild goose chase, saying he had no capacity to beat Peter Mbah. As a result of this, the Diaspora funding Edeoga used to enjoy ceased.
Edeoga had planned to sail on with the little he had but for the pending case at the Supreme Court. He knows that Odengene is a billionaire and also has a good case since he was excluded in the Labour Party primaries;whereas, he was the only one that purchased the form. Chijioke had flayed Nnia's unwary arrogance of putting him on the Labour Party ticket all by himself; whereas, they could not purchase the form. Our eyewitness account said Chijioke now felt betrayed, used and dumped. Edeoga had felt that with enough money, he could buy judgement from the Supreme Court the same way Uzodinma allegedly did. He has been explaining his frustrations with Nnia's attitude to his supporters. He could not resort to any of the said supporters from Nsukka. He told someone that those supporters were not ready to offer anything; that they were waiting for him to win and then share offices to them.
He therefore has continued to lament his woes in the hands of the Nwodo's. First, Edeoga bemoaned his service to Jeo Nwodo while he ran for governorship in the 90s. He lamented the fact that he gained nothing for his services. He also bemoaned his having to marry their disabled daughter when he could have married other beautiful girls making advances to him. Yet till date he has nothing to show for it. Even the roles he played during Joe's burial has yet to be requited.
Upon Edeoga's lamentation, Nnia was said to have lost his patience and then berated him for desperation and overambition. "Is that how you would have been a governor? To poke your fingers into my eyes, after all I have done for you?" Nnia had queried in anger. 'I could have opted to bid for the governorship myself and I stood every chance of making it than you. I have done all for you and you must realize it is not a do or die affair. The young man PDP brought is unrivalled. I doubt that you would beat that young man, even if you won at the supreme court. So, even if I had the money, I would not waste it," said the exasperated Nnia Nwodo.
Our eyewitness account told us that Chijioke fumed and flounced and stormed out of Nnia's residence at Ukehe in anger, threatening he would do something to teach Nnia Nwodo a lesson in betrayal. Edeoga said in the hearing of Labour Party supporters that he did not trust the Nwodo's, especially when Okwy Nwodo, his son and wife pledged support to the PDP and Governor Ugwuanyi. He said he knew Nnia too was bidding his time to join his brother. He told them that if he lost the case at the Supreme Court that he would expose the Nwodo's, a threat which Nnia has heard and now spoils for a showdown.
Things Fall Apart part 2.
