The Abia State government has called on relevant authorities to fish out and bring to book those responsible for the abduction and torture of Mr. Felix Obisike.
Meanwhile, the government is pointing accusing fingers at a factional All Progressives Congress, APC, Governorship candidate, Mr. Uche Ogah as being behind the whole incident.
It also alluded to other reported acts of violence and threats of further violence on innocent citizens by those associated with the Uche Ogah Campaign Organization.
Recall that one Felix had been the subject of a video shared online by some media where he confessed to writing results of the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections originally fixed for February 16, 2019, on behalf of the State Governor.
In a statement issued on Monday by the Abia State Commissioner of Information, Mr. John Okiyi Kalu, he pointed out that a close examination of the purported INEC result sheet in circulation showed it to be a clear forgery.
“Elementary review of the published purported INEC result sheet shows that the entries were typed out as against the usual practice of writing out results in long hands, with ink. Only a candidate who has never contested general elections before will attempt to pass off such a poor forgery as INEC result sheet,” he said
Explaining the genesis of the whole saga, he said beneficiaries of the N-power programme in Abia State, among them Felix Kennedy Obisike, had received messages purportedly from the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, Mrs Maryam Uwais, inviting them to a meeting at the Campaign Office of Uche Ogah in Umuahia on February 15, 2019; the focal person in the state Mr. Chinenye Nwaogu forwarded the message to Mrs Uwais to verify the authenticity and she denied originating the letter.
Subsequently, Felix, acting on the instructions of his superior, Nwaogu sent out messages to the beneficiaries to ignore the invitation as a result of which only a few of the beneficiaries attended the meeting.
The commissioner claimed that Mr. Ogah, who was angered by the low turnout of beneficiaries as a result of Felix’s message, lured him to his campaign office through a friend of his in attendance, whom they brutalized and tortured before using his phone to call Felix.
He explained further; “On arrival at the location, armed men from Uche Ogah’s campaign office pounced on Felix, dragged him into their office and brutalized him mercilessly in the presence of a handful of online media persons who apparently were already positioned at the office to witness the unfolding nefarious act. They went to Felix’s car without him and took an official file belonging to his boss (Chinenye) which he was supposed to deliver in Aba same day and apparently planted the FAKE result sheet inside the file.
“It is important to note that the video published online was edited to make it look like Felix confessed to being the one who owned the fake document whereas he never accepted ownership even under duress. He disowned the fake document and we call on those investigating the matter to invite all those in the office, including the so called media practitioners, and demand to see the whole video in its original form as well as get their statements under oath.”
Mr. Okiyi disclosed that it was Nwaogu, who got wind of happenings at Ogah’s campaign office and invited the Abia State office of the Department it of State Services, DSS, to wade into the matter.
“The DSS operatives subsequently arrived took Felix into protective custody and are currently giving him medical attention. Unfortunately, nobody in the Uche Ogah Campaign Office has been arrested or invited for questioning as at the time of writing this press release.
READ ALSO: 2019 Polls: Aero, Arik slash fares to encourage voters
“That the abduction and torture were orchestrated and executed within the campaign office of a factional APC candidate and the many armed men spotted inside the place should be enough for security agents investigating the matter to invite Uche Ogah and everyone at the apparent crime scene for questioning on who the armed men were and exactly what they were doing abducting and torturing a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Similarly, the source of the obviously FAKE result sheet and SMS should be investigated with the FAKE document matched against the official INEC result sheets for the botched election and previous genuine messages to the beneficiaries from the presidency, respectively,” the commissioner said.
The Abia state government held that the presidency, especially the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment, should explain to Nigerians, especially participants in the N-power programme, “how and why a supposed national programme funded with Nigeria tax payers’ money was turned to a political project with participants now corralled and compelled to join the campaign organization of an APC factional candidate in the state or face torture and possible death.”
The Commissioner pointed out that under Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State had remained the most peaceful state in Nigeria, insisting that the peace of the state would not be compromised as government would go to any length within the law to protect the people.
He also pointed out that “allowing desperate political jobbers to engage in open abduction of citizens for any reason negates the recently endorsed peace pact by candidates in the state and we will not stand and do nothing as a responsible Government vested with the constitutional duty of protecting lives and properties of our citizens and residents of the state.”
