By Charles Igbo

In a swift response to Mrs Nonye Soludo,  wife of the Anambra State Governor’s challenge thrown at her that both of them swear to an oath to prove their fidelity to their marriage vows, their chastity and the parternity of their children, Senator Uche Ekwunife has said that Mrs Soludo owes only her husband that explanation, and not her (Uche Ekwunife).

Mrs Soludo, angry at Uche’s attacks on her husband, herself and her children, whose paternity she questioned, had in a statement signed by her, challenged Ekwunife to go with her to London with their children to three high profile hospitals, at her (Mrs Soludo’s) expense to prove their paternity.

She said if it is proved that if all of Ekwunife’s children are her husband’s, she would congratulate Ekwunife with cash.

But in response, Ekwunife told Mrs Soludo that she should search her conscience, and explain to nobody else but her husband the paternity of their children, not her.

Following, her statement in full.

“Without dwelling on trivial issues that are mere diversionary to my earlier friendly advise to Mrs. Nonye Soludo to take care of the hygiene of her husband, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, it has become imperative for me to further evaluate the contents of Mrs. Soludo’s statement as a response to my advice.

“In the said statement circulating online in various platforms, personally signed by the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Soludo among other claims tried so much to explain her chastity, fidelity, prove her virginity and other issues.

Without dignifying her with a response or condescending to their low mental level, I make bold to say that Mrs. Nonye Soludo doesn’t owe me all those explanations.

“She owes her husband those explanations and other actions that could exonerate her and prove her innocence over paternity of her children. Not me!

“It is, therefore, my stand that Mrs. Soludo owes me no explanation over her children paternity as I am not her husband. She owes every explanations to Prof Chukwuma Soludo. Since they said only women know the father of their children. If my statement stoked out some biles in Mrs. Soludo and triggered any guilt in her conscience, she owes only her husband explanation but if it demands her taking an oath to show her innocence, she is free.

“But Nonye Soludo should also know that ‘Ceassar’s wife should live above suspicion’

She should leave me out of her paternity crisis because challenging me to a DNA test doesn’t add up as she has only one person to prove her innocence and virginity to and that is her husband.

“If Soludo demands a DNA on his children, let Nonye go ahead with her full chest and do it to prove her innocence and if it warrants oath taking, she should also go ahead and do it.

“Why dragging me into her personal and family affairs?

“I don’t have further reaction to give to Mrs. Soludo who has been a house wife and who claims to own companies both in Nigeria and abroad.

“There is no clear evidence of how Mrs Soludo has impacted anyone’s life before her husband rose to various positions he’s holding till date.

“Without sounding proud, I want to advice Mrs. Soludo to strive harder to achieve one quarter of what I have achieved as a woman whose husband has never held any position but through God’s grace and perseverance from various agents of destruction and those who vilify others just like Mrs. Soludo and her husband, I have continued to soldier on in my quest to touch lives positively.

“Finally, our resolve to save Anambra State from misrule and embarrassment is total and our will is undaunted.”

By Charles Igbo

Wife of Anambra State Governor, Nonye Soludo, has challenged Senator Uche Ekwunife to an oath of chastity and fidelity.

In a statement in response to Ekwunife’s attacks on her husband, herself and her children, the Anambra State First Lady  said that by dragging her, and especially, her children, into the political smear campaign between her and  the Governor, Senator Ekwunife has crossed the red line.

In the statement released on Saturday, Mrs Soludo said she had laughed off and ignored all and every of Ekwunife’s attacks, until the Senator dragged her children into the madness.

She said her attitude was: two people do not get mad at the same time and that when one pursues a mad person, could also be seen as mad. She said she refused to descend to Ekwunife’s level because there was no need for that and that she didn’t want to belittle herself. However, that decision collapsed when her children were also dragged in.

While emphasising her fidelity and faithfulness to her husband, her unquestionable adherence to her marriage vows taken 33 years ago, she challenged Ekwunife to say the same. She revealed that she married her husband, the Governor, as a virgin, and has known no other man all her life but her husband. She challenged Ekwunife to swear to an oath, in a Catholic Cathedral of her faithfulness to her husband. She also challenged Ekwunife to a paternity test for all their children in three reputable London hospitals, and assured she would pick the bills for the tests, airtickets and accommodation.

Mrs Soludo gave Senator Ekwunife a 72-hour ultimatum to retract her very damaging statements or face legal action.

Trouble started when Professor Charles Soludo, the incumbent Governor, who is seeking a second term in office, said at a Campaign rally that both Candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, were parading fake educational certificates. Ekwunife is the Deputy Governorship Candidate of the APC and had submitted to INEC her certificate showing she has a doctorate degree. But Soludo had dismissed that certificate as fake from an unrecognised University in the United States of America which anybody could purchase for $60. She wondered why Ekwunife did not mention her first and second degree certificates in the credentials she submitted. His conclusion: She has none. The Governor  declared that Anambra cannot be governed by two illiterates since, according to him, the APC Governorship Candidate, Nicholas Ukachukwu is even worse as he does not even possess a school certificate.

But an angry Ekwunife responded in an unprecedented manner. Declaring that she would go after any man, no matter how how, who dares run her down, she emphasised that she would also go after their wives and daughters even if she had to fabricate stories against them.

So, she opened the tap of insults. She said Soludo’s Professorship was awarded and not merited. But that was just the beginning. She questioned Soludo’s hygiene manners and asked him if nobody had told him before that his mouth smells and so do his armpits. He advised him to ask his wife to buy him a deodorant to take care of the alleged odour oozing from his armpits. Then, she descended on his wife, and gave the impression that she was making it out with a former Governor of the State – the late Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju.

Initially, Mrs Soludo said

dismissed the  Ekwunife’s comments as “the usual Uche’s madness” and so, would not descend into trading tantrums.

But on a second thought on Saturday, the Anambra First Lady let loose, and accused Ekwunife of “crossing a dangerous red line by dragging her innocent children into political mudslinging.”

She reminded that in her initial response she was like “one should not exchange words with a madman because passersby may not know the difference” but she said  Ekwunife has continued with her damaging allegations, and even boasts of “fabricating more lies and allegations to destroy her (the Soludo) family.”

She and her husband, she said,  had laughed off Ekwunife’s outbursts as another episode of what she dismissed as “Ekwunife’s  habitual tantrums, but the attack on her children makes silence impossible.”

She recalled her former relationship with Ekwunife, revealing she had hosted and fed Ekwunife and her children on several occasions in her home. She said she was shocked that the same woman she fed could “fabricate and spew all manner of invectives and criminal allegations” against her. Anybody who could say that, she insisted  “can even kill.” Mrs Soludo disclosed that a number of  people had asked her to ignore Ekwunife because “she is like a mad dog which has no shame or character and can, therefore, say or do anything anywhere.” But Mrs Soludo insisted that it was no longer the same, and posited that Ekwunife had met “a different season with a different woman.”

Mrs Soludo: “My weapons are decency, character, and grace. I am a long-distance runner, and I welcome you to the marathon,” she warned Ekwunife.

She said that she had lived a quiet family life, shunning publicity. Her distaste for  politics, she said, stemmed from the “shameless obscenities” usually displayed by people like Ekwunife in the name of politics. Since  Ekwunife’s allegations, she said she has been “inundated with hundreds of calls and messages offering her damaging information to use against the Senator, but said she would continue to show restraint, at least for now.”

Finally,  Mrs Soludo gave Ekwunife a 72-hour ultimatum to recant her statements and issue an unreserved public apology. She  warned that she has already put her lawyers on notice and would not delay   to ensure justice if she fails to comply.

She listed three verifiable facts about her, and noted that she had never been under anybody’s but had always been a professional and entrepreneur both in Nigeria and abroad, “even when my husband served as CBN governor. She, also said she had never met the late Governor Mbadinuju before, contrary to Ekwunife’s claims.

In her 55 years on earth, she revealed that she had  “known” only one man (her husband), and disclosed she married as a virgin to her husband whom she said she had remained faithful to for 33 years of marriage.

“This may be difficult for an Uche Ekwunife to comprehend”,  she added.

Then she threw a challenge  at Ekwunife. She asked the Senator to join her to swear to an oath of fidelity and chastity before the Blessed Sacrament at a Catholic Cathedral, alongside the Bible, within a month. She also said that she “and her children would swear that she had only ever known one man, her husband,” and dared Ekwunife to do the same by swearing that she had never been unfaithful to her husband. The second:

She challenged Ekwunife to a paternity test in three reputable hospitals in London, and offered to pay for the entire process, including travel and hospital expenses. She said her at any moment, her family was ready for the tests between now and November. Mrs Soludo promised to congratulate Ekwunife with a cash award if the results confirmed that her husband is the father of all her children.

“As a woman of conservative Catholic upbringing, I pride myself in my chastity. What about you?”, Mrs Soludo threw at Uche.

Describing Ekwunife’s video rant against her husband as laughable and infantile, Mrs. Soludo then flaunted her husband’s credentials.

“Everyone knows the true source of her frustrations. My husband, a “globally celebrated professor, is too clean, too decent, and too sophisticated to waste his time on low lives.”

“Nwoke bu nwoke! Enough said for now.”

For the records, however,  Ekwunife has a first and masters degrees from the Universty of Calabar and Nnamdi Azikiwe Federal University, Enugu.