Rumbles In Imo House: Speaker Fights Back, As Pressure Mounts On Him To Quit

By Charles Igbo

The Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Hon. Collins Chimezie Chiji is fighting a battle for his political life. There is pressure on him to quit office, or face impeachment.

A pressure group within and outside the Assembly  is bent on his quitting the office. The grouse of the members of the group is a yet to be confirmed allegation of  educational certificates’ forgery levelled against the Speaker. The pressure group is propagating the serious allegation.

The group which goes by the name, Leadership Africa &  Integrity Initiatives, say  Speaker Chiji is parading fake certificates. That he is parading certificates he does not possess, degrees he does not possess, including a doctorate degree, as well as schools he did not attend. He is, also, accused of parading a fake certificate of exemption from service by the leadership of the National Youth Service Commission, NYSC.

The Speaker is an architect-turned-politician. He says he went to school in Italy, and has provided the names of the schools. The schools range from the Boys’ Secondary School, Eziama, Aba, for his West African School  Certificate, and the Instituto D’Arte Reggio Calabria, Italy, in 1981 for his Higher National Diploma (HND) in Ceremics.

He, also, parades a Masters  and a doctorate degree (The Laurea di Dottore) in Architecture from the university Degli Studi Di Reggio Calabario, in 1988.

But the group, in a petition signed by its National Coodinator, Martin Duruji, and the Secretary, Barr. John Paul Ikeme, dismisses the degrees as fake. The members are not denying that the Speaker has a first degree, and so, is qualified to be a legislator. Afterall, the constitution says School Certificate. Their grouse is that he does not have a doctorate degree, and, therefore, should not prefix his name with “Dr”.

According to them, “In Italian higher education institutions, Laurea di Dottore is the equivalent of a Bachelor’s  degree in the British University System operated in Nigeria. This is comparable to the US, where the Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD) in Law is ordinarily a  Bachelor’s degree by British and Nigeria standards.”

They also insist that “Doctor of Philosophy Degrees (Ph.D), from Italian Universities, are designated  as Dottoroto Di Ricerca,  and not Laurea di Dottore as Chimezie Collins  Chiji has claimed”

So, according to them,  the Speaker has a first degree, not a Masters or Doctorate degrees.

The magazine is not able, yet, to confirm the certificates the Speaker filed with INEC. Because, with a first degree, he is over-qualified. However, the group seems to have found favour in the eyes of a few members of the House who now say: :”True or not, the Speaker must quit because his name has been associated with forgery.”

But Mr Speaker is no pushover. He seems sure-footed, and knows  where the fight is coming from. So, he is asking them for proof. And has, reportedly, according to local newspapers in Owerri, taken Duruji and six of the local newspapers to court.

Speaker Chiji, uptil now, has  been a lucky man. A survivor. He holds the prize of jumping from one party to the  other, and still remains the Speaker, under two governors that are members of different political parties.

From Okigwe Senatorial zone, the Speakership of the Imo House was to his area. When the Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha was declared winner after the 2019 General elections, Ihedioha’s party, the PDP, had no seat in the zone. It was swept by APGA, which fielded an Okigwe son, Senator Ifeanyi Ararume, as its governorship candidate. But Ihedioha won, and the PDP had more House members than APGA which had about five members or so.

So, something had to give. The Speaker must come from Okigwe zone where it has been zoned to.

So, enters, Collins Chiji.  Lucky fellow, 24 hours to the inauguration of the House, he decamped to the PDP, and was crowned the Speaker. But the Ihedioha administration lasted for only seven months, and enter, Senator Hope Uzodinma and the APC.

At the time, the APC did not have a single member in the House. But, trust politicians. Once Uzodinma was sworn-in as governor, the game changed.  ThePDP and AA members, in droves, including Ihedioha’s representative, decamped to the APC. And, even though Chiji was amongst  the last set to decamp, there was no doubt that he coordinated the movements. A master of  the game, he has remained the Speaker.

But, now, the chickens seem to be coming home to roost.

This magazine gathered that  aggrieved party members from, at least, three political parties – APC,  PDP, APGA – want him out, and are behind the forgery allegations against him.

But he is sure-footed. He says his educational certificates are genuine. He says he made no false claims. He also insists that his NYSC exemption certficate is genuine, and had since been reconfirmed by the leadership of the Commission. He says the onus lies on his accusers to prove their case in court.

To show his seriousness, he has dragged a former House of Assembly member, Lawan Duruji, to Court  for, allegedly, accusing him, in published interviews with  local dailies, of masterminding his defeat in the Courts, by bribing the Judiciary to the tune of 150USD. He also dragged the newspapers which published the interview to court. He thinks, The Source gathers, that Duruji may be one of those behind his present ordeal.

However, for now, everything seems to be waiting, pending when the House, which has been on forced break, due to COVID-19, will resume.

Last week, a national newspaper reported that Hon. Chiagozie Nwaneri, representing Oru East state constituency,  who is the Chair of the Committee investigating the allegations against the Speaker as saying: “We have written to tbe institutions he said he got his certificates from, and they are yet to respond. You can see that we cannot force them to reply when we know the whole world is shut down at the moment”

The paper, also, quoted an unnamed member as saying that the Speaker should quit before the reconvening of the House. “Let the Speaker step aside. He has failed. He became the Speaker under Emeka Ihedioha and under that

seven-month administration of Ihedioha, some lawmakers did not want to speak out.

“You see, this time around, nothing will stop us. Collins must step aside for peace to reign in the House of Assembly. Our image is battered, and we can’t keep quiet.”

Will Mr Speaker fall, or survive? Time will tell.