By Gideon Njoku
Uche Onyeagocha, a Lawyer, and immediate past Secretary to the Government of Imo State, SGI, seems to have touched the leopard’s tail. And he is under attack.
A foremost critique, an Imo elder, and stakeholder, Bob Njemanze, has come down hard on him, asking him to get a life.
Onyeagocha incurred Njemanze’s wrath over an interview he granted 24 hours after a seven man panel of Supreme Court Justices, headed by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Tanko, in a verdict of six against one, reaffirmed its earlier verdict of January 14, which removed the Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha as the Governor of Imo.State, and ordered the swearing-in of Senator Hope Uzodinma as governor. Only Justice Centus Nweze gave a dissenting verdict.
Ihedioha had gone back to the apex court, asking it to review the January 13 verdict. But the final verdict delivered on the 3rd of March sealed his fate.
Apparently upset and frustrated, Onyeagocha, speaking on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, angrily lashed out at Governor Uzodinma and the Supreme Court Justices.
Among other things, Onyeagocha said that Uzodinma would not be recognised as the Governor.
However, what irked Njemanze most was the denigrating of the Supreme Court Justices by Onyeagocha.
Aside from saying that Uzodinma “is a Supreme Court elected Governor” he insisted that the Justices should be ashamed of the verdict they delivered.
Onyeagocha: “There were no seven Supreme Court Justices. They were APC-intimidated Justices. All those Supreme Court Justices should be ashamed of the judgement they delivered.”
But reacting to Onyeagocha’s language and choice of words in a Radio interview, a shocked Njemanze said:
“Uche Onyeagocha is a growing little boy, apparently excited for now and in a hurry to be in a limelight. But I owe him something: guidance.
“I think that in due course and time, without him hitting a major accident, he will get to understand that was not the best way to go.
“He is a lawyer, if not by practice, by education, and I think one of the few things that lawyers must learn is that you do not deride, disdain, or defame that profession.
“You don’t even talk of a Magistrate in the way and manner he made reference to the bench. And he was talking of Supreme Court Justices”
On saying that Uzodinma would not be recognised as the Governor, Uzodinma had, in an interview with Channels Television, dismissed Onyeagocha as one who should not be taken seriously, citing Onyeagocha’s snatching and tearing, in INEC office, of result sheets, and his (Onyeagocha’s) subsequent ordeal in the hands of the Police.
“You cannot take seriously anything somebody like that says”, the Governor declared.
