Okuhu, Ugwuonye threaten media war against Enugu guber candidate, Edeoga

By Justus Ejesieme

Two social media freelancers, Ikem Okuhu and one Emeka Ugwuonye, also a debarred lawyer, have threatened media war against the gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in the March 18,2023 governorship election in Enugu State, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga, for failing to fulfill their terms of contacts.

In a statement released by the duo, which is trending on social media, they claimed that Mr. Edeoga had on September 25, 2022, few weeks after campaigns were flagged off by different political parties contracted them to render online media services for him ahead of the governorship election. While Okuhu was to use his Ikem’s Journal and Enugu Monitor to tender damaging reports against Mbah and his media team, Ugwuonye was contracted later to do legal damage to Mbah by churning out legal perspectives against Mbah.

They claimed that, though, one of the terms of the contact which was prepared by one Barr. Ifeanyi Ogenyi had it that their services would be terminated on June 1, 2023, another leg of the contact had it properly stipulated that Chijioke Edeoga, who is fondly regarded as Okaome would still include them in his cabinet when sworn in as governor.

Mr. Okuhu and Ugwuonye, in what was termed ‘Final Reminder to Okaome” said that since they resumed work in September, Edeoga had only paid them twice and each time they met with him, he would tell them that his governorship project was too big financially not to pay them of their money with other entitlements that should follow. Okuhu bitterly complained that Edeoga had refused to pay him despite the fact that money flew to him like river, especially after he had floated the mandate recovery project that raked in hundreds of millions of naira. Okuhu claimed that he had borne his hotel and other bills by himself while Edeoga alone luxuriated in the inflows. He said that all Edeoga could offer them in his house were groundnut and garden egg, and at times some cups of stale palmwine he had stored in his fridge for donkey months.

According to Okuhu and Ugwuonye, they were being fed regularly with promises from the governorship candidate who said those in charge of the money were too busy with how to win souls for Enugu Labour party and would require an ample time to go and sort things out with the bank, insisting that the money they were supposed use to pay them was been kept in a separate account called “Consolidate Fund for Okaome”.

A reliable source who pleaded anonymity had told us that Okuhu and Emeka Ugwuonye had been frequenting Edeoga’s house in search of what they said rightfully belonged to them and this started on September 17, a day after the tribunal declared Peter Mbah the winner of Enugu governorship election held in March, 2023.

It had been a regular face-off between them and Chijioke, a situation which again was exacerbated by the recent Appeal Court judgment upholding the judgment of the Enugu tribunal, as Edeoga had ordered his boys(the Isi-Uzo boys who mill aboyt his gate) never to let Emeka Ugwuonye and Ikem Okuhu near his residence. Ugwuonye as a result has threatened to expose and sue Edeoga, saying that even on condolence visit to his home at Ezeagu during his mother’s funeral Edeoga insulting gave him an envelope which contained ten thousand naira.

In a later deleted Facebook post made on Saturday morning, titled “Selfish Guber candidate”, Okuhu alleged that Edeoga was greedy and stingy, saying that he never cared a hoot how those working with him fared, but rather indulged in the vanity of riding on exotic SUVs, and answering with vain pleasure, Your Excellency. The post, which gathered many reactions, most of which constituted a large chunk of Chijioke Edeoga’s apologists, had it that Edeoga was only after himself, smiling to the banks but refused paying those who worked for him. A couple of comments corroborated these claims.

Okuhu maintained that everyone who worked for Edeoga was dying in hunger as all that he could offer was promises of whom he would make a Commissioner, Chairman of local government, give contracts and make millionaires, and all that.

“Though I and Ugwuonye wanted to confront Okaome a day after the presidential and national assembly elections, the outcome of the election made us pause because it re-energized our belief that Edeoga would win the governorship election. We kept managing with the hope that our appointment would be done once he won. We created a lot of enmity because of Okaome and were called all sorts of names, and still we have nothing to show for it.

“Our brothers in the other divides, people like Reuben Onyishi were well rewarded by Ugwuanyi who appointed him Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and equally gave him two SUVs, a brand new Toyota Rush and Lexus 470. As if that was not enough, he is still accommodated in this current administration of Peter Mbah. But look at us, despite the hundreds of millions of inflow, we have nothing to look and point to as the benefit of supporting Edeoga, and fighting his war. Chijioke prides himself as Okaome, even when he should be giving an award for reneging on promises made. My friend Emeka Ugwuonye can no longer have his head up since the PDP supporters opened a can of worm where he was said to have been debarred for engaging in criminal and illegal activities and sleeping with someone’s wife. They also accused me of practising homosexuality with Edeoga, and that I was under a curse for beating my father, yet for all this, Edeoga can afford to renege on my contract terms. I had never heard Ugwuonye was debarred until Reuben Onyishi and co threw it out for the people to see. Despite all these insults meted on his person, Edeoga still has the effrontery to order his boys to throw Emeka out of his residence at Golf-Estate for demanding his money,” Okuhu’s post read.

Mr. Ikem Okuhu never spared the issue on the rumoured ‘Mandate Recovery Project’ when he was quoted to have said that all the issue of Mandate Recovery Project was nothing but a ponzy scheme which Chijioke Edeoga used as a last minute cash out from his gullible supporters.

Edeoga was said to have beseeched Nsukka business men and women both within and in the diaspora to be remitting money for what he called Mandate Recovery Project, which gave him over a billion naira according to our impeccable source. He used some of the proceeds to acquire for himself and his wife two brand new Toyota SUV bulletproof cars.

The duo, Ugwuonye and Okuhu, had threatened to reduce Edeoga to nothing by constant attacks on social media the same way Edeoga used them to dish out fictitious stories against Mbah.