The dark days of Chimaroke Nnamani
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Quick Bio of Chimaroke Nnamani
According to Wikipedia, Chimaroke Nnamani, a politician from Enugu State, was born 30 May, 1960, barely four months before Nigeria’s independence.
He is a medical doctor by profession and was elected Governor of Enugu State during the 1999 Enugu State gubernatorial election and remained in power from 1999 to 2007.
He subsequently served as a Senator on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for Enugu East Senatorial District from 2007 to 2011 and fell out of favour but was later re-elected in 2019.
Nnamani, though born in Port Harcourt, hails from Agbani in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State.
He is a graduate of the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria (Enugu Campus) and will later have his post-graduate training in the State University of New York and the Inter-faith Medical Center/Down State Medical Center, Brooklyn New York (Obstetrics and Gynecology).
He also undertook further postgraduate trainings and researches in the United States.
Little wonder the good people of Enugu State saw in him a supposedly exposed and enlightened personality and handed over the leadership of the state to the man.
He will later dash their hopes to pieces and leave the state worse than he met it, as events will later indicate.
Who REALLY is Chimaroke Nnamani?
Soon after his adventures took him into politics, Nnamani founded the Ebeano Movement in Enugu.
Before long, Dr, Nnamani started selling almost all public lands in Enugu City both to himself and to his cronies, including the Ngwo Park.
He also turned out to be a notorious domestic abuser that almost killed his wife, prompting the poor woman to flee to the United States for her dear life.
Sources say he is the father of cultists in Enugu in particular and South East in general as all low lives in the state reined freely, killing and maiming under his watch, as his boys — cultists he mentored — took over all the political space in Enugu.
As Enugu Governor, his minions reportedly sponsored dozens of cultist killings in Institute of Management and technology (IMT), Enugu, and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), and was known to be very intolerant to opposition.
A man without shame and decorum, he was also known to fight in public functions, prompting one to ask: “Unu si na nwoke guru akwukwo na America?” (translated “are you sure this man really undertook education in America?)
His successor, Sullivan Chime, who wouldn’t condone any of his juvenile rascalities, soon sent him packing from the state to exile but the present Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi later applied his conscientious prerogative of mercy and brought him back.
Nnamani was also reported in many quarters to be very diabolical and ungodly which led to his many scuffles with the spiritual leader of the Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), Rev. Fr. Ejike Camillus Anthony Mbaka.
He was also a known looter who looted Enugu State dry as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) made him a regular guest to its detention center, not to mention several bench warrants against the former governor.
Soon after his reign of error and/or terror, the anti-graft agency swooped in and slammed on him a N5.3 billion money laundering and fraud charges when the Naira still had much value, which is equivalent of circa N25 billion under the current dispensation.
The former Governor stood trial alongside his former aide, Sunday Onyekazor Anyaogu.
Nnamani, Anyaogu and six companies were arraigned in 2007 for allegedly conspiring to divert about N5.3 billion from the coffers of Enugu State.
The case was handled by three judges but the corruption charges against him were, on February 20, 2018, dismissed by Justice Chuka Obiozor under questionable circumstances.
In the ruling, Justice Obiozor struck out the charges against the former governor for lack of “proper charges” before it.
The EFCC prosecutor, Kelvin Uzozie, applied that the entire proceedings be expunged to enable him file fresh charges against Mr. Nnamani.
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Interestingly,
Though, the EFCC after judgment announced that it will file a fresh charge against Chimaroke Nnamani, but nothing has been heard of such development.
A source claimed that both the judge and the EFCC counsel may have been threatened by Nnamani’s goons or that he may have bought them over with the loot from the scarce resources of Enugu State.
Read more details of the case below:
High profile corruption: Ex-Gov Nnamani caught neck-deep in alleged N5.3b money laundering, fraud
The last is yet to be heard, though, about the man who buried the fortunes of Enugu State in the sand.
According to a political analyst, Mr. Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, Nnamani is allegedly still undergoing some kind of mental rehabilitation following his long and tortuous travails in both the hands of his estranged political God son and EFCC.
Mr. Onwuasoanya noted the credible allegations of stealing state funds and abusing the trust of the people of Enugu State.
He expressed belief that some forces may be blackmailing him with a threat to dust up some of his dirty files, hence some irrational behaviour noticed on his part of recent.
One of the most of his irrational behaviours was enshrined in his recent speech wherein he said that he ‘will vote for the PDP presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’, while at same time noting that the ‘All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a great administrator’, only to bare his fangs against a fellow Igbo and the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi.
He even went farther by attacking the “ObiDIENTS”, a slogan for supporters of Peter Obi, calling them unprintable names.
Onwuasoanya said: “The desperation with which he has gone about his attacks against patriotic Nigerians who have chosen to take their fate in their own hands can only suggest a man who is not really free.”
Going further, he said: “That Chief Nnamani is still walking free, after all the drama and seeming watertight evidence tying him to embezzlement of public funds and mindless abuse of trust, is a big surprise, even by Nigerian standard.
“Some people suggest that the former Enugu governor might have found a way of reaching some understanding with powerful individuals within the ruling Party, who probably hid his file away and made his investigation endless.
‘So, any of those powerful individuals could remind him that he has some unfinished business with the anti-graft agency, and probably demand of him to lead a futile campaign against the Obi movement.
“This can explain his swivel between lending a voice for Tinubu’s candidacy and crying more than the bereaved on issues affecting Atiku’s presidential campaign.
“Since 1999, the PDP in Enugu State doesn’t seem to have faced any credible threat of displacement than it is facing currently from the Labour Party, and a subtle reminder from a PDP bigwig or a group of them to the former governor that the displacement of the PDP can mean a return to the political wilderness from where he was rescued.
“For a man who was almost retired from politics by his own godson, the mere thought of returning to political oblivion can be frightening and might be enough to enrage him into becoming an embarrassing noisemaker.
Presently, many of the “old school” and “structure” politicians like Chief Nnamani are becoming threatened and on the threshold of political obscurity.
On a final note, Onwuasoanya expressed belief that the obfuscated Enugu politician might merely be fighting for his political survival, the best way he sees fit.
