By Nwomaga Nwedo (NN)
Chijioke Edeoga is ostensibly a lawyer, at least, he did an 18-month law course at the University of Buckingham, UK, such a crash programme that produces what my mentor, Reuben Onyishi, would call lawyer without law. Edeoga, however, seemed to have cleaned up the defective law degree he hastily procured from Buckingham with a masters degree in law at the University of London. But Edeoga never practised law anywhere in the world till date. But the fact that he does not practise law should not deprive him of the needed sense of respect for the legal profession and the judiciary. It does not take the study of law for an educated person to exhibit common decurum and civility. Edeoga apparently lacks emotional intelligence. He is intemperate and eratic, and this is neither a virtue nor character required for the givernorship position he pursues with animal passion. The attitude of calling the judiciary unprintable names because the court ruling did not favour him is the height of irresponsibility. This is one act that should cause him to be debarred like one Emeka Ugwuonye, his partner in failed pursuit of shadows.
A mature politician should also know the limit to which they advance personal whims and selfish interest. No matter how ambitious and desperate Edeoga could be, he should have respect for the legal profession and the judiciary and refrain from sending his media team to write unprintable things against the bar and the bench, to which he purportedly belongs.
After the judgment of the Enugu Election Petition Tribunal, Edeoga sent his media warlords to bash the judges of the tribunal, claiming they were compromised simply because the judgment was not in his favour. One Ikem Okuhu, Simon Ede, Shepharman Iyioku, and other partners in criminal journalism serviing the misguided cause of Edeoga’s governorship bid took to the infamy of bashing the judges on the social media. They claimed in their many write-ups that Mbah bought over the judges even when the tribunal was detailed in its judgment. So much vituperative venom poured on the bench by Edeoga and his derelict and effette media old hags, and quite unbecoming of a lawyer, if a lawyer Edeoga is.
That was just a tip of the iceberg compared to what was to come after the verdict of the Appeal Court, which upheld the judgment of the tribunal. Edeoga and his men also went berserk accusing the Appeal Court judges of corruption. They claimed Peter Mbah and his deputy, Ifeanyi Ossai, had before the judgment relocated to Lagos where they bought the judgment. Incidentally, it was the time Peter Mbah attended economic and investment forum in Jarkata, Indonesian capital.That was the same time they claimed he relocated to Lagos to buy over the judges. There is no contemplating how much wild and delirious Edeoga could go in his vacuous abuse of political opponents and anything or anybody who did not favour his misguided governorship bid. He had been this way while he contested the gubernatorial primaries of the PDP where Peter Mbah beat him silly with a wide margin. He also called Prof. Hillary Edeoga, his townsman, a fertilizer thief simply because the erudite young professor aspired to the givernorship of his state, Enugu State. Beaten at the givernorship primaries, he then resorted to alleging that the delegates were bribed, only for him to pledge support to Mbah days later. And yet again, scurry to the Labour Party. Eleoo! Confuse gad’ma!
Even at Labour Party, to which he eloped like a traitor, he kept on laying false accusations against his opponents. He fought Dr Davidson Nnamani, and called him damaging derogatory names. He claimed Capt. Everest Nnaji, Odengene, doled out billions of naira to Labour Party officials to back his bid. It appears that once anything doesn’t favour Chijioke, then those superintending the process are adjudged corrupt.
The judiciary is the last hope of the common man. Justice is delivered from the evidence before the judges. Edeoga would rush to court with claims that have no scintilla of evidence and would expect judgment to come his way from such a weak petition. While at the tribunal, Edeoga left the nipple to suckle the boil. He concentrated on the phantom allegation of NYSC certificate forgery against Mbah and even abandoned his claim of overvoting at Nkanu East. When he saw that the accusation of forgery would waste like water over a ducks back, he quickly ran back to overvoting and could prove nothing. A confused desperado he is, Edeoga could not point to the BVAS machines that he claimed evidenced overvoting, where the number of votes cast did not tie in with the number of accredited voters. It was clear to everyone, including his lawyers, Edeoga had taken a journey on a cul-de-sac. When judgment came, he flounced and fumed, alleging corruption of the bench.
The implication is that in his little mind and corner, Edeoga has no respect for the judiciary and the legal profession. Yet he would appeal judgments, hoping the judiciary would manufacture justice for him from his vile imagination and overambition. The rains shall beat Edeoga again and again. The Supreme Court in a few days to come shall put paid to this childish hysteria of a hopelessly helpless politician who lacks character and the needed senseless of sportsmanship. He will still call the Supreme Court judges names, but it shall end there. He will, after his characteristic childish name-calling, carry his heavy load of a retired embattled and bitter politician back to his hometown, Mgbuji in Eha-Amufu, never to rear his ugly head in the political sphere forever. Then it shall be good riddance to bad rubbish.
