Police to Quiz Chris Uba over Soludo’s Father


The Anambra State Police Command has invited a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain in the state, Chief Chris Uba, for questioning over the kidnap of Pa Simeon Soludo, father of the PDP candidate in the February 6, 2010 governorship election in the state, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. Meanwhile, the Soludo Campaign Organisation claimed last night that a group which called itself “Omega 12” had contacted the organisation demanding N5 billion as ransom to “defray political expenses”. A five-man gang of gunmen operating in a black Mercedes Benz 190 saloon car had stormed Soludo’s family house in Isuofia, Aguata Local Government Area of the state, at 6.30 pm on Tuesday and abducted the 78-year-old man. Others invited for questioning are those who organised the Emmaus House rally in Awka, the state capital, against Soludo’s candidature on the same day Pa Soludo was kidnapped. The state Police Commissioner Philemon Leha, who addressed journalists yesterday at the command headquarters in Akwa, said the invitation arose from the fact that it was shortly after the rally, where scathing remarks were made against Soludo’s candidature, that his father was kidnapped while on his dinning table. Some forces within PDP in the state opposed to the candidature of the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor had converged on Akwa on Tuesday to signify their rejection of Soludo as the party’s flag bearer. Led by Uba, the self-styled political godfather in the state, the anti-Soludo rally which held against the directive of the party’s South-east zonal headquarters, allegedly had in attendance 21 PDP gubernatorial aspirants. The South-east PDP zonal headquarters had through advertorials suspended the rally over information that it was scheduled to undermine the gains of the party and in particular Soludo’s choice as the standard bearer. But Uba, in a response to the police invitation, alleged that it was the Soludos that sent people to go and kidnap their patriarch only to turn round to point accusing fingers at him. He vowed to continue fighting the PDP candidate even as he said he was consulting his lawyer over the allegation. “Tell Soludo that no amount of intimidation from him will stop me from fighting him. He is a stranger in PDP and I won’t allow him to take the party ticket,” he said. Leha said it beat the imagination to note that the kidnap was carried out shortly after a group of politicians held a meeting at Emmaus House, Awka, where scathing remarks were made on the person of Soludo. “The most dangerous phase is insecurity sponsored by politicians. Just yesterday, some group of politicians held a meeting at Emmaus House, Awka where scathing remarks were made on the person of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. Just after the meeting, Chief Simeon Soludo was kidnapped and it is left for people to speculate who did it, and for what reasons,” he said. He pointedly fingered those he called desperate politicians in the state for being behind the kidnap of Pa Soludo. The police commissioner reminded them that the ballot box remains the only road to the Awka Government House and not through kidnapping people. The kidnappers who seized Pa Soludo literarily shattered the prevailing peace witnessed in the state in the last two months. Leha reiterated the command’s aversion to that kind of politics and warned strongly that the police would not fold its hands and watch politicians make nonsense of the gains that had been made in the last few months. “The command will not and cannot be intimidated henceforth; the command will deal decisively with any politician found to be fomenting trouble either by actions or words. “The command wishes to remind the politicians that the only road to government house is through the ballot box and not by kidnapping people. The popularity and acceptance can only be got by propagating and articulating ideals and selling same to the electorate with a view to winning their votes and not by buying the votes,” he said. The Coordinator of Soludo’s campaign, Chief Chike Anyaonu, had described Pa Soludo’s kidnap as unfortunate. The incident he said had thrown the entire Isuofia into confusion. Governor Peter Obi in a statement on Tuesday had also condemned the kidnap. His Senior Special Assistant on Communications, Mr. Ifeanyi Ubabuko, said the kidnap had again proved the governor’s position right that most kidnappings in the state were politically motivated.

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