By Eshioromeh Sebastian
Whatever euphemism Amobi Ogah chooses to attach to his recent public conduct, is, by every definition, an attempt to obtain by false pretences. In law, the essential elements of that offence are straightforward: a false representation of fact, made knowingly and with intent to deceive, upon which the victim is expected to rely, and by which the perpetrator intends to obtain money or property to which he is not entitled. Each of those elements is present here. He admits he sent emissaries to Hon Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, instructed them to feign allegiance, and did so for the express purpose of inducing her to part with money. The representation was false. The intent to deceive was his own, by his own admission. The object was financial gain. Whether the scheme succeeded is immaterial; the offence, where the elements are established, is complete at the point of attempt.
The more disturbing dimension is the use of third parties — persons deployed to present themselves as allies while acting as instruments of deception. That is not merely sharp practice in a political contest, it is by every definition the deliberate construction of a fraudulent scheme, with the additional aggravating feature that was recounted publicly, in the expectation of applause. It is indeed sad that it came from a man who holds a public trust and draws a salary from the public purse.
I have followed Nigerian politics for too long to be surprised by what politicians say about their opponents during campaigns. Most of them will say anything. But I did not expect to see a sitting member of the House of Representatives standing before a crowd and confessed that he sent people to defraud a political opponent.
I watched a video circulating online in which Amobi Ogah is heard speaking about Hon Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, and I was left in disbelief. It was not the setting that unsettled me, nor the crowd that cheered him on. It was the ease with which a man who answers to “Honourable” described sending people to lie to an opponent so they could collect her money, and then complained that she was too stingy to give them.
Some of us have, in the last few years, written about politicians who treat falsehood as a campaign tool, and we had hoped that by now, we would have seen the level of decency that is obtained in other parts of the world begin to take root here. We were wrong. If anything, the situation has worsened since the 2023 general election.
What does this say about this same man, Amobi Ogah, who swore to an affidavit against Onyejeocha and some tribunal judges, which landed him in Kuje prison? He has not learnt. Instead, he has only grown bolder. Shame is the word, and I will use it without apology, because this is a man describing criminal conduct, in his own words, and calling it strategy.
So I ask again: where is the honour in the Honourable, that people like Amobi Ogah are called by it? In a saner clime, a man caught on tape boasting of a scheme to defraud a fellow politician would be hiding his face in shame.
Let me address the part of Amobi’s claim about Barr Nkeiruka Onyejeocha that defies all logic. If Ogah calls Onyejeocha stingy, he should first tell us what generosity means to him, because the woman he describes as stingy has carried hundreds of students through school on her own scholarship scheme, has stood as a shield for widows across Isuikwuato and Umunneochi for more than two decades, and has funded free medical care that has saved thousands of lives for nearly twenty years.
That is not the record of a stingy woman. That is the record of a woman who understood, long before Ogah entered the political arena, that representation is not measured by what you distribute for the optics but by what you build in the lives of people who have no one else to turn to. If such a woman declines to release money to men who were sent to lie to her, it is not because she is tight-fisted. It is because she saw the trap for what it was and refused to walk into it, and there is no foolishness in refusing to fund your own deception.
Truth, however hard you try to bury it, will always rise. As Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice: “Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man’s son may, but in the end truth will out.”
When, exactly, did Amobi Ogah become so generous? The tricycles he is now distributing in the name of empowerment are the currency of a man who knows he is running out of time and is desperate to convince the people that he is working. They are not the fruit of a generous spirit but the product of panic, the visible sweat of a man who has looked at his own record and found it wanting. Onyejeocha has been his nightmare from the beginning. And asking her not to contest is itself a confession — an admission that he cannot beat her in a fair contest, and a plea that she step aside so that he may inherit what he could never win. A man who was confident of his record would not spend his energy begging his opponent to withdraw. He would simply present what he has done and let the people judge.
Nkeiruka Onyejeocha has her own record to defend, and she should be judged on what she did as a lawmaker. She says she wants to return to complete unfinished projects. That is a legitimate aspiration in a democracy, and the voters of Isuikwuato and Umunneochi will decide whether she deserves it. But again, are the people ready to accept a man facing criminal charges for defaming the temple of justice? The same man who attempted to use third parties to defraud a woman. Can he continue to present himself as a moral authority or as a champion of the people, and as a representative worthy of trust.
It is said that a leopard cannot change its spots. This observation about human nature has endured for centuries because it is true. A man who fabricates sworn declarations to destroy another person’s reputation will not suddenly develop scruples when the microphone is live and the crowd is cheering. A man who boasts of sending people to swindle a woman will not become a statesman simply because he distributed sewing machines. The spots do not change, and the leopard does not change.
The people of Isuikwuato and Umunneochi have endured enough of a representative who weaponises falsehood to gain undeserved sympathy. Such a person cannot be trusted with public office.
To be continued!
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