OPEN LETTER TO FESTUS KEYAMO

By Uwadi Kenneth

FESTUS KEYAMO, ESQ.
Head of Chambers
Keyamo Chambers
Lagos

February 18 2010

OPEN LETTER TO FESTUS KEYAMO

Dear Festus Keyamo,

I read your open letter to Governor Ikedi Ohakim about Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha with total dismay. I tried to work out if truly you wrote this letter tagged your physical assault of Ikenna Samuelson . Now, I will go a long way for my clients, but there is a line. And that is way- way beyond the pale. What were you thinking? Why did you think your duty to the client extended this far? Acting by mere email sent to you ? What led you to lose your sense of perspective on this? Inevitably some cases inspire you to battle hard for a client than others do but two of the key features of the job are that: no matter how much you want to succeed (either for yourself or the client) you have to work with the material you have and the facts as they exist.

In your open letter to Ohakim,you said Ikenna Samuelson sent you an email explaining how the governor physically assaulted him. In the victim's e-mail he said,according to you and I quote

“I came down and I was marched straight to Ohakim's office. When I entered the Governor's office, I saw Ikedi Ohakim. He quickly shouted “lock the door, lock the door”. The door was locked leaving me only with Ohakim and his CSO in the office. The CSO pulled his gun at me. Ikedi Ohakim on his own shouted at me to pull off my clothes completely. At that point I knew that I was in danger, so I played along. As I was removing my clothes, Ohakim stood up from the office chair and came to me and forcefully removed my clothes. Another young man of about 33yrs wearing an ash coloured suit came into the Governor's office to assist Ikedi Ohakim completely remove my clothes. I became completely naked before Ikedi Ohakim in the office of the Governor. The young man then left the Governor office. The CSO was still pointing a gun at me. Then Ikedi Ohakim gave me a blow on my mouth, he gave me a head butt. He hit me with his hands and legs severally. Then Ohakim went to his office table and brought a “koboko” (horse whip). He started to flog me all over my body. After he ordered me to lie down on the rug in the office and I obeyed. Ikedi Ohakim flogged, flogged and flogged me ruthlessly, heartlessly and without mercy. He kicked me severally without mercy. He kicked me severally with his shoes. He also marched me with his shoes. The pains was much. I cried, cried and called on Almighty God to come to my rescue. I must have received well over 120 strokes of koboko. My blood completely strained the rug in the Governor's office. I was in pains. I saw hell with my two eyes. Almighty God did not allow me to die. Ikedi Ohakim continued to flog me. His brother Emma Ohakim walked in and said “Chineke, His Excellency, His Excellency”. Ikedi Ohakim said to his brother “Emma, this is Ikenna Samuelson I will kill him today”. Emma simply left the office. The CSO also continued to point his gun at me. When the pains became unbearable, I decided to take a risk. I boldly grabbed Ikedi Ohakim legs. I shouted at him as follows, “What you are doing to me in this office is wrong”. “You are abusing the office of the Governor” you are desecrating the office of the Governor of Imo State”. “Moreover my wife is from your place Mbano, conversely you are my children's Nnaochie”. This was the miracle that saved me from Ikedi Ohakim's brutality. He stopped beating and flogging me. He then shifted a chair and sat down with the koboko still in his hands. I was seriously in pains. Then Ikedi Ohakim started to shout “Samuelson you have disgraced me in this country. You have finished me. I will kill you and nothing would happen. I will prove to you that I am not an ordinary Governor. I know those sponsoring you. But you must mention their names to me with your mouth”. Then flogging started again. Ohakim flogged and flogged me that I became helpless. So I begged him to leave me alone. But Ohakim said he would leave me alone on his conditions.”

What an insane talk from an insane man. It is disturbing to see how far desperate politicians in Imo State can go in order to smear the image and character of the governor of Imo state, Chief Ikedi Ohakim. Well,2011 is around the corner so desperados are working hard.

Having failed in their various machinations to derail or distract Ohakim's administration, the latest method is to use this disgruntled and confused fellow by name, Ikenna Samuelson Iwuoha to abuse the governor. Before now, following instructions from these ambitious but torn coat politicians, Samuelson Iwuoha has been writing incredible, malicious and fictitious garbages against the governor.

He started by using Imo state based Newspapers and nobody paid him attention. He reached out to some National Newspapers who refused his stories as they were pure libels. Then he resorted to the Internets to abuse Governor Ohakim. There was no name Iwuoha did not call Ohakim and his family in his publications. Since the governor did nothing about that write-up , Samuelson and his paymasters adopted a new strategy; which is going to Newspapers to claim that Governor Ohakim physically assaulted him at gun point.

If I may ask, which governor in the Federal Republic of Nigeria could descend that low as to physically beat and head-butt a citizen? Should a governor get so angry as to bully a subject personally when the police are there to complain to ? Why would a governor busy with state matters bother about a fellow who many have said is having a mental problem.

Yet you Festus Keyamo deem it fit to write this sort of open letter to Ohakim base on a mere email sent to you by Mr Iwuoha.What makes you feel that Samulson Iwuoha is telling the truth? Mr Iwuoha has said that he has a trailer load of evidence against Ohakim. He has been charged to court by the Police for defaming the character of Ohakim, Why then is he running to Newspaper houses peddling lies .The Court is there for him to unleash his trailer load of evidence against the governor.

Mr Keyamo you are some¬thing of a high flyer within the Bar. We know this because you tell us, repeat¬edly and in great details. You have con¬sid¬er¬able lit¬i¬ga¬tion and advo¬cacy expe¬ri¬ence…you have appeared in courts at every level of the jus¬tice sys¬tem, includ¬ing the Court of Appeal and the Supreme court.In Court, Keyamo is orig¬i¬nal, thor¬ough and tenacious.Keyamo enjoys a high pro¬file within the pro¬fes¬sion. He set up his own Cham¬bers. Keyamo we can safely say, walk on water, heal the lame and raise the dead: this Samson-like fig¬ure has single-handedly hefted the bur¬dens of the mod¬ern Bar on his broad manly shoul¬ders. We owe our liv¬ing to this beau¬ti-ful man.How can such a god-like fig¬ure be brought low?

You base your facts from an email sent to you by a man that you can not state his mental stability to tell our governor,Chief Ikedi Ohakim, that he may think that because he enjoys immunity under the Constitution, he may get away with atrocity. And that his immunity is only temporary. And there are other measures to bring him to book, even now! In case you don't know,we ,Ndi-imo love our governor here in Imo state and we will not sit and watch any one try to intimidate him. We have good lawyers in Imo state that are happy with how the Governor is developing Imo state.Why would an Imo man like any of us, at this day and age, take it upon himself to want to insult the collective interest of Ndi-Imo by provokingly spreading false allegations against our Governor,Chief Ikedi Ohakim, a man who, before our very eyes, is performing very well as Governor of Imo State and is the symbol of collective authority of Ndi Imo. For God's sake, what does Samuelson Iwuoha wants us to believe?

Keyamo,incase you don't know,the Imo State House of Assembly have publicly given Ikedi Ohakim a clean slate.Imo state House of Assembly have publicly said that Ohakim has no case to answer.The house is steadily telling us that our governor is doing well. So what are we saying here? We have elected members from all the Local Government areas of Imo state in the Imo state House of Assembly. Iwuoha is from Imo state, he has an able person from his constituency in the Imo Assembly house of Assembly and the house is saying that Ohakim is doing well for Imo state and has not gone wrong so far.Is this not enough reason for Iwuoha to be taking to court to provide facts about his allegations and if discovered that he is toying with the intelligence of Nigerians ,he should be jailed for false information and sedition. Mr Iwuoha should know that we have laws in Nigeria for which every individual in Nigeria should abide to. We have libel laws and sedition laws. He thinks he can just wake up one morning and start throwing allegations against a person. He thinks that Ndi-Imo will keep quite and watch him call our governor a criminal.Let him prove in court what and what our governor stole.

The more you Keyamo continue to engage in rumor mongering, the more you continue to tarnish your image as far as I am concerned. The story is so ridiculous that it deserves no comment from any reasonable person. The story is simply too absurd to deserve any attention.I get very angry when supposedly educated men indulge in such stupid rumor mongering. I thought that you Keyamo would tell us that you actually investigated the Iwuoha story before you decided to repeat the rumor. A reasonable person would do that before going public with such an accusation


Regardless of how we feel about the Imo State governor, we need to be better informed before we decide to put ourselves out for ridicule as people expect us to behave more maturely.


Yours Sincerely,


Kenneth Uwadi
www.cityweeklynews.com
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