Igwes Case: Attorney General Clears Mbadinuju
Police, Att-Gen of Federation clear Mbadinuju of the Igwes' Murder
The erstwhile governor of Anambra State, Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju [Odera] who recently held a parley with journalists and reporters at his home in Abuja exhibited a letter from the Hon. Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN clearing him of all charges relating to the murder of the Igwes.
According to the letter, Ref Number DPPA/DAA/85/5 dated June 9, 2010, Dr Mbadinuju had no hand in the murder of the Igwes. The letter reads in part, "I am further directed to inform you that the police in response to the letter from the office of the Honorable Attorney General of the Federation replied that,
a. You were not charged with other suspects because there was no evidence that you conspired with anybody to murder the Igwes in 2002. Most of the issues raised against you were based on suspicion which could not constitute prima facie evidence to warrant your arraignment in court.
b. The case file has been forwarded to the Ministry of Justice, Anambra State to enable them commence trial of the fourteen suspects recommended for prosecution.
Accept please. The warm regards of the Honorable Attorney of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN."
The letter was signed on behalf of the Honorable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, by a Chief State Counsel. Mrs. G.E. Odegbaro.
When Dr Mbadinuju was asked of how he felt about this development, he said he was thankful to God that truth, no matter how long it is suppressed must manifest itself eventually. He said it is only himself and God that can say with certainty that he had nothing whatsoever to do with the untimely and unfortunate death of the couple. Dr Mbadinuju said that the death of his colleagues was political and had to do with those who wanted by all means to ensure he was denied second term in office so that they themselves will be governor of Anambra state. He said that those people having missed the opportunity to jail him or execute him finally organized ten (10) bus loads of armed rioters and stormed the Onitsha prison where he was kept to wait for his bail. They stormed his prison cell to abduct and kill him as they killed the Igwes but unfortunately for them he had just left before they arrived, and in angry reaction they set free more than 300 prison inmates of the Onitsha prison and proceeded to burn down the administrative offices in the Prison. God freed him as he promised in Psalm 91: 7-8 that "a thousand shall fall at my side, and ten thousand at my right hand; but none shall come near me. Only with my eyes shall I behold and see the reward of the wicked". This whole story was narrated by eye witnesses, especially the prison comptroller in charge, one Columbus Omenuko as published in the Sunday Sun newspaper of February 26, 2006; and Sunday Champion February 26, 2006.
Dr Mbadinuju further said that as he continues to thank God, he is also thankful to all the five courts Ehindero's police charged him to as they were shopping for their "friendly" courts that could grant them easy conviction but to no avail. Rather all the courts they took him to, discharged and acquitted him, while the Onitsha High Court in particular not only discharged and acquitted him but also quashed all proceedings thereto. Dr Mbadinuju said, quoting from the scripture that the Lord is good, and his mercies endureth for ever.
When asked about progress so far made in finding the real killers of the lawyers, Mbadinuju praised the police for all their effort in his case and urge them not to relax until the real culprits are brought to book. He said that they are not spirits that killed the Igwes but human beings and blackmailers who still walk freely on our streets looking for their next victims. Nemesis shall surely over-take all of them in God's own time.
When asked if he has any regrets, the former governor said he has been vindicated. He said he stood alone trying to convince the whole world that he had no hand in the crime but many mocked him and called for his death. He said it reminded him about the cruel death of an innocent man about 2000 years ago who knew no sin but out of hatred and ignorance his brothers conspired against him and hanged him on a tree naked - His name is Jesus. Is the same man not worshipped all over the world today? Dr Mbadinuju said if the over 5,000 hired armed rioters had broken into the Onitsha prison to abduct and kill him what would people say today? They will call it God's judgment, and a true indication that he was the real killer of the couple, that justice of "blood for blood", has been accomplished. However, Dr Mbadinuju said he regretted the wicked murder of the innocent man and his pregnant wife. Those who did it, and those who conspired to do it, and those who financed it, and those who stood to have benefitted from that crime, and all those who falsely accused innocent persons of complicity in the crime, even those who did not participate in the death and conspiracy, but who one way or the other knew what went on and failed to speak out - all these categories of people who aided and abetted, including the conspirators themselves in that crime will have no good thing come their way in this life, and in the next world to come eternal condemnation, except they repent of their evil deeds and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, then their soul shall be saved, but nemesis will still take its natural course. If the plot to kill me had succeeded, then for ever and ever my house shall be anathema and a desolation, and my children and children's children will be shunned from all public gatherings as they will be seen as a family of killers and evil men who should not speak in a public gathering. This is the evil some people got together and wickedly decided to hang the heinous crime on the neck of the innocent. It shall never be well for them.
When asked which way forward now, the outspoken former governor of the ever turbulent state of Anambra, Dr Mbadinuju said he will remain a politician contrary to what his detractors wished for him. He said he remains the only governor investigated and prosecuted for the crime of murder from the time he was in office till seven years later and yet nothing was found against him. He said he was also investigated or probed for money laundering and financial irregularities even when he was still in office and he was given a clean bill. The Code of Conduct Bureau at the end of his service as governor was investigated and cleared. Now can you say that a man like that cannot pass as one of the cleanest politicians Nigeria has produced and should be proud of, Dr Mbadinuju asked rhetorically.
Furthermore, he said he went to university and studied law and politics with degrees in the best universities of America and Britain and that he knows both the theory and practice of law and politics. He called on experts to find job in their area of qualification from their university. A man who went to university, for example, and studied animal science or as they now call it vet medicine should go and practice with pigs and goats and leave us alone with human science of politics.
Dr Mbadinuju said that Anambra is a sorry situation because the governors after him, or should he say the governor after him, because two would- be governors were disqualified by courts, and those two were alleged to have played major roles in his ouster from office and later were overtaken by nemesis. He said the incumbent governor is not doing any second term nor did he win the election for second term. Everybody heard Ikemba Nnewi appeal to Anambra people to vote for him as a parting gift for him and it was done, nobody will dispute with Ikemba. So where is Peter Obi's so-called victory? If he won let him clean up the state he is presiding of kidnappers and armed robbers. Or does he not know that those who steal votes will live to fight with co-looters when it comes to sharing the loots. Mbadinuju said when he was on seat and because he didn't owe his election to the criminals, he said all he did was ask the armed robbers to leave the state and they obeyed, and Anambra State has never been free since he left, nor will it be until he returns.