Tragedy was averted Saturday afternoon when House of Representatives Member, Chief Jerry Alagbaoso was restrained by friends when he grabbed a wine bottle to smash Comrade Precious Nwadike over some altercations during the official opening of the exotic Aify Queeneth Hotel in owerri, Imo state.
Nwadike is the United Progressive Party (UPP) senatorial candidate in the last election and a newspaper publisher in Imo state.
Crimefacts.news gathered that the incident took place at the club section of the hotel.
According an eyewitness: “The event had been moving smoothly with people making merry and exchanging banters and pleasantries until after Comrade Nwadike made his entry into the hall.
“A number of persons greeted him and shouted their compliments to him as he made his way to where a little circle of people were gathered. They all appeared to have greeted him on a friendly note, or so it seemed.
“But not long after, Jerry Alagbaoso who is a well known politician started expressing some kind of misgivings over the arrival of Precious Nwadike. Gradually his voice and he could heard calling the UPP senatorial candidate an ingrate or something as uncomplimentary as that. He also said that after all he did for Nwadike, he still stood against his political ambition. Yes, he called Nwadike an ingrate.”
At this point, Nwadike who was apparently taken aback by the outburst of Alagbaoso, reacted and challenged the federal lawmaker warning him to stop blackmailing him with unfounded claims.
The reaction infuriated Alagbaoso who questioned why Nwadike should talk back at him and then grabbed a bottle of wine to attack the UPP candidate who is also a newspaper publisher.
It took the intervention of the a PDP ward chairman in Orlu, the Director General of Alagbaoso’s campaign organization and one Ugo Olumba to restrain the lawmaker from attacking and inflicting injuries on Nwadike who was seemingly at a loss as to the conduct of the lawmaker.
Later same day, Comrade Nwadike posted on his Facebook page:
“Though it sounds incredible but the truth; a politician whom all of us know, almost fought me physically and hit me with a bottle of wine, today for not supporting his 2019 election into the House of Representatives.
“Orlu LGA PDP should kindly take note. We must not encourage this level of gangsterism and brigandage in our clime.This is democracy, not military rule.
“As a Nigerian, I have the inalienable right to decide who to support and who not to. Moreso, when I had suggested to him, while in Abuja to contest for Senate instead of House of Representatives. His response is a story for another day. However, it prompted us to join the race to stop Rochas Okorocha who had at that time made himself a demigod over us. All we wanted was for the Lawmaker to give way for other people having held sway for 8 years.
“Trust me, none of us is a coward. We can’t give way for this kind of madness in our time. I have all my life fought against intimidation and political rascality and can’t fall prey to this now. Let alone allowing anyone to blackmail me for not supporting him.”
However, when contacted on the phone, Nwadike confirmed the incident and said: “It is a sad development that was condemned by every guest that graced the occasion. Very unfortunate that a man who occupies such position could descend so low to the point of wanting to fight in the public over his ambition.
“This is exactly what we condemn about some Nigerian politicians who use their position to intimidate the led.
“However, I am still consulting my lawyers over the incident as that is clearly an infringement on my right to freedom of association. As a Nigerian and a journalist, I am at liberty to vote for anybody. No one can coerce me into going against my will, no matter the intimidation”.
