Pascal Arogorn Ibe
An official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a lawyer, Sam Ugwuegbulam has described as ‘a jumble of cheap lies’, the allegations contained in an open letter to the EFCC signed by his kinsman, Raphael Okereafor purporting that he was harassing his people with policemen, wielding his influence as a federal official.
Sam Ugwuegbulam, who spoke through his brother, Chidi Ugwuegbulam noted that from the identity of the signatory to the letter, to its last line, ‘there is the tell-tale signs of deliberate and maliciously concocted falsehood.’
Chidi Ugwuegbulam alleged that the real person behind the hideous fabrications in the letter was one Mr. Kelechi Nlem, insisting that Mr. Raphael Okereafor who signed the petition was too inconsequential in the affairs of the community to sign such petition and lay claim to be being chairman of the Home and Abroad union.
“There is no such union in my place and if there was, Okereafor would not be leading the group. Okereafor is just a busybody, who is a-nobody in the village. He only made himself a willing tool in the hands of Mr. Kelechi Nlem who is the real architect of the purported letter” he stressed.
On the allegation of demolition of a building under construction, Ugwuegbulam explained that no building was demolished.
“What the community filled up and closed down was the hastily dug foundation in the disputed community land, and the community did that in the exercise of their right of ownership”, he said.
The petition had alleged that the traditional ruler was aware of the crisis and harassment in the community. But our correspondent called the traditional ruler of the community, Eze George Nwosu, and he debunked the claim in a telephone conversation, saying, “Presently, I am not aware of any crisis or harassment of any sort in my community”.
Chima Nwaordu whose palm plantation was alleged in the letter to have been destroyed by Ugwuegbulam also spoke to our correspondent explaining that it will not be fair to say that Ugwuegbulam had any hand in the destruction of his palm plantation.
“It is not clear and there is no proof that Ugwuegbulam destroyed my plantation. Some members of his village were involved and they said they were sent by their village to do so. The only issue is that Sam Ugwuegbulam has not condemned the destruction of my plantation.”
Clarifying further, Chidi Ugwuegbulam said: “As a matter of fact, the person that spearheaded the destruction of that palm plantation was Ugochukwu Nlem, a brother to the same Kelechi Nlem who led Umuanyim youths to destroy the plantation. At the time, they felt that Chima Nwaordu encroached into Umuanyim land and so destroyed his plantation.”
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