Ohaneze president in storied N6.2bn Ruga fund from Buhari

Days after IPOB mugged former Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu in Germany, his tribesman and President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Nnia Nwodo, whom the agitators marked down on their hit list is fighting to extricate himself.

While Ekwereamdu was accused of looking on as Fulani herdsmen ravage the southeast, Nwodo was alleged to have taken N6.2bn, of the N22bn budgeted, from President Muhammadu Buhari to implement RUGA policy through the backdoor in Enugu.

The policy was shot down following public outcry about the ulterior motive of the policymakers.

But a report during the week stated Nwodo and Ekweremadu had been compromised.

The Ohaneze leader has denied it.

According to Nwodo, he is neither a traditional ruler nor governor in the South-East, as such, he had no land in his custody to offer for RUGA.

He said the  story which was purported to have emanated from a faceless traditional ruler from Umuchigbo Abakpa in Enugu State sounded preposterous and deserves to be consigned to the dust bin where it rightly belongs.

“The purveyors of the story may have underestimated the intelligence of some audience of the social media but who certainly may not be as gullible as they think and will do with some clarifications,” said Nwodo’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Emeka Attamah, on Friday.

“Why did the writer not mention the name of the traditional ruler and whether he was there when money exchanged hands?”

He urged those behind the stories to give an insight into how the money exchanged hands or through which bank accounts they were remitted to Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu.

“It will also have been good if the accusers had clarified if Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu collected the money as individuals or on behalf of Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

“For the sake of clarity, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has no control over land in Enugu State or in the South East neither does Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu.

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“Again, Chief Nwodo and Senator Ekweremadu are not traditional rulers and therefore don’t have custody of land in the South East.

“They should also have authenticated their allegation by stating where the said RUGA settlements are in Enugu State or in the South-East.”