By Sydney Chux Ezenta
The crisis in the National Rescue Movement (NRM), has taken a new turn as indication has emerged that the police may arraign the party’s suspended National Chairman, Chief Isaac Chigozie Ude and the suspended National Organizing Secretary, Hon. Dirisu Issa Mohammed on allegations of forgery and falsification of official documents.
Ude and Issa Mohammed were alleged to have forged the signature of the party’s presidential flagbearer, Mazi Okwudili Nwa-Anyajike and written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), purporting that he has withdrawn from the 2023 presidential contest.
In a letter to the Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu on July 17, 2022, Nwa-Anyadike claimed he never wrote the said letter as he does not intend to withdraw as the party’s presidential candidate.
While he said his signature was forged, he urged INEC to discountenance the purported withdrawal letter.
Nwa-Anyadike, through his lawyer, Barrister Basil Onyeachonam Onuorah also wrote to the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman, alleging that the two NRM officials forged his signature and have been trying to illegally substitute him as the party’s presidential flagbearer.
Onuorah’s letter dated 18th July 2022, called on the police authorities to investigate the forgery and falsification of those documents with a view to bringing the culprits to justice.
Nwa-Anyajike’s position that the withdrawal letter was a forgery was collaborated by the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator Saidu Dansadau who also wrote a strongly-worded letter to the INEC Chairman.
Dansadau’s letter stated that “the National Officers without the knowledge of the National Secretary and the consent of both the National Executive Committee of the party and the signature of the National Secretary replaced Mazi Okwudili Nwa-Anyajike, with another person whose name no member of the National Executive Committee knows”.
According to him, as far as the party is concerned “Mazi Okwudili Nwa-Anyajike who defeated seven others at the party’s National Convention, remains the duly nominated NRM presidential candidate”.
The Inspector-General of Police has since transferred the matter to the Police Federal Capital Territory Command which subsequently invited and interrogated Ude and Issa Mohammed over the weighty allegations.
Two weeks ago, the National Executive Committee of NRM placed Ude and Issah on indefinite suspension. Indications are that they will be replaced at the next meeting of the party’s NEC meeting.
The party’s Deputy National Chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Jikamshi also recently resigned his membership of the party. The candidate of the party for the 2019 governorship contest in Katsina State had accused Ude of running the party like a personal property.
A source at the Command headquarters which confirmed the story, informed People&Politics that after their interrogation and brief detention, Ude and Mohammed were released on bail, with the likelihood that they may be arraigned this week.
The partys Presidential candidate, Nwa-Anyajike who spoke to People&Politics in Abuja, said he was not satisfied with the manner the police have handled the matter so far and urged them to treat the matter with the seriousness it deserves. According to him, it was curious that Ude and Mohammed were released on bail, vowing that he would not rest until the culprits are brought to justice.
Though it was his name that was displayed during the last exercise by INEC, he said he has approached the court for an order to restrain INEC from acting on the forged letter.
Nwa-Anyajike, a former stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress joined the National Rescue Movement in the run-up to the presidential nomination contests in the political parties. He had emerged as the NRM flagbearer at the primaries held in Abuja on June 2, 2022.
