Vaulting ambition such as hold infernal grip on Chijioke has the capacity to ruin its victims. History and literature are replete with victims of vaulting ambition. Vaulting ambition ruined Shakespeare's Macbeth. Overambition is the undoing of many tyrants: Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolphus Hitler, Idi Amin of Uganda, even Abacha of Nigeria. Overambition is delusional and deadly. Lucifer was ruined by overambition. He thought to dethrone the Almighty God. He wanted to ascend the Throne of the Most High, his creator, the uncaused cause. Iniquity was found in him. Overambition caused Absolom to rise against his father, David. He would realize the enormity of it in death when he hung on a tree in-between the sky and the earth waiting for Joab's slaying sword.

Chijioke Edeoga has shown he can do anything to remain politically and economically afloat. The governorship elections have come and gone, but Edeoga has yet to accept his defeat at the polls. The people of Enugu State clearly made the choice of their next governor in Peter Ndubuisi Mbah who shall be sworn in on 29th May, 2023. That is the reality staring Edeoga in the face. Edeoga has rushed to the election petition tribunal with internally contradictory prayers which the court will soon throw out. He will rush out the way he rushed in.

 It is not just that Edeoga has gone to court, he has set up another ruse by means of which he would reap off his gullible followers who have yet to recover from Edeoga's deceit of scamming them of large sums of money running into millions by promising them positions and contracts in his phantom administration. Edeoga has also gone full blast with his traditional besmear campaigns against the governor-elect, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, using the media. He and his minions hawk fictions and damaging propaganda against Mbah. Incidentally, this has been Edeoga's way since the build up to the primaries. Yet Peter would beat him. Peter beat him in the gubernatorial primaries, and he absconded to Labour Party only for Peter to send him to the dry cleaners yet again at the governorship. It was not as though Edeoga had any political capital. He rode on Peter Obi's stirred waters, hiding under Labour Party.

Edeoga plays bitter politics of calumniation and false propaganda. Besides his campaigns of calumny he churns out and compels his so-called media team which he holds hostage with the promise of positions in his phantom government, Edeoga has also raked in hundreds of millions of naira by fraudulent sharp practices. An insider told us that many of his supporters are grumbling over Edeoga's deceit and constant flinching them of their hard-earned money with the promise of positions.

 Many of them had donated large sums of money to Edeoga during the electioneering process. Hundreds of millions came in after the presidential elections of February 25, 2023, when the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, won in Enugu State. Many had thought Labour would win the governorship in Enugu State,and so scrambled for financial support to Edeoga who raked in almost a billion naira in the process. These donors miscalculated even when Obi did not leave anybody in doubt he was not supporting Edeoga for want of competence. They were later to find out their folly in wasting their money on a lowly-rated incompetent candidate. Meanwhile, Peter Mbah's acceptance stared them in the face. Edeoga was alleged to have made promises of positions and contracts to anyone that gave him money. Many Enugu citizens in the Diaspora pandered to Edeoga's bait only to realize they had poured water into a basket. 

Few days after Peter Mbah was announced the winner, Edeoga was besieged by many of the donors, asking to be refunded. It was said that Edeoga was taken aback because he could not contemplate anyone would ask for the refund of their money. One Rose Ifechuwa, a pseudonym from Igbo-Etiti who lives in the US was said to have given Edeoga N40 million. Edeoga promised him the commissioner for finance. He is asking to be refunded, as he calls Edeoga unprintable names. One Simon Oduagu who lives in South Africa gave N18 million and is now asking to be refunded after Edeoga's dismal outing at the polls. He claims Edeoga deceived him to dole out the money to him. Many other donors have also asked to be refunded. They claimed that Edeoga pocketed the money and did not use it to prosecute the elections. They wonder why Edeoga who could not purchase the governorship ticket now lives in opulence, rides latest brands of jeeps and flies first class tickets.

Edeoga was said to have found himself in a tight corner and so devised a means by which he would not only wriggle out of the situation but also rake in more money and remain relevant at least for the next six months while his puerile petition lasted at the courts. He then flew the kite of Mandate Recovery Project, a conduit pipe through which he would milk the gullible supporters the more. He purportedly calmed the frayed nerves and told them to give yet again toward the recovery of his 'stolen mandate'. He told them that he needed money running into billions of naira to enable him to procure the services of top-notch lawyers who would prosecute his matter before the Enugu Elections Petition Tribunal. He made it clear to them that he also needed money to bribe and buy over the judges, not only at the tribunal but also at the appeal and supreme courts, saying that the matter would be settled at the supreme court. He presented the mandate recovery account and reached out to members of the Labour Party in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, asking them to donate to the cause of mandate recovery.

Chijioke Edeoga had confided in one of our informants that he needed to remain relevant in the political space, and so the mandate recovery project would help him keep afloat untill the matter is settled at the supreme court. He said he knew he had no good case against the governor-elect but that while the matter lasted at the courts, he would use media sensationalism, campaigns of calumny, fictions, especially the phantom allegation of NYSC certificate forgery against Peter Mbah, to distract Peter, the courts and the general public, and by so doing, he might sway the mind of the judges or de-legitimatize Mbah's government and make the state ungovernable for him. He saw the Mandate Recovery Project as a leeway to financial bouyancy, moreso as the gullible among his fold have bought into the project. Every member of the Labour Party in Enugu State is mandated to contribute to the project. Some rational ones who have seen through Edeoga's ruse are opting out. Some of them have disinherited Edeoga and his Utopian mandate and are asking to be refunded.

This is a clear case of obtaining by false pretence, pure 419. The anti-graft agencies should wade in and save the general public of Edeoga's fraudulent scamming of unsuspecting members of the public. Edeoga should be made to account for this Ponzi project of 'donate to me and be given an appointment when I win.' He sees this as a business venture, a strategic way of living at the expense of the public.

Edeoga reportedly purchased two brand new latest model Lexus jeeps at the expense of his donors;meanwhile, he is still in possession of two Prado Jeeps he got from the Enugu State Government while serving as Commissioner for Local Government Affairs and Environment and Solid Minerals respectively.The bad aspect of it is that Edeoga is stingy and selfish. He eats alone. His PA, Francis Ede, was languishing in penury and could not even marry at over 50 years of age until Governor Ugwuanyi heard his story and helped him. Till date, Francis has no car and looks scraggy and worn out, yet he follows Edeoga as would a Man Friday. Edeoga cannot give anyone in his fold more than N5000 which he would wrap in an envelope marked Office of the SA to the President on National Assembly which he procured during his stint in that office when Jonathan was the president. Ikem Okuhu, Aniebolam Nwamu, Dons Eze, Shepherdman Iyioku, Ifeanyi Ogenyi and a host of other derelicts in his camp of idiocy get nothing from Edeoga excerpt the hopeless hope of appointment when Edeoga recovers his so-called mirage of a mandate. Edeoga has kept a word of promise to their ears. He will break it to their hopes, as he has no mandate anywhere to recover, even as they wait for Godot.

Chijioke Edeoga is no place near lion Building. He does not have what it takes to be there. He knows it, yet he has continued to pretend to that office in order to continue to reap off gullible members of the public, whose vulnerability he fully exploits.The wise ones have already backed out and are asking for a refund while the gullible hoping against hope are taken into his ruse. Unless the anti-graft agencies intervene, Edeoga will continue to reap off the hoodwinked, innocent and simplistic members of the public their hard-earned money at the guise of Mandate Recovery Project.