By Eze Nwamadi

Chijioke Edeoga, the purported governorship candidate of Labour Party in Enugu State; Okey Ezea, who also parades himself as the Enugu Labour Party candidate for Enugu North Senatorial District and the politically neophytic Chidi Obeta, the Enugu Labour Party candidate for Nsukka/ Igbo-Eze South Federal Constituency, yesterday deceived the people of Nsukka zone. The three partners in political crime, adroit in deceit and propaganda, stole Peter Obi's crowd.

It is no longer news that Peter Obi is the cynosure of all political eyes in the nation. His popularity soars high, given his antecedents. But while Nigerians hanker after Obi, they should fish out the dumb and lame, the evil political marauders, hiding under Obi's shadows. Obi transcends party politics. The fact is that Nigerians must beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. Here in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga, Ideke and Chidi Obeta are the identified political miscreants whose sophistry to ride on Obi's wave crest has been punctured. They are exposed and disgraced. The perfidious odious skunks overreached themselves yesterday at Nsukka.

Edeoga and co had sold a dummy to the Nsukka people during the flag off of the Labour Party campaign in Enugu North Senatorial District. In order to avoid the shameful turnout of a handful of persons during his campaign flag off at Eha-Amufu two weeks ago, Edeoga this time resorted to name-dropping. The trio spread the fake news that Peter Obi would be present at the rally in the Nsukka High School field. Nsukka people irrespective of party affiliation emptied into the field to behold Peter Obi, whose fame transcends party divides. They had waited and waited in vain. There was no Obi anywhere. It was the same derelict mortar and rotten palm nuts who ran away from the PDP.

The people waited as they were told that Peter Obi was on his way. While they were waiting, Edeoga clambered the podium and began to reel out his usual idiotic tales full of sound and fury signifying nothing. His cacophonous voice and empty words irritated the people who had patiently waited for Peter Obi. When it was obvious Obi was not coming, the crowd dispersed and by then Edeoga's ill-advised media goons had captured the crowd. Many of the people there cursed Edeoga and co, as they grumbled out of the despicable rally and its venue.

This is a lesson to Enugu people. While Obi is well-received, the people should beware of Edeoga and his co-travellers on the route to deceit. Edeoga has nothing to offer. He has shown he lacks the idea of what governance is all about. He is in the race because his Nwodo godfathers placed him there as a pawn in their bargain, waiting to trade him off to the highest bidder. Chijioke Edeoga, Okey Ezea and Chidi Obeta are chaffs and should be winnowed off the wheat. Such deceit is reprehensible and unseemly of someone who makes claims to moral piety; whereas, he is evil personified. 

Creating false impression of validation is one thing; translating that to real success at the polls is another. Edeoga has succeeded in deceiving the crowd and used it to create a false sense of approval at Nsukka, but the people are now much more angered at him, for having made a fool of them. At no time has Edeoga been rejected as now. The people of Nsukka zone will requite him in his coins for this 'anyi afurozi agu' brand of insult on the sensibilities of Ndi Nsukka. Nsukka has yet to forgive Edeoga for the slot of his running mate which naturally belongs to Nsukka by zoning and which Edeoga viciously ceded to Oji River River. Edeoga's claim that Nsukka is his DNA is also an act of insincerity. Edeoga whose fathers migrated to Eha-Amufu from Mgbidi in Imo State has no Nsukka blood in him, assuming without conceding that Edeoga is even the biological son of his purported parents, in that story has it that he is a Fulani adopted by his parents while they lived in the north and that evidently accounts for why he does not resemble any of his siblings like Eugene, Jide, Ndubuisi and Chimaroke.

The fact is that Chijioke, Ideke and Obeta have by this act of deceit shot themselves in the leg. Nsukka is not deceived. The crowd had surged and dispersed in anger. Nsukka at the polls will kill the tse-tse fly and display a palm of blood as a deterrent to would be knaves of Chijioke Edeoga proportion.