I am Ginger Onwusibe.
I want to address the press and the public and formally respond to my purported rustication from the Abia State University, Uturu which has gone viral. First of all I want to state categorically that I was never involved and was never caught in any examination malpractice in any manner whatsoever.
I was elected in 2019 to represent my people, the good people of Isiala Ngwa North Constituency in the 7th Abia State House of Assembly. I hereby state without mincing words that it is my duty to make laws and to speak for my people, Isiala Ngwa North in particular and Ndi Abia in general. It is even more of my duty to speak for the down-trodden and the poor.
It was and it is in the performance of these my sacred duties that I fell out with the university authorities led by the then Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne (now PDP gubernatorial candidate and Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s political godson and anointed candidate).
My ordeal began barely one week after I moved a motion on the floor of the Abia State House of Assembly condemning the arbitrary, unnecessary and unprecedented high increase in the school fees of our revered state-owned University and my dear alma mater and school, Abia State University, Uturu. While moving the motion, I drew the attention of the House in details on how the fees were sharply increased up to 150% and that this will work extreme hardship on our poor parents. Of course, after my motion, the House of Assembly summoned the then Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ikonne to appear before it.
The video of my said motion went viral on different fora on social media platforms. This did not go down well with Prof. Ikonne who called me privately to complain that he is not happy with me for the motion I had moved and that I should not have moved such because we are both brothers from Isiala Ngwa.
However, it is worthy of note that I hold a Bachelors Degree and a Masters Degree respectively from Abia State University and I am currently a final year law student of same Abia State University having gained admission by direct entry.
Prof. Ikonne bitterly complained that being a student of the University, I cannot be fighting him at the same time.
Few days after my said motion, we began our 2018/2019 first semester examinations and I was in my second year. On the day for our Constitutional Law (LAW 217) examination, I was sick and had not come for the examination. However, later on that day, the news went viral that I was caught in examination malpractice; while some say I was caught in the act, others say that someone was caught writing examination for me. I learnt that one Oparah Chidera Hackney (a boy who I never knew until this incident and who I may not even recognize now) had claimed he was writing examination for me, Ginger Onwusibe. This was the height of embarrassment but I understood what it was all about; it was a set-up.
I was invited over by the then Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Sam Erugo, SAN for a probe into the incident. He showed me the answer script which they had recovered from the alleged criminal, Oparah Chidera Hackney who claimed he was writing for me and who in fact impersonated me. I looked at the answer script/booklet and saw that it was not even bearing my Matriculation Number. I drew the attention of the then Dean to this fact who upon verifying that the matriculation number was conflicting with mine, laughed and told me that I do not have any case.
Some weeks later, I was called on phone by one Prof. Uduma of the Political Science Department who informed me that he is heading an Investigative Panel on an alleged examination malpractice by me. He informed me of the day they will sit. It should be noted that they never formally served me a written invitation summoning me to the panel. The panel consisted of the said Prof. Uduma and Dr. Chizoba Okpara among a few other staff of the University. At the panel, the boy, Oparah Chidera Hackney was asked if he knew Ginger Onwusibe and he answered openly that he does not know Ginger Onwusibe. He stated that it was another boy, one Justice ………………….. who procured him to write exam for me, Ginger Onwusibe. The said Justice………………….. was invited over to the panel and he denied knowing and having any dealings with the said Oparah Chidera Hackney. The panel took over their phones to see if there were communications between the two boys and could not find any. The head of the Panel, Prof. Uduma told me in clear terms that I have no case and that I should go. I left.
I continued with my academics and finished my second year, writing all my exams and passing them unhindered. I also have all my second year results. I entered third year and finished same in 2019/2020 session. I also registered for and wrote exams in the said Constitutional Law (LAW 217) which I was absent for as stated hereinabove in my second year first semester and also passed same. I have also finished my fourth year in 2020/2021 session and have entered final year in this 2021/2022 academic session. I also have my first semester results for my fourth year. The second semester results are not yet out.
Let me fast-forward this story to 2022 and in this party primaries’ era. I was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I paid for and picked Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for the Federal House of Representatives and had begun consultation with party stakeholders. The Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu prevailed on me to go back to the State House of Assembly because, according to him, since his anointed candidate is from our Isiala Ngwa North, that to him it would be proper that the Federal House goes to Isiala Ngwa South. I obeyed him and jettisoned the forms I had bought for the Federal House of Representatives and went ahead, paid again and picked a new Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for the State House of Assembly.
Subsequently, I left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Labour Party to contest primaries for member of Federal House of Representatives because of the undemocratic practice(s) perpetrated by the PDP during the ad-hoc delegates’ elections and the subsequent party primaries elections. The PDP had instead of conducting ad-hoc delegates’ elections through voting at the ward levels as required by the party’s constitution, allowed the Governor to handpick his own choice of people. I had to leave as did scores of other aspirants and members of the Party.
My defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has not gone down well with Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and other aspirants from Isiala Ngwa North origin, particularly Prof. Ikonne and ACB Agbazuere (my opponent in the up-coming House of Representative election). The PDP made several attempts to bring me back to the party through the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, the State party Chairman, Rt. Hon. Asiforo Okere, Prof. Eleazar Uche Ikonne (the PDP gubernatorial candidate and Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s political godson and anointed candidate) among others who have put calls across to me either directly or through their cronies and agents but I rejected the pleas.
Now, I go to the gist proper and the crux of the matter. The current Vice Chancellor of Abia State University, Prof Maxwell Ogbulu invited me to his official residence at Uturu on Friday 3/6/2022 and I went at about noon. He narrated the reason why he had invited me. He told me that he is on a cross-road. According to him, Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu and Prof. Ikonne (the PDP gubernatorial candidate and Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s political godson and anointed candidate) instructed him to withdraw my Bachelors and Masters degrees respectively but that he refused and told the Governor that it will be a mockery which cannot fly because I had graduated long ago, have had my respective convocations with my name in various convocation brochures.
The Vice Chancellor stated further that they have been on his neck to resurrect the alleged 2019 examination malpractice issue which never indicted me; and that his job is at stake. The Vice Chancellor said they told him to find a way to write a report indicting me and rusticating me from the University over and in respect of the alleged examination malpractice which could not fly. He told me that Gov. Ikpeazu said he wants to teach me the lesson of my life for insulting him, for challenging him, for leaving the party and for calling him Pharaoh and even going ahead to sing: “Pharaoh leeee, anyi alawalaaaaa…” This was the song sung by me and my numerous supporters when we left the PDP and joined the Labour Party. He stated that Gov. Ikpeazu will forgive me if I return to his party, the PDP. He pleaded with me to go and beg Gov. Ikpeazu and that he will be ready to take me to him and plead for me.
I told the Vice Chancellor that I will not go to beg the Governor as I have done nothing wrong and did not commit any examination malpractice. I however told the Vice Chancellor not to allow the politicians rubbish our revered institution and alma mater. I warned him on the dangers of playing politics with academics and allowing politicians settle their scores with the instrumentality of the University as had been done to many in the past. I further told him to allow his conscience to always be his guide. So, I left him to his conscience and went home.
However, it was not long I returned to my house in Ntigha, Isiala Ngwa when a courier service delivery man arrived my residence and delivered a letter of Abia State University addressed to me and titled “RUSTICATION FOR ONE ACADEMIC SESSION 2021/2022. This is the letter you people are looking at now and how it has emerged.
I hereby state and condemn the attitude of using the University, an ivory tower and a place of higher learning as an instrument of oppression, suppression, victimization and unscrupulous political voyages.
The said letter of Rustication stated that Oparah Chidera Hackney admitted impersonating me on mutual agreement in the following courses in the first and second semesters of 2018/2019: Law 211 – Family Law, Law 225 – Legal System and Law 217 – Constitutional Law. I must say that this is laughable; one person kept impersonating me in three different courses in two different semesters and yet these were courses that I have passed in past examinations. I wrote all these courses by myself. The only problem I had was in Law 217 – Constitutional Law because I was absent. I re-registered the course in my third year, took the examination and passed. The records are there.
Can a student who was caught in exam malpractice and who had been indicted still be allowed to keep being a student, re-registering the course and passed same (for which he has now been purportedly indicted and rusticated) be allowed to move from the said second year then through to final year now? Is this not the academic mockery and joke of the century?
Is it also possible that my so called impersonator, the said Oparah Chidera Hackney who was allegedly caught red-handed and was alleged to have committed the offence of impersonation was not handed over to the police, was not arraigned in Court and not even rusticated by the acclaimed reputed University authorities?
How come that I was actually involved in exam malpractice (the most serious offence in the academic world, universally) and my rustication is taking place three good years after the said incident? There is more to it than meets the eyes. Let nobody be deceived!
It may interest you, ladies and gentlemen, to know that my said impersonator who the University authorities allege to have admitted to the impersonation, has long graduated from the University with a certificate in character and in learning while I, HON. OBINNA GINGER ONWUSIBE am being maligned, vilified and black-mailed for the sole reason that I left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and no longer subscribe to their oppressive political ideologies. What a justice system!
In summary, I submit and inform the general public and my teeming supporters that I was never involved in any exam malpractice and was never indicted by the Prof. Uduma led-Examination Malpractice Panel. They are only threatened by my rising political profile fired by the goodwill of my teeming supporters from the grassroots across the State. Nothing shall dampen my spirit in the service of my people.
No amount of intimidation or blackmail shall cow me from saying the truth and remaining on the path of truth.
They keep committing one blunder after another in their desperate move to silence the people opposed to their style of leadership and as Shakespeare rightly put it in one of his classics, Macbeth : “…things bad begun make strong themselves by ills…”
Abians, this is the mindset of the Abia Cabal who are leading you and who want to install one of their own to continue leading us. I urge all of us to join hands in resisting the disaster that is about to happen in Abia State come 2023.
What a desperate political voyage!
May God forbid that these kind of desperados will keep handling the affairs of our beloved State. Abia must be rescued and God will help us.
Thank you all.
Yours in the peoples’ service,
HON. SIR OKENZE GINGER ONWUSIBE, Onwa.
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