in the House of Representatives, Hon. Uko Nkole, appears to be using the
sufferings of his constituents over the COVID-19 lockdown to play
politics and settle scores with his opponents.Nkole had donated N5,000 cash and ten cups of rice to a widow, Mrs
Agboho Nwaigwe, mother of his opponent, Mr. John Sunday Nwaigwe. Few
hours after the donation, Nkole’s aides posted the gifts on the
lawmaker’s page on facebook , mocking Nwaigwe as someone who couldn’t
take care of his mother.
However, responding to the lawmaker’s Greek gift, the widow’s son,
Nwaigwe, later returned the lawmaker 10 cups of rice and the cash of
N5,000 to him and bought a bag of rice and gave N20,000 cash to his
mother.
Sources told Pointblanknews.com that Nwaigwe has been an unrepentant
critic of the lawmaker on social media, portraying evidences of his non
performance in his about 5years stay at the National Assembly.
The sources added that the lawmaker has been worried over Nwaigwe’s
activities in exposing the poor state of infrastructure in his
constituency. Nwaigwe had urged Nkole to provide food items to cushion
the effects of the lockdown on his constituents.
Nkole, who is on his second term in the House of Reps, is said to be
nursing a governorship ambition to succeed Governor Okezie Ikpeazu in
2023 and has been consulting with PDP stakeholders across the state,
particularly those believed to be close to the governor.
A constituent, Kalu Agwu , said the lawmaker who hails from the same
Abam community in Arochukwu local government area, may have plotted to
mock Nwaigwe by donating the items to his mother and asking his aides
to make a video of it.
According to Agwu, “No sooner than the widow received the gifts than Uko
Ukole’s aides who made a video of the donation shared it on his facebook
page mocking Nwaigwe. They brandished videos and pictures of the widow
receiving ten cups of rice and a cash gift of N5, 000. There is no doubt
that Uko Nkole did it to portray the widow as a beggar and ridicule her
son as incapable of taking care of her. But as soon as the video went
viral, John Sunday Nwaigwe returned the 10 cups of rice and a cash of
N5, 000, to Nkole and presented a bag of rice and a cash of N20, 000 to
his widowed mother.
“We have over 5,000 women and widows in Arochukwu/Ohafia federal
Constituency, but he singled out the aged widow for the food items to
vilify her and her son. Is she the only widow in Arochukwu/Ohafia
federal constituency?”
A cross section of residents of Abam community, who condemned the
action, disclosed that the lawmaker is noted for vindictiveness,
stressing that he has been unable to assist members of his immediate
family, most of who lack jobs.
In their words; “Those of us, who know Uko Nkole and his family too well
are not disturbed by his activities because he has not been able to
emancipate his family members out of abject poverty. Can Uko Nkole tell
the world why his brothers, uncles and aides are languishing in poverty?
His uncle, Godwin Nkole, alias Okula, is roaming about in Umuahia with
the lawmaker doing nothing.
“If his family members were comfortable, would his younger brother,
Jimmy Nkole have sold his uncompleted building in Ozu Abam to another
person to build a pure water factory just because of his inability to
pay back a loan of less than a million naira he took from a bank?
“If his family members were also comfortable as he has claimed, would
their only sister, Jessica Nkole be wondering the whole of Abam
aimlessly all in her bid to make ends meet? If he has been taking care
of his aides, would his media aide, Ibem Onwuka Ibem, at his age, still
live in Nkole’s detached boys’ quarter in his house along BCA road,
Umuahia?, the constituents queried.
Efforts to get Nkole’s reaction to the allegations were unsuccessful as
his mobile phone kept ringing without response.