…Says a man who was cursed by many clergymen is unfit to win election in the zone.
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BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
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Concerned citizens of Nsukka raised concerns over the anointing of Chief Ikeje Asogwa as the Senatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), calling him a man endowed in many vices.
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The group also wonders why Dr. Ben Nwoye, who worked as the leader of the opposition party in the state and condemned his atrocious act towards the Permanent Secretary of Enugu State Universal Education Board (ENSUBEB), would stoop so low as to support someone with such a questionable character to fly the party’s ticket.
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In a write-up circulated online by the National Publicity Secretary of the group, Chief Ezeja Abugu, and sent to newsmen, he stated that:
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The group noted that the development has generated widespread reactions across Nsukka Zone, with many residents expressing shock over what they described as an attempt to impose a controversial figure on the people.
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It further maintained that the ongoing political developments surrounding the bye-election have brought to the fore questions about accountability, credibility, and the standards expected of public office holders in Enugu State.
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According to the group, the situation calls for careful scrutiny by stakeholders, insisting that the electorate deserves a candidate whose public record aligns with the expectations of integrity and responsible leadership.
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“It is no longer news that Okey Ezea, the senator who represented Enugu North Senatorial District of Enugu State, passed on in November 2025, leaving a leadership vacuum in the senatorial zone. Ideke, as Sen. Ezea was more popularly called, was a man endeared to his people as one who stood true to his convictions. While almost all the state and federal legislators elected under the platform of the Labour Party in Enugu State with him later defected to the then viable PDP, Ideke remained with the Labour Party. He was also a voice to reckon with at the Red Chambers, always bringing issues of Nsukka Zone, as his senatorial district is popularly called, to the fore and ensuring they got the right attention.”
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“It is also no longer news that a bye-election to replace Ideke is underway.”
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He enumerated some ill acts by Chief Asogwa towards his Permanent Secretary as ENSUBEB boss in 2017 that have made him ineligible to the public.
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“What is news now, however, is that the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party in Enugu State, is being rumoured to have chosen as its candidate for the bye-election a man whom many in Enugu State, and Nsukka Zone in particular, are still battling to erase his ugly antecedents from their memories. The man is no other person than Chief Ikeje Asogwa, a man richly endowed in many vices.”
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“To recall a few of Chief Ikeje’s many heinous transgressions, sometime in 2017, while he served as the Chairman of Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB), Chief Ikeje viciously assaulted the then Permanent Secretary of the Board, Onaga Ogbodo, so much that all well-meaning citizens of Enugu State both at home and in the diaspora condemned the attack and even called for his removal from office.”
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“What led to the attack by Chief Ikeje on Onaga Ogbodo was later unofficially disclosed to be as a result of the latter’s insistence on due process in the management of the affairs of the Board which Chief Ikeje headed. Ikeje not only assaulted Ogbodo but stripped him bare in the full glare of the staff of ENSUBEB and the public. Furthermore, in his obsession with obscenity, he ordered thugs he worked with to make videos of the unclad Ogbodo and circulate them online, a charge the thugs carried out to the letter.”
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“When Ikeje and his thugs had feasted abundantly on Ogbodo, he further ordered his police details to complete the work, and so Ogbodo was eventually left pummeled to the point of near comatose by the overzealous policemen.”
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He wondered why Dr. Ben Nwoye, who fought against his atrocious act towards one of his permanent secretaries as Chairman of ENSUBEB, would stoop so low as to accept the issuance of his party’s noble ticket to a character he condemned in 2017 as Enugu State APC Chairman.
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“During that period, Enugu State almost went up in flames due to the disgust everyone felt at that incident. Many voices rose in condemnation of Ikeje, including that of Ben Nwoye, the immediate past State Chairman of the APC in Enugu State and currently a Zonal Vice Chairman of the APC, who was the Chairman of the APC in Enugu State then. As an opposition figure in Enugu State, Chief Nwoye roundly condemned the vicious attack on Ogbodo and even called on the then Governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, of the then PDP, to relieve Ikeje of his duties.”
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“If Chief Nwoye has suddenly decided to forget, the Daily Punch Newspaper of the 14th day of December 2017 copiously quoted Chief Nwoye as saying: ‘Sweeping the heinous and barbaric act under the carpet portends serious danger to the growth of democracy in Enugu State because it shocks the conscience that a permanent secretary could be brutalised, humiliated and stripped on the premises of ENSUBEB with pictures of his nakedness shown all over by hired thugs led by the chairman of the board, Asogwa, without a pronouncement from the government.’”
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“Even the organised labour in Enugu State at the time issued a stern statement, giving a 14-day ultimatum to the government of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to investigate the incident and threatening to down tools if nothing was done.”
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“But nothing was eventually done as Ikeje was a man ever ready to abuse influence, which was not in short supply to him then.”
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He also recalled how Chief Ikeje’s victim made frantic efforts to get justice during the EndSARS period, which all failed.
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“Ogbodo eventually retired without getting justice, though in 2021, following the setting up of a panel of inquiry by the same government of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi on police brutality in Enugu State as an aftermath of the ENDSARS protest, he, still searching for justice, petitioned Chief Ikeje and the policemen who dehumanised him before the panel. What became of that petition is a story for another day.”
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“Ikeje’s brutalisation of Ogbodo is not an isolated case. Even his wife, who has, by the way, escaped for her life, has never been left out of Ikeje’s beastly dispositions. Many prominent personalities in Nsukka Zone had at various times intervened to save Ikeje’s wife from what is more like domestic terrorism than domestic violence. When the woman could not hang on any longer, she ran for her life, and Ikeje is currently without a wife.”
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“Beyond physically assaulting people, Ikeje is also a known sex predator, sexually molesting women at every opportunity, including during his time at ENSUBEB, when he molested almost every female staff member of the Board.”
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He also recalled how the clergy cursed his character because of his vicious acts, adding that his character is not befitting for such a position, while also recalling his alleged involvement with drugs.
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“Have we also forgotten Ikeje’s encounter with the revered Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Enugu, Bishop Ernest Obodo, the present CAN President, Enugu State, which earned him a curse from the Church?”
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“Chief Ikeje Asogwa is reportedly a drug-prone person, and most of his violent dispositions have been attributed to his excessive romance with narcotics.”
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“And this is the character that the same APC that stood against him in 2017 and beyond now wishes to launder, package, and sell to the voting population in Enugu North Senatorial Zone?”
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“Chief Ikeje Asogwa represents everything but decency, integrity, and responsibility. One does not even need to bother about the fact that Ikeje Asogwa cannot speak coherently to an audience for ten minutes. Reading a prepared speech is also herculean for him.”
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He also questioned the silence of some notable leaders of the state in allowing APC to commit such an error by giving him their senatorial ticket: “Has Ben Nwoye and the APC forgotten so soon? Why is His Excellency, former Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi keeping quiet? Why is Hon. Dr. Pat Asadu mute? Do they mean well for the APC in Enugu State? Or do they want a repeat of the 2023 experience of the PDP? Chief Ikeje Asogwa is an inherently defective product, and marketing him will require something beyond miracles.”
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“Nsukka people are very enlightened, and beyond the noise and razzmatazz of political endorsements (which are purely political), the voting populace in Nsukka will prefer any other candidate to Ikeje Asogwa.”
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“This bye-election will be the test for the current APC in Enugu State. It will be disastrous to start on a wrong footing.”
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“Nsukka Zone would need not just another senator, but a suitable replacement for Okey Ezea. And Chief Ikeje Asogwa comes nowhere close.”
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He called on Peter Ndubuisi Mbah to, as a matter of urgency, avert such a mistake before it brings failure to his party.
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“Gov. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, do not soil your hands wanting to clean up Chief Ikeje Asogwa. You cannot wash him clean, and you will not end up unstained either. Listen to this advice. Ignore whatever any purported leader in Nsukka Zone is telling you to the contrary. Do not create unnecessary work for your administration. Ikeje is a baggage too heavy to pull along your political journey.”
