Ecstatic jubilation today swept Fugar, the home village in Edo State of the fallen Mike Oghiadomhe, and the youth there promise to gather again on Wednesday to pass a formal vote of no confidence on him.
Tuesday’s celebration started when news spread in the area of yesterday’s fall of their kinsman from the highest levels of the federal government as Chief of Staff to President Goodluck Jonathan.
Sources in the village told us that a group of youths gathered at a nearby area of the Etsako Central Local Government office to express their ‘joy and happiness’ over the removal of Oghiadomhe from the cabinet of Mr. Jonathan.
In an instant demonstration of the unpopularity of Oghiadomhe, who previously served as former deputy governor of Edo State, the youths were said to have been joined by market women, artisans, the unemployed, traders, students and motorcyclists, some of them dancing and singing.
Motorists plying the roads were said to have been locked in their cars as the crowds and their jubilations grew.
A lecturer at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) who was in the village for a meeting told SaharaReporters on the phone, “The street of Fugar was agog like a road show, with youths and market woman in their numbers dancing upon the news of Mr Mike’s removal”.
According to one of the youth leaders, Oghiadomhe’s presence in the presidency had attracted embarrassment but no federal projects to the area.
He said 80% percent of inhabitants and indigenes of Fugar welcomed his sacking and purported resignation, stating that on many occasions they visited him in his Abuja office but that the efforts yielded no gain.
“We visited his office in Abuja to table many issues concerning our community,” he recalled. “He [would] promise us to come back. There are even times his secretary will tell us he is not the office and has travelled for official assignment.
“It was when we were tired of visiting Abuja and risking our lives that we settled for our faith. You will only see him visiting the village at night and leaving very early. This is bad for our so called politicians. We even see him as stingy man who doesn’t joke with money,” he revealed.
Also speaking to our correspondent, a very angry woman in the village described the former President Chief of Staff as a “promise and failure man,” slang for a man who does not keep his word.
“No meaningful development entered this community during his reign as the Chief of Staff to Mr Jonathan, she said, and then breaking into pidging, added, “Na so so empty promises we dey hear. Common empowerment programme Oga Mike know do for his village.
Expressing happiness at his removal, she invited him to “come home and settle down instead of rubbishing us all on the name of representation at the Federal level.”
In addition to other corruption allegations already published by SaharaReporters, Oghiadomhe famously appropriated a large swathe of land belonging to some of the villagers in his area.
Public Accountability League has published several documents indicating that the fallen government bigwig owns extensive real estate in Abuja and London, including a N1.3billion mansion in Aso Villa listed as 3 Udi Hill Street.
SAHARAREPORTERS
