A combined photo of Mrs. Nonye Soludo and Senator Uche Ekwunife
By Victory Oghene
Between Mrs. Nonye Soludo the wife of Anambra State governor and the Deputy Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, Senator Uche Ekwunife, the battle line seems to have been drawn.
So bad is the situation that the former has challenged the latter to an oath of chastity and fidelity.
In a statement in response to Ekwunife’s attacks on her husband, herself and her children, the Anambra State First Lady said that by dragging her, and especially, her children, into the political smear campaign between her and the Governor, Senator Ekwunife has crossed the red line.
In the statement released on Saturday, Mrs Soludo said she had laughed off and ignored all and every of Ekwunife’s attacks, until the Senator dragged her children into the madness.
She said her attitude was: two people do not get mad at the same time and that when one pursues a mad person, could also be seen as mad. She said she refused to descend to Ekwunife’s level because there was no need for that and that she didn’t want to belittle herself. However, that decision collapsed when her children were also dragged in.
While emphasising her fidelity and faithfulness to her husband, her unquestionable adherence to her marriage vows taken 33 years ago, she challenged Ekwunife to say the same. She revealed that she married her husband, the Governor, as a virgin, and has known no other man all her life but her husband. She challenged Ekwunife to swear to an oath, in a Catholic Cathedral of her faithfulness to her husband. She also challenged Ekwunife to a paternity test for all their children in three reputable London hospitals, and assured she would pick the bills for the tests, airtickets and accommodation.
Mrs Soludo gave Senator Ekwunife a 72-hour ultimatum to retract her very damaging statements or face legal action.
Trouble started when Professor Charles Soludo, the incumbent Governor, who is seeking a second term in office, said at a Campaign rally that both Candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC, were parading fake educational certificates. Ekwunife is the Deputy Governorship Candidate of the APC and had submitted to INEC her certificate showing she has a doctorate degree. But Soludo had dismissed that certificate as fake from an unrecognised University in the United States of America which anybody could purchase for $60. She wondered why Ekwunife did not mention her first and second degree certificates in the credentials she submitted. He stated that Ekwunife has none.
The Governor declared that Anambra cannot be governed by two illiterates since, according to him, the APC Governorship Candidate, Nicholas Ukachukwu is even worse as he does not even possess a school certificate.
But an angry Ekwunife responded in an unprecedented manner. Declaring that she would go after any man, no matter how how, who dares run her down, she emphasised that she would also go after their wives and daughters even if she had to fabricate stories against them.
She opened the tap of insults. She said Soludo’s Professorship was awarded and not merited. But that was just the beginning. She questioned Soludo’s hygiene manners and asked him if nobody had told him before that his mouth smells and so do his armpits. He advised him to ask his wife to buy him a deodorant to take care of the alleged odour oozing from his armpits. Then, she descended on his wife, and gave the impression that she was making it out with a former Governor of the State – the late Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju.
Initially, Mrs Soludo dismissed the Ekwunife’s comments as “the usual Uche’s madness” and so, would not descend into trading tantrums.
But on a second thought on Saturday, the Anambra First Lady let loose, and accused Ekwunife of “crossing a dangerous red line by dragging her innocent children into political mudslinging.”
She reminded that in her initial response she was like “one should not exchange words with a madman because passersby may not know the difference” but she said Ekwunife has continued with her damaging allegations, and even boasts of “fabricating more lies and allegations to destroy her (the Soludo) family.”
She and her husband, she said, had laughed off Ekwunife’s outbursts as another episode of what she dismissed as “Ekwunife’s habitual tantrums, but the attack on her children makes silence impossible.”
She recalled her former relationship with Ekwunife, revealing she had hosted and fed Ekwunife and her children on several occasions in her home. She said she was shocked that the same woman she fed could “fabricate and spew all manner of invectives and criminal allegations” against her. Anybody who could say that, she insisted “can even kill.” Mrs Soludo disclosed that a number of people had asked her to ignore Ekwunife because “she is like a mad dog which has no shame or character and can, therefore, say or do anything anywhere.” But Mrs Soludo insisted that it was no longer the same, and posited that Ekwunife had met “a different season with a different woman.”
Mrs Soludo said “My weapons are decency, character, and grace. I am a long-distance runner, and I welcome you to the marathon,” she warned Ekwunife.
She said that she had lived a quiet family life, shunning publicity. Her distaste for politics, she said, stemmed from the “shameless obscenities” usually displayed by people like Ekwunife in the name of politics. Since Ekwunife’s allegations, she said she has been “inundated with hundreds of calls and messages offering her damaging information to use against the Senator, but said she would continue to show restraint, at least for now.”
Finally, Mrs Soludo gave Ekwunife a 72-hour ultimatum to recant her statements and issue an unreserved public apology. She warned that she has already put her lawyers on notice and would not delay to ensure justice if she fails to comply.
She listed three verifiable facts about her, and noted that she had never been under anybody’s but had always been a professional and entrepreneur both in Nigeria and abroad, “even when my husband served as CBN governor. She, also said she had never met the late Governor Mbadinuju before, contrary to Ekwunife’s claims.
In her 55 years on earth, she revealed that she had “known” only one man (her husband), and disclosed she married as a virgin to her husband whom she said she had remained faithful to for 33 years of marriage.
“This may be difficult for an Uche Ekwunife to comprehend”, she added.
Then she threw a challenge at Ekwunife. She asked the Senator to join her to swear to an oath of fidelity and chastity before the Blessed Sacrament at a Catholic Cathedral, alongside the Bible, within a month. She also said that she “and her children would swear that she had only ever known one man, her husband,” and dared Ekwunife to do the same by swearing that she had never been unfaithful to her husband.
She challenged Ekwunife to a paternity test in three reputable hospitals in London, and offered to pay for the entire process, including travel and hospital expenses. She said her and her family was ready for the tests between now and November. Mrs Soludo promised to congratulate Ekwunife with a cash award if the results confirmed that her husband is the father of all her children.
“As a woman of conservative Catholic upbringing, I pride myself in my chastity. What about you?”, Mrs Soludo threw at Uche.
Describing Ekwunife’s video rant against her husband as laughable and infantile, Mrs. Soludo then flaunted her husband’s credentials.
“Everyone knows the true source of her frustrations. My husband, a “globally celebrated professor, is too clean, too decent, and too sophisticated to waste his time on low lives.”
“Nwoke bu nwoke! Enough said for now.”
For the records, however, Ekwunife has a first and masters degree from the University of Calabar and Nnamdi Azikiwe Federal University, Enugu.
