"I sprang up from my seat in defense and immediately, over a hundred youths gathered and started attacking me, and tore my clothes,” - Mrs. Mariam Nneamaka Ali, wife of former PDP national chairman.
Decorum was said to have been thrown into the wind Friday, when the Delta State Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and youths suspected to be loyal to the party chairman, allegedly in broad day light beat up and tore the clothes off the wife of the former PDP national chairman, Mrs. Mariam Nneamaka Ali.
The show of shame occurred when the State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, had waited to come and perform the formal commissioning of the newly built state secretariat of the party. It was a presentation of vehicles to the 25 local government party chairmen in the state.
A SaharaReporters correspondent learned that trouble started at the state party secretariat following a heated argument between the state party chairman, and the wife of the former PDP national chairman. It was all over a seat.
In recalling her ordeal, the wife of the former PDP national chairman, Mrs. Mariam Nneamaka Ali, alleged that as a Board of Trustee member of the party, she had been, on several occasions, ‘sidelined’ by the state party chairman and others.
According to Nneamaka Ali, “A PDP stakeholder meeting was held in Abuja and as a Board member member, I was deliberately not invited and just today, another stakeholder meeting was held at the state party secretariat. The same time the same thing happened, I was not informed until someone called me that since I am in town, it will be nice and wise for me to attend, and I went.
On arrival, I saw two vacant seats besides the former deputy governor, Chief Benjamin Elue, and the speaker, Mr. Peter Onwusanya. I quietly seated [myself] and immediately, to my surprise, the MC of the ceremony publicly announced that where I was seated was not meant for me,” she said.
“As that was happening, the state party chairman, Peter Nwaoboshi, was called to the scene, and walked up to me, and asked me to stand up from the seat. And before anyone could say, ‘Jack Robinson,’ he gave me several severe slaps on my face, and started fighting me, and I sprang up from my seat in defense and immediately, over a hundred youths gathered and started attacking me, and tore my clothes,” she stated angrily in recalling her ordeal.
Also recalling the incident in the same vein, a former political assistant to the state governor and PDP stalwart, Mr. Okocha Victor, who corroborated Mrs. Ali’s statement, stated that what actually took place today shows that ‘the wife of the former PDP national chairman was ganged-up on,’ and made to be humiliated. He said before now, there was a congress and the party local chairman, the speaker and the state party chairman, Peter Nwaoboshi, manipulated the local government party list. He removed the duly elected executive members after allegedly forging the party’s national legal adviser and signature.
“She was manhandled, humiliated and pushed away. Her gold necklace and other valuables were lost in the process. Chief Solomon Obga, the speaker, former deputy governor, and others, were there but nobody could do anything. Nwaoboshi forgot so soon how he was brought from the trenches, and made what he is today by the same woman he has fought. This was the same woman who made him that he is fighting because of his tall ambition that he will never achieve,” Okocha Victor said.
“This was same Nwaoboshi who was given N60million, by the then PDP national chairman, Bamaga Turku, to dispose to the local government party chairmen, and he ‘seized the money’ till date. He has a penchant of collecting money from people, and the good people of Delta North will never have such a dubious character as a senator representing them come 2015,” Okocha Victor added with anger in his voice.
Giving his own side of the story, the state party chairman, Chief Peter Nwaoboshi, debunked the allegations of anyone, including himself, fighting the wife of the former PDP national chairman, Dr Mrs. Mariam Nneamaka Ali.
According to Nwaoboshi, “She was the one who attacked me, tore my shirt, and slapped me twice. She went and sat on the chair reserved for the state deputy governor, and the security agents approached her to look for somewhere else to sit, and she ‘flared up,’ saying she is a member of Board, and who is the deputy governor. All efforts to pacify her failed, and she walked up to me and
asked me if I knew she is a member of Board. I told her that I don’t know if she is a member of the BOT by my records. And the next thing I saw was a slap on my face, twice, and she tore my shirt.
“People were there, persons like the former deputy governor, the 25 local government party chairmen, security agents were all there, to confirm what I have just told you. Despite the provocation, I did not retaliate. Even when she slapped me twice, and tore my shirt to shreds. She could have been lynched if not for my intervention and the elders of the party,” Nwaoboshi stated.