January 28, 2010
Andy Uba, former domestic aide to President Olusegun Obasanjo, is working hard to conceal cracks in his domestic life even as most political observers believe that his odds of winning the Anambra governorship election on February 6 are extremely low. Our investigations, based on interviews with sources close to Mr. Uba, his wife and his pastor-lover, indicate that the former presidential assistant is fighting a battle of a life time as he tries to wriggle out of a domestic crisis he unwittingly created in his many efforts to run rings around the stupendous wealth he amassed while serving Obasanjo. Uba snatched up the gubernatorial ticket of the Labour Party after the Court of Appeal sitting in Enugu roundly rejected his daring quest to be pronounced Anambra’s “governor-in-waiting.” He was for two weeks imposed as the governor of Anambra in 2007 before a seven-justice panel of the Supreme Court voided his fraudulent election, and asked Governor Peter Obi to finish out his tenure.
But Uba’s current gubernatorial run has been hampered both by his personal unpopularity, his reduced financial war chest, the absence of a sponsor like Obasanjo, and the frictions created by serious in-fighting featuring his wife and his lover, Ms. Faith Vedelago.
The current crisis, which is threatening to engulf Andy Uba’s family, has its roots in 2007. Shortly after the former domestic aide was sworn into office in Anambra state, Uba ordered state officials responsible for the production of the portrait of the state’s “first lady” from producing those of Oby, his wife of 25 years. Uba’s strange order, we learned, was at the instance of the “pastor” he was dating and had secretly married in Paris by December 2008, by some accounts. But before the controversy generated by Uba’s order could become public, he was kicked out of office by the apex court.
Saharareporters had earlier on published reports on the scandal rocking the Uba as a result of the former aide’s well known affair with Ms. Faith Vedelago (popularly called “Pastor Faith”). The Abuja-based light-skinned pastor who is notorious for her flashy personality is seen by Uba’s associates as the architect of the crisis.
Faith Vedelago and her mother, known as Ms. Charity, figured as facilitators who assisted some of former President Obasanjo’s close allies to launder huge sums of money at the height of the corrupt activities that characterized the Obasanjo administration.
Our sources pointed to “Pastor” Faith as one of the central conduits used by Uba to launder “some of his fortune,” said the source.
Uba, who is known to nurse a soft spot for light-skinned women, grew close to Ms. Faith purely out of the need to safeguard his investments and looted funds, some of which was in Ms. Faith’s custody. The “pastor” currently lives in Uba’s mansion in the highbrow Maitama district. The mansion, conservatively valued at 1.5 billion naira, was bought in the dying days of Obasanjo’s administration.
Oby, Uba’s wife of 25 years, confided her distress to close friends and family. One such confidant said she often cried and threatened to expose her husband over reports that he had wedded Ms. Faith in a secret wedding outside the country last year. However, she was convinced to keep mum about her husband’s indiscretions and secret marriage in order not to jeopardize Uba’s lawsuits seeking to be returned to Government House, Awka.
But our sources disclosed that the issue of Andy’s relationship with Ms. Faith and the attendant hostility re-surfaced days after the Appeal Court finally dismissed Uba’s suit.
A very close friend of the couple who spoke on condition of anonymity told Saharareporters that Mrs. Oby Uba had demanded her husband’s complete severance of any relationship with Ms. Faith as a condition for her support and loyalty to Andy throughout his legal quest to regain the office of governor. “She demanded that Andy should take steps to remedy their marriage, which his relationship with the lady pastor had threatened,” said the source.
Mrs. Oby Uba was upset that her husband no longer attended church services with his family as he used to before his romantic entanglement with the pastor, herself a divorcee. He began to attend “Pastor” Faith’s church called Faith Miracle International Centre in the Wuse 11 District of the Capital city of Abuja. He frequently spent the night with the lady pastor in his Maitama mansion.
Even though the former domestic aide did not fully comply with his wife’s demands, their relationship improved enough that Mrs. Oby Uba late last year celebrated her birthday with her family, including her husband who entertained guests at a party he hosted for his wife.
But the seeming tranquility was shattered days after when some religious pamphlets and books authored by “Pastor” Faith were launched at her church’s new edifice.
Behind one of the books, titled The Power of Choice (a copy of which was obtained by saharareporters) Ms. Faith claims that she’s married with children. It is public knowledge that Ms. Faith Vedelago is divorced with a daughter who is said to be about 11 years now. Andy Uba did not attend the book launch, but sources within the church said he had provided enough financial and logistical support to ensure the success of the event.
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Oby, Uba’s legally known wife, was jolted by the claims of Ms. Vadelago that she is married with children. A source close to her told us that, although her husband’s name was not mentioned on the book cover, Mrs. Uba finally came to terms with the likelihood that the alleged secret wedding between her husband and the Lady Pastor may well be true. Her friends and supporters then vowed to fight “this tomapep pastor,” as one of them described her, for reaping where she did not sow.
“If she’s a true believer, why is she chasing after a married man with four grown up children?” asked one of Mrs. Uba’s confidants who spoke to us. Uba’s oldest child is over 21 years.
Mrs. Uba is said to be pressuring the former aide to publicly deny the rumors about the secret wedding so as to repair relations between them. But Uba has so far refused to do so.
As Uba struggles to make himself a credible candidate in the governorship election, he is being dogged by the domestic squabbles, said a source close to him.
Another source within his campaign organization also added that Uba was no longer as forthcoming with doling out cash as he used to be during his whirlwind campaign in 2007. The source said Uba had complained to some associates that some of the fronts he used to amass wealth were “acting funny when he asked them to forward cash to him.”
One of those fronts is said to be Sayyu Dantata, a younger brother to Mr. Aliko Dangote.
His campaign sometimes hampered by cash flow problems, Uba is reportedly looking to Maurice Iwu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to come to his rescue by calling the election for him.
Uba was responsible for Iwu’s appointment as INEC chair. However, a source said Uba was no longer certain of Iwu’s loyalty since the INEC chairman has made verbal commitments to Mrs. Uchenna Ekwunife to declare her the winner of the February 6 polls.
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