Did Uche Nwosu Make a Mistake taking Nwaogwugwu and Ughalaa to Court?

by Obidike Nwagwu

January 2022 came with court cases flying left and right with Mr Uche Nwosu, the son-in-law to former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha at the centre of the drama.

First was the suit filed against Sir Collins Chibueze Ughalaa KSC, alleging defamation of character, as Ughalaa had referred to Uche Nwosu as a “suspected criminal” in one of his articles, while reacting to the aftermath of Uche Nwosu’s arrest by security operatives, over yet to be disclosed reasons.

Then came the emergence of a court document, signed in June 2021, summoning Mr Ambrose Nwaogwugwu to court, for allegedly writing articles that were defamatory to Uche Nwosu’s image.

In both cases, Uche Nwosu is the plaintiff.

I begin to wonder whether Uche Nwosu took the right step in dragging these Imolites to court, or if he was ill advised, like he was when he took Precious Nwadike to court for blowing the whistle on the allegedly missing bailout funds.

In the case of Ambrose Nwaogwugwu, I have taken time to read through what Ambrose wrote in the same article against Uche Nwosu and I’m of the opinion that Nwosu might be wasting his time with that suit if Nwaogwugwu can prove that Nwosu was actually in charge of managing the bailout funds, as he alleged.

It is on record that Imo people are yet to be given closure on what happened to the billions collected by the Rochas Okorocha administration, as bailout, to help pay salaries and pensions.

It is also on record, that despite the bailout collected, not a single pensioner was paid by Okorocha for over seven years of his regime.

Ambrose Nwaogwugwu was not the person that alleged that money went missing in Uche Nwosu’s house. Mr. Precious Nwadike did and defended himself in court against Uche Nwosu successful over that matter.

So where is Nwaogwugwu’s crime for exercising his right as a citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to query a serving or former appointee, over allegedly missing monies? How did Nwaogwugwu then defame Nwosu as alleged? Did Nwosu not hold public office in Imo State?

Rather than dragging Nwaogwugwu to court, he owes Nwaogwugwu the duty to clarify him on what happened during Okorocha’s regime, by telling him that he (Nwosu), wasn’t in charge of disbursing the bailout and as such should not be queried on such matters.

But somebody advised to Nwosu run to the court and drag the concerned citizen Nwaogwugwu with him.

If you ask me, I don’t see a win here. Just another publicity hype for Nwaogwugwu, with Nwosu branded the big bad wolf in the end.

Coming to Ughalaa, I see a case of use of English language. Yes, that’s purely what it is.

Was Uche Nwosu arrested by Nigerian security operatives? Yes. Did he give a statement before he was released? Yes, he confirmed it on video.

Let me tell you, if somebody is arrested under suspicion of committing a crime, until he or she is cleared of the crime, he or she is a suspect and as such a “criminal suspect”

The action word here is “suspect”. Clearly those who advised Nwosu to take Ughalaa to court were either being mischievous and wanted to make money off Nwosu through legal charges, or were bad students of GST 101.

If Ughalaa had not used that word “suspect”, then I would be urging him to start looking for where he can borrow ₦350million or go and prostate before Uche Nwosu and beg for mercy.

But Ughalaa knows his tenses..

Like in the suit against Nwaogwugwu, yet again I don’t see a viable case, just another publicity stunt that benefits only the defendant.

If I were to advise our former Chief of Staff, I’ll suggest he shuns the legal angle in addressing certain issue, especially ones like these, which clearly shows that there wasn’t proper consultation made about them, before they were ventured into.