The lawmaker representing Emohua/Ikwerre Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, Chief Andrew Uchedu, has accused former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Austin Opara, of allegedly assaulting him at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Uchendu stated this during an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt.
He said: “I took the 11am flight of Arik Air to Abuja from Port Harcourt. Also on board the flight was the former Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Austin Opara. At the arrival hall, I was accosted by Hon. Austin Opara who asked me: ‘you granted an interview where you said that I, Austin Opara knelt down and begged Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, when he was Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly to help make me (Austin) Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives’, and I answered in the affirmative”, Uchendu said.
Continuing, Uchendu said shortly after he narrated the role he played as the Chairman of the political tink-tank in Ikwerre ethnic nationality, a position he holds to date, Opara abused and cursed him severally without justifiable reasons.
“After asking me where did that happen, he (Opara) then abused me, cursed me that how can an old man like me tell lies, and I challenged him to invite me to an appropriate venue and time, I would then give him the full details of what transpired, and how he even pleaded, knelt down and begged Rotimi Amaechi to make him Deputy Speaker,” Uchendu explained.
He further stated how Opara pleaded at the Ogbakor Ikwerre Convention and also told the Ogbakor Ikwerre to thank Amaechi for making him become the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“As I just said that, I started walking away when he held me by the ankle, pushed me aside, and said, he was going to slap the hell out of me. I couldn’t say much than to challenge him to do that if he was a man. He held me and pushed me before the airport security staff intervened and held me back. And all this was happening in the presence of Hon. Asita O. Asita, another member of the House of Representatives from Rivers State”.
Uchendu noted that the assault on him by Opara was very humiliating and condemnable.
“Well definitely, I would not stoop to such a level to retaliate, but, I felt he should have had better exposure from home or would have learnt something in the high office he occupied. If he did, he would have known that the arrival hall of the Abuja Airport was the most inappropriate place to confront me, not to talk of engaging in any physical assault on my person and I believe that I heard him say”, look at this old man, who is more than 70”, I am sure he has no respect for old age …”, Uchendu said.
In the political divide and crisis in Rivers State, Uchendu is a staunch, unrepentant supporter of Governor Rotimi Amaechi while Opara is a known loyalist of Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike.
