Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state has granted clemency to convicted native doctor Chidozie Nwangwu, popularly known as Akwa Okuko Tiwara Aki, and appointed him Ambassador for Youth Reformation in the state.
Nwangwu was among eight native doctors arrested last year over alleged involvement in the promotion of money rituals, quick-wealth schemes and the use of human parts for ritual purposes.
Following his arrest, he entered into a plea bargain with the Anambra State Government earlier this year and was subsequently sentenced to 11 months in prison.
He was committed to the Nigeria Correctional Service facility in Amawbia, Anambra State, with conditions attached to his rehabilitation, including renouncing his fetish practice and taking up a role as an ambassador for youth reformation.
Nwangwu accepted the conditions and had been serving his sentence until Soludo exercised his prerogative of mercy.
The governor’s Special Adviser on Youth Reformation, Nelson Omenugha, disclosed the development on Friday, saying Soludo announced the pardon during a visit to the correctional facility.
Omenugha described the decision as a reflection of the state’s approach to youth rehabilitation, stressing that the objective was not limited to punishment.
He said the governor’s intervention had given Nwangwu an opportunity to assume a new responsibility and contribute to the state’s youth reformation programme.
“Thank you, Mr Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, for graciously extending your hand of mercy to Chidozie Nwangwu (Akwa Okuko Tiwara Aki) and giving him a new responsibility as Ambassador for Youth Reformation.
“This is the heart of Youth Reformation: not just punishment, but correction, restoration, a new purpose and A New Onye Anambra,” Omenugha said.
Meanwhile, the Anambra State Government has disclosed that deductions are being made from the state’s monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee revenue to service loans it said were obtained by the administration of former Governor and presidential candidate of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi.
The state’s Commissioner for Information and Value Reorientation, Law Mefor, made the disclosure on Friday while appearing on Arise Television’s The Morning Show amid an ongoing dispute over the financial record of Obi’s administration.
Mefor said the fact that some of the facilities were guaranteed by the Fe
deral Government did not make them grants or exempt the state from repayment.
“First and foremost, a loan is a loan, and whether it is sovereign or not, even an interest-free loan is still a loan. The FAAC allocations to Anambra State are being deducted every month to service the separate loans taken by the Peter Obi administration,” he said.
According to the commissioner, the facilities were among eight external loans guaranteed by the Federal Government, adding that states had the choice of participating in the lending programmes.
He cited Soludo’s decision not to participate in the Nigeria CARES programme financed by the World Bank as an example of a state government declining such a facility.
“So Obi had the opportunity to either take or not to take. So if you take, you take the responsibility,” Mefor said.
He put the external facilities attributed to Obi’s administration at $123m and argued that the obligations should be considered when assessing the former governor’s financial record.
Mefor said the loans were obtained to fund various development programmes, stressing that the central issue was not whether borrowing was inherently wrong but whether Obi’s assertion that he did not take loans was accurate.
“The point I’m trying to make is simple: he took loans, and he said he didn’t take,” he said.
The commissioner also disputed Obi’s claim that he left Anambra without financial liabilities when he handed over power in 2014.
“And he said also that he did not pass down any financial liabilities that accrued from loans that he took. That is also not correct,” Mefor added.
The latest claims come amid renewed exchanges over Obi’s stewardship of Anambra, following his denial that he left behind outstanding debts, unpaid salaries, pensions, gratuities or obligations to contractors when he left office in 2014.