Abia State House of Assembly has found itself in a difficult situation to extricate itself from an embarrassing event involving two of its members over alleged sharing of money. Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo captures the concentric layer of doubts that follows every explanation by the dramatis personae.
For a legislature that cuddles opacity in its affairs, the Eighth Abia State House of Assembly got a big jolt when an uncomfortable story and accompanying picture surfaced on the internet. It was about a bloody exchange between two lawmakers over the sharing formula of a financial gift. The largese was said to have come from Governor Alex Otti in appreciation for a legislative job done for him by the House.
The money sharing meeting in Aba at the home of Hon Fyne Ahuama, who represents Osisioma Ngwa South State Constituency,
could have passed off quietly without attracting public attention more so as only the ruling Labour Party caucus was involved. But Hon Akachukwu Ucheonye, who represents Aba Central State Constituency, came out with a bloodied head hence the cat was eventually let out of the bag.
For almost two months the incident that happened in August, 2025, was covered and sealed up. However, the veil was lifted when an ostensibly interested person decided to leak the information to an online platform.
A distressing photo of Ucheonye with a gash on the right side of his head oozing blood was trending.
A video clip depicting him receiving medical attention also surfaced. While the lawmakers were taken aback by the exposure of the aftermath of their secret dealing, the Abia opposition camp feasted on the rather scandalous incident.
According to reports, the apple of discord was an unspecified amount of money meant as a pat on the back after a supplementary budget of N150 billion was hurriedly passed in the last week of July. The way and manner the supplementary budget was passed by the Abia Assembly left much to be desired. It was passed with no amendment whatsoever and the speed with which the passage of the bill into law was carried out succeeded in not attracting media attention.
It was on August 15, 2025 that Governor Otti acknowledged the existence of the supplementary appropriation during his monthly media chat. He merely mentioned it in passing while giving updates on the progress of work on his projects, saying the Assembly had “already passed the supplementary budget”.
He neither mentioned the figure involved nor elaborated on why he asked for additional N150 billion barely six months into the implementation of the N750.3 billion Abia “Budget of sustained momentum” in 2025.
The executive supplementary appropriation which was sponsored by the Majority Leader was lauded by the lawmakers. They could not conceal their eargerness to do the bidding of the Abia chief executive after the House Speaker, Rt Hon Emmanuel Emeruwa, had read the accompanying correspondence from the Governor. He stated that the bill was meant for the services of Abia Government for the year ending December 31, 2025, and for other related purposes.
To underscore the urgency of the supplementary appropriation bill tagged HAB 33, Emeruwa pledged accelerated passage. In elaborating on the bill, the Majority Leader described it as “a straightforward bill” that needs no amendment. He emphasised that the support of every member of the House was needed for its accelerated passage in view of the infrastructural development activities of Governor Otti across the state.
Having done its own part of the bargain, it wouldn’t be any surprise if Otti decided to follow the tradition by saying thank you to the lawmakers. The Majority Leader was said to have requested a higher figure given the role he had played in the speedy passage of the supplementary appropriation. But the Aba central lawmaker countered him and in the ensuing altercation, blows were thrown using injurious objects. An aide to a lawmaker, who witnessed the fracas, but insisted on maintaining anonymity, disclosed that Hon Ucheonye started the fracas. Ucheonye was said to have been worked into a rage following reprimands by his colleagues over sharing formula and his general financial dealings that raise eyebrows. He threw his drink at the Majority Leader, who apparently infuriated by the effrontery of his colleague, responded in kind. Hon Okoro was said to have spontaneously smashed the object he was holding on the head of Hon Ucheonye in retaliation.
Later, the Abia State lawmakers went to London to cool off, forgetting that nothing scandalous had happened at home. However, another scandalous incident reportedly awaited them in London, as the lawmakers were said to have openly quarrelled over the sum of N1 billion given to them for the foreign trip. Though the offshore altercation has not been substantiated, the Abia House has made feeble efforts to address the local and foreign scandalous outings.
As the scandal kept gaining velocity, the major dramatis personae in the alleged fisticuffs of lawmakers, Hon Ucheonye issued a statement, denying being wounded by his colleague. “There was no such incident, and at no time did any form of altercation — verbal or physical — occur between myself and the Majority Leader,” he declared. The denial was not convincing and the House of Assembly leadership had to come to his aid.
In a tepid rebuttal the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon Augustine Okezie Meregini reportedly denied that the two incidents happened, describing the reports as “false and malicious”. He even went as far as explaining the wound on the head of Hon Ucheonye, saying the wound “sustained was from his car door accident, and that was a long time ago”.
“To be clear, no such incident ever took place. There was never any disagreement, let alone a physical fight, between Hon. Uchenna Okoro, the Majority Leader representing Arochukwu State Constituency, and Hon. Akachukwu Ucheonye, who represents Aba Central State Constituency. Both lawmakers share a respectful and professional relationship, working together to improve legislative development and the overall progress of Abia State,” the Deputy Speaker was quoted to have said.
Hon Meregini, who is the House Committee Chairman on Media and Publicity, added that “Hon. Ucheonye has publicly denied the rumour, confirming that he was never attacked or hurt by Hon. Okoro and that no altercation occurred”.
But no one would have expected the lawmaker with the wounded head to publicly admit that it resulted from a fight with his colleague and principal officer of the House. He only had to weigh the repercussions of bringing the House to disrepute and public ridicule and made the wise decision of sticking to denial of the scandalous event.
The Deputy Speaker also denied the London incident, saying “the claim that Governor Alex Otti distributed cash to Labour Party lawmakers for passing a supplementary budget in August was a “lie (which) aims to damage the Governor’s image and the integrity of the 8th Abia State House of Assembly”.
According to him, “If such practices happened in the past or elsewhere, they do not feature in the new Abia – a government based on transparency, accountability, and responsible use of public funds”. Meregini insisted that “Governor Otti has never attempted to financially induce the House of Assembly for passing a budget, and the Assembly does not receive any for performing its constitutional duties”.
However, the House spokesman, who represents Umuahia East State Constituency, has railed to sound convincing in defending the legislature on these scandals. From checks and inside sources, the only inaccuracy in the reports was that bottle was used in inflicting the wound on Hon Ucheonye. Rather, a glass of whisky the Majority Leader was sipping from was used as weapon of assault.
Meregini’s damage control effort has only reinforced the belief that something uncomplimentary had certainly happened and the House didn’t want it to see the light of the day. He didn’t fully address the issues arising from the London trip, did lawmakers receive N1 billion for the capacity-building foreign tour. Did the sharing formula cause open disagreement in London, and was the foreign trip really for capacity-building? The Deputy Speaker only summoned everything as “completely false”. He enthused that “the Abia House of Assembly had a very peaceful and purposeful stay in London, and the outcome was quite enriching”.
If Abia Assembly thinks the scandalous events have been rested, the opposition sees it differently. The two main opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are not ready to let the matter be swept under the carpet. They demanded accountability, truth and transparency from the Eighth Abia State House of Assembly.
A former Commissioner for Information and chieftain of PDP, Chief John Okiyi Kalu in a statement said Hon Ucheonye “brazenly lied to his constituents and Ndi Abia when he publicly claimed that he was not attacked and his head broken”.
“He is still carrying the stitching scars from the incident which happened August 2025 in Aba,” Okiyi said, adding that it was the lawmaker that took the photographs showing his wounddd head.
The former Information Commissioner, who also served as Commissioner for Trade and Commerce, further claimed that Hon Ucheonye had personally shared his pictures in wounded condition. He punctured the claim that the visuals were AI generated. According to him, “it was actually Hon Ucheonye that took the pictures, along with the circulating video, and sent same to Governor Alex Otti who subsequently forwarded to principal officers of the House, for whatever reason.
Okiyi asked the wounded lawmaker to explain if he sent AI generated pictures to the Governor, saying “blaming Abia opposition for the pictures is a continuation of the official policy of ‘lie and blame opposition’ instituted by the Otti-led administration”.
He doubled down and called on Hon Ucheonye to resign for lying to his constituents. “It is my informed position that Honorable Ucheonye, who was ordinarily supposed to be the victim, ought to resign from office for brazenly breaching public trust and accountability at multiple levels.
He provoked the dastardly counter-attack and yet lied about it to the public” Okiyi stated.
He challenged Ucheonye to “voluntarily make himself available to selected members of Abia State branch of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the press for physical examination”. Okiyi even staked his integrity in prodding Ucheonye to come clean and stop the “dishonourable lies”, saying he would eat the humble pie and tender public apology to the lawmaker if proved wrong.
Despite the storm, the lawmaker has not seen the need to present himself for media or medical scrutiny so that the wound on his head can heal without leaving a scar behind.
