"ANAMBRA ELITE IN ABUJA WADE INTO AKUNYILI-NDUKWE FEUD"

Members of the Anambra elite resident in Abuja FCT are taking practical steps to settle the rift between the Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili and the Executive Vice Chairman of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC).

ASPOF, an association of senior civil servants, political appointees, elected representatives and other senior members of the clergy, military, public and private sector from Anambra State, is said to have invited the two Anambrarians to a meeting of the organization, scheduled for Tuesday evening.

The group is chaired by Chief Simon Okeke (Ochendo Amichi), the respected former chairman of the Police Service Commission and counts amongst its membership the crème de la crème of Anambrarians resident at the federal capital.

Zumarockreports.com reliably learnt that the both Akunyili and Ndukwe have indicated their willingness to respond to the invitation to the meeting which has been fixed to deliberate on what is being seen as an embarrassing development not just to Anambra people but also to Igbo people in general.

The feud had broken into the open with the break of the news that the Information and Communication Minister had dragged Engr. Ndukwe to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over an allegation that the NCC boss had handled the bid for the auctioning of 2.3 MHz frequency of the federal government without due process, leading to the halt of the auctioning process. Professor Akunyili had also gone ahead, while addressing visiting of the National Assembly to her office, publicly tongue-lashed Engineer Ndukwe in what was generally viewed as unprofessional and unethical.

According to Akunyili, the NCC boss had frustrated her efforts to bet the service providers to bring down the tariffs charged for their services, as according to her, Ndukwe had always argued their case instead of joining hands with her to impress on the companies to crash the tariffs.

Our correspondent also learnt that ASPOF executives had intended that the discussion and resolution of the disagreement should not take place on the open floor of the meeting, suggesting instead that selected members would nominated from the floor to join the Executive members who would then meet with the feuding parties.

The Tuesday ASPOF meeting in Abuja also hopes to host Governor Peter Obi who is expected to throw light on the disturbing stories that are emerging from his state. The state has been bedeviled with a spiraling surge of violent crimes including kidnappings and armed robberies.

Questions also are going to be raised over the source and destination of the whopping sum of N250 million Naira which was intercepted by the police in Lagos and believed to have been conveyed from Awka by individuals who have some linkages with the state government.