By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

The exclusion of the face of the first Executive Governor of Anambra State, Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju, from the Hall of Fame pictorials introduced by the incumbent State Governor, Prof Charles Soludo, has attracted widespread condemnations.

The graphic representations of prominent indigenes of Anambra State placed on the three major flyovers of Amawbia, Akwatta and Aroma junctions in Awka include, late Dr Nnamdi Azikwe ( Zik), late Biafra leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, late former Vice President of Nigeria, Dr Alex Ekwueme, and other former governors of the state, excluded Mbadinuju.

Angered by the development, a social commentator, Onyemaechi Uzodi, said: ”Soludo will one day become history. So, he should not treat his predecessors this bad. The omission of Mbadinuju in this exercise is standing history on its head."

Going down memory lane, Ex-Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju had, after the return to democracy in 1998, became the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for Anambra State governorship race, in competition with Professor A.B.C Nwosu, who had served four Military Governors as Commissioner for Health, after a dispute that was resolved by the PDP Electoral Appeal Panel.

He was hand-picked by an Anambra kingmaker, Emeka Offor, who wanted to bankroll his campaign but after they fell out, the power struggle between the two men crippled the machinery of government in the state.

It was in the course of his administration in September 2002, that teachers went on strike for a year over unpaid salaries as well as civil servants and judiciary workers.

The president of the Onitsha branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Barnabas Igwe, said state leaders had pocketed the money meant to pay the striking workers and on September 1, 2002, Igwe and his pregnant wife, Amaka, were brutally and publicly assassinated by militia men.

While in office, Mbaninuju passed a law that created the Anambra Vigilante Services, which legally enshrined the Bakassi Boys, a dreaded vigilante group credited with reducing crime in the state.

Mbadinuju said that crime in the state had reached such an appalling level that something had to be done. In a November 2009 interview, Mbadinuju defended his decision on the basis of the results it achieved in reducing crime.