Former Deputy President of the Senate, Sen Ike Ekweremadu, may be confined to the faraway UK prison, but his legacies remain unshaken and unmatched at home.
At least, this is the general feeling in his Mpu country home – the belief also widely shared in Aninri where he launched his political career as the council’s first executive chairman in 1998. Virtually every two years after the former lawmaker served his term, nearly 20 persons had occupied the seat at one point or the other – either as Transition Committee chairman or as executive chairman.
- When Aninri Roared – APC flags off 2026/2027 campaign in a spectacular display of unity, confidence and political momentum
- “We would have voted for Tinubu in Enugu but…”, PDP chieftain shocks his party
According to records from local historians, there had never been a man who came close to matching the achievements, influence and the power of Ike Ekweremadu for nearly 30 years – until Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku came to the seat on September 2024.
“The young man (Nwanjoku) is really doing wonders we can see”, Chief Achi Simon, a community leader told InfoWars , insisting that “he is a genius in every sense of the word, and I mean it. In two years he has clearly surpassed the legacies of all the leaders before him. If former Senator Ike Ekweremadu takes, Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku would take. The two are the greatest so far. The records are there.”
Prince Nwanjoku inherited a rotten system and a rotten secretariat. By the time he was ousted after his one-term administration, the immediate past chairman, late Hon Bennett Ajah, had turned the council upside down.
He imported terror and allowed it to reign, impulsively appointing and sacking aides with his whims as the sole yardstick for every policy and action. Presiding over the darkest era in Aninri politics, Hon Bennett Ajah also pinned the Legislative Chamber to the walls and raped it with such a breathless force that the councillors were reduced to mere slaves to the executive arm.
At the outside, there were dirt, shambles and shame with dilapidated buildings and debris of fallen structures scattered all across the bushy secretariat. Apart from one building – the one housing his plush offices – there was not even a single place to serve as the office of heads of the agencies posted in Aninri. So, instead of workers, it were wall geckos, cockroaches, snakes and all cousins of rodent and reptile families who occupied each office to do whatever they pleased with vital documents of the government businesses.
The new face of Aninri under Prince Nwanjoku
Barely two years into his administration, Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku, has visibly changed Aninri narrative.
He started two gigantic administrative buildings inside the secretariat and one ultra-modern staff quarters close by.
“The second administrative building at the local government secretariat receiving roofing sheet, and to be completed by Saturday, 19th September 2026,” a circular from the chairman’s media office read this morning. The roofing for the first building has been completed.
In another press release sent to InfoWars this morning, the chairman’s Adviser on Public Enlightenment, Hon Nike Ekpete, also shared updates on the ongoing 200-bed hospital in Oduma, accompanying it with live video.
“Day2, as work continues at the 200 bedded general hospital, Oduma. We have equally procured all the pipes, electrical DB and every necessary equipment to commence electrical work with Engr. Simeon Ekpete leading the job as the council’s electrician. That section of the work begins today even as the roofing continues to rise, looking at the target of delivery period.
“Also, windows had been paid for and production is seriously ongoing, awaiting their installation from first week of next month together with the commencement of plastering work,dressing and doors installation.
“We are time bound to deliver this project and move to another thing, because there are a lot waiting for us to be done.
“We have vowed that elections cannot distract us from accomplishing all these important projects with their completion dates, already scheduled,” the statement read.
Prince Ugochukwu Nwanjoku is seeking re-election as Enugu State Council elections scheduled to hold on September 26th. He was elected under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2024 but he defected, alongside Governor Peter Mbah, to the All Progressives Congress (APC).