UN-STAR FLOP: How hugely publicized "Mega Protest" Against Amb. Adefuye flopped in the USA
Carl Umunna, displaying the Biafran Flag in front of the Nigerian Embassy
Carl Umunna, lone protester in background of the Nigerian Chancery, Washington DC [with Jason Carter and Jacqueline Edwards in foreground]
Carl Ummunna, squint-reading his 8-point agenda against the Nigerian Embassy.
For the comedy video, please see: http://www.youtube.com/embed/lWE6cdMBk7g
Carl Umunna, exhausted after a hard day's work in the 100+ degree heat of Washington DC on day of protest
Emeka Ugwuonye, protest's spiritual guide, monitoring the "mega-protest" from his basement office, and not liking what he is hearing
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How hugely publicized "Mega Protest" Against Amb.
Adefuye flopped in US
…As Nigeria's Moral Majority Wants Ugwonye, Olubufunmi Prosecuted
African Examiner
Saturday, July 28, 2012
The much advertized 'mega protest' organized by a nebulous group called, International Human
Rights Monitors, turned out a major flop on Thursday and Friday.
The group had sneaked their dubious protest into a national newspaper in Nigeria, a story that
an editor of the paper pushed through but later caused the management an embarrassing
apology to the Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Prof. Ade Adefuye.
What is more embarrassing was that the mega protest turned to be a three man crowd,
comprising one Carl Umunnah and two ethnic shenanigans who hoisted a Biafra flag.
The two other non-Nigerians who joined Carl Umunnah gave their names as Jason Carter, who
presented himself as an 'Occupy Wall Street' activist, and a homeless American Jacqueline
Edwards who said he was recruited with booze and pizza from New York.
Carl Umunnah led the two foreigners in his 'mega' train to host the flag of Biafra in front of the
Nigerian embassy in Washington, D.C., a situation that resulted in minor exchange of hot words
between a lady and Umunnah in which the physically enraged lady said "what you people are
doing is wrong, go to Nigeria to do your protest."
Another Nigeria who came from North Carolina to process his Nigerian Passport has harsh
words for the protesters.
He said: "This is just a mess. I don't support any protest of this kind of nature. This is just a
shame that two people would put themselves together to be embarrassing Nigeria here. Look at
other embassies here they will be laughing us. I don't say people should not protest but they
should direct their energy at appropriate place, which to me is Abuja, not here."
The protesters said they were protesting against the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States,
whom they accuse of corruption.
Ambassador Adefuye had rejected all the "wrongful and malicious" allegations made about him,
saying that the sponsors of the protest, a Maryland lawyer whose professional license has been
revoked, Mr. Emeka Ugwonye, and who had allegedly defrauded the embassy of N1.5 million
and another individual, and Mrs. Carol Olubufunmi, who deceived Mrs. Amina Sambo, wife of
Nigeria's vice-president, for a fake conference through which she had hoped to reap a windfall
of over half a million dollars, orchestrated the flopped 'mega protest'.
The organizers had also dubiously tried to use the name of notable Nigerian human rights
lawyer and Senior Advocated of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, to gain legitimacy. But Mr. Falana, in
a Sunday interview with sharpedgenews.com distanced himself from the group and instructed
his attorneys in the US to sue Ugwonye, Umunna and Olubufunmi. The prominent lawyer also
strongly vouched for the integrity of Ambassador Adefuye.
Members of Nigeria's Moral Group who came out to counter the three-people 'mega protest'
said Nigerians had never been so insulted. They wondered what morality do Mr Ugwonye and
Mrs Carol Olubufunmi, a Benin woman married to an Ondo man, have to stage a protest against
Amb. Adefuye hence they were part and parcel of the corrupt cabals that enshrine corruption in
the system.
Efforts by Mr Franklin Ekechukwu, a NIDO official to calmly speak sense to the three-man
protesters landed on deaf ears of troublesome Umunnah who kept asking Franklin "how much is
your suit?" suggesting he is part of the political class because he wears a nice suit.
"This is how low it gets. Somebody defrauded his country, and thereafter went to hire foreigners
to protect him from the wrath of the law. If this is what they call human rights, to walk free after
committing a crime, then human rights has a problem. Emeka Ugwonye, must drop the $1.5
million he stole", said a pro-embassy Nigerian protester.
Other protesters in his group carried various placards showing their disapproval of the 'mega
protest' organizers, some of which read: A Liar Can KILL; STOP Lying About Our Ambassador!"
"PRESS FREEDOM: Stop Abuse of Media Privileges!" "Emeka Ugwonye: Lawyer or Liar?"So
Where Is The 'Mega Protest'?
The journalists on the ground were able to unveil the identity of Carol Olubufunmi as she was
openly quarrelsome and unaccompanied this time around by any member of her own family,
unlike the case with her fake women conference where she had appeared with her daughter and
a friend.
It turned out that she and her husband were military contractors who amassed huge fortunes
from supplies to ECOMOG and squandered it all.
"They were part of the cabal that ruined the Nigerian system. After their fortune evaporated, she
became desperate and decided to blackmail and conned VIPs in Abuja," said a source.
Jason Carter, the 'Occupy Wall Street' activist who had come with them in solidarity, after
admitting that he was deceived to come, disappeared into thin air, saying "men, I'm a sucker."
Apart from Carol Olubufunmi who fought everyone and insisted she must be addressed as "ma
or madam" there was another person who refused to identify himself.
The two opposing protesting groups sat in a 110-degree afternoon heat.
The embassy which had closed following the protest reopened for normal business of the day,
the embassy even organized a reception for the wife of the Ekiti state governor and other
participants who attended the World Aids Conference in Washington DC.
Day two of the protest was more shameful than the first day as the same three confused
individuals showed up at about 2 pm on Friday to display placards in front of the embassy,"
according to a Nigerian who witnessed the 2nd day of the failed three man protest.
Meanwhile, a pro-democracy organisation, the Nigerian Democratic Awareness Council, USA
has blasted the conveners of the protest at the Nigeria embassy in Washington DC saying it was
capable of denting Nigeria's image in foreign land even as the organization noted that Mr Emeka
Ugwonye, one of the conveners of the protest was part of the Nigerian Embassy in which he is
now fighting.
The organization's president Mr Sam Ayodele told African Examiner that the protests by Mr
Ugwonye, who did not show up at the venue of the protest and other three protesters were self-
motivated, self-seeking and ill-conceived.
His words:
"While we are not holding brief for any one, nor against the right of any group or individual for a
peaceful protest…our organization nevertheless view your proposed action as self -motivated
and therefore capable of misinforming the public.
"We hold this view because you (Emeka Ugwonye) were once an attorney working for the
Nigerian Embassy and you were also once an elected official of the Nigeria in Diaspora
organization, (NIDO)
"Our question to you now is why do would you want to bring down, in a foreign country, the
house that our late founding fathers such as the first Prime Minister Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-
Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Dr Nnamadi Azikwe, Mallam Aminu
Kano etc had labored to build in order for all of us to be free . Of course, we believe in the
freedom of expression but we also believe it is one right that must be exercised responsibly.
"The Court of Law is there to decide who is right or wrong. Some of us who fought during the
Abacha era for the emergence of the Democracy that we are enjoying today would not want a
return to the dark old days. It is in this regard that we caution against any self-seeking behaviour
that is capable of bringing back the hands of the clock."
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