The nominated and unelected Mayor of Galway, Nigerian Labour Councillor Helen Ogbu, has had her website deleted following the controversy that has erupted concerning content that contained false claims forgetting about her first arrival in Ireland in 2001 and claiming her second arrival as her first in 2005 or 2006 depending on conflicting accounts and also falsely claiming it followed her husband’s death when she claimed refugee status. Dates and facts didn’t add up and people including journalists started asking questions. Then her website was deleted because of a typo which in fact was a narrative, a false one; and not a typo. That was blamed on the website developer except that the developer was in no way responsible for its contents. This ‘typo’ was known for some time but wasn’t corrected until the controversy erupted.
The mainstream media who asked questions are now considered to be racist for asking legitimate questions of a politician from an ethnic minority. That is despite the fact that the story about their arrival in Ireland, the reason for it, and the timing of her husband’s death make no sense. The Irish Daily Mail sent a reporter to Cllr Ogbu’s door after she declined repeated requests to answer the paper’s questions. She had no comment for the reporter but did a puff piece podcast with Sile Seoige which Ms Ogbu then promoted on Instagram.
The Labour party then tried to intimidate journalist Brian Mahon by issuing a “highly personal” attack asserting that his and the Irish Daily Mail’s actions were “intimidatory and unacceptable.” That attempted damage limitation exercise was then carried by RTÉ, The Examiner and others. Mahon rightfully says it was Labours failure in its duty of care to Helen Ogbu by “consistently repeating the wrong points about her back story.” “That was their doing, not mine,” Mahon said.
The Rising Storm
The storm around Cllr Ogbu’s origin story blew up just weeks after Ogbu Galway by-election bid where Ogbu called for the “new citizens” of Galway West to register to vote. She claimed to have suffered racism and an enormous level of”trolling” online which was more than strange given that thousands of voters supported Ogbu, who noted that people “stood by me.”
The storm was rumblings for some time about Ms Ogbu’s origin story where she repeatedly claimed that she arrived in Ireland with her family in 2006 “seeking safety and a fresh start after the tragic loss of her husband.” However, her husband, Sunny Ogbu was assassinated in Nigeria in 2010, not 2006. A headline in The Sunday Times from April read: “My husband was murdered in Nigeria – now I’m running for office.” To further compound the story Labour leader Ivana Bacik falsely told party members that their newly elected Mayor came to Ireland in 2005 after the assassination of her husband. That false account of events was repeatedly shared by Ms Bacik and Labour TDs throughout the by-election campaign. The Labour party is now furiously back peddling to remove what they repeatedly posted online.
The Double Death – The Man Who Died Twice
On January 27th, following Labours selection of Ms Ogbu to contest the Galway West by-election, Ivana Bacik told party members that Ms Ogbu had arrived in Ireland after her husband’s death. “A Labour Party newsletter circulated days after Ms Ogbu’s selection falsely stated she moved to Ireland ‘after the tragic loss of her husband”. Ms Ogbu’s husband died years after she arrived in Ireland so his murder couldn’t possibly have motivated Ogbu to seek asylum in Ireland.
The Labour party’s website, up to and after the by-election, stated: “In 2006, she and her family moved to Ireland seeking refuge after the tragic loss of her husband, Sunny Orji-Ogbu, murdered for his political activity in Nigeria.” That was a blatant lie. Since her stated arrival in Ireland and her claim asylum appear to be false, that raises the question ‘is she her under false pretences?’
It gets even stranger, Ms Ogbu on her first visit gave birth to a child in Ireland in 2001. In May that year her daughter was “born prematurely on a visit to Dublin. Tens of thousands of women from Nigeria and elsewhere sought the right to stay in Ireland because their child had been born here. As a result, a referendum closing the loophole granting such children automatic citizenship was carried by a massive majority with almost 80%.
The Labour Party Protests Too Loudly
Ms Ogbu is a public figure, so a fair examination of her origin story shouldn’t be characterised as an attack or “unacceptable”. “The Labour Party wishes to express our serious concern at the tactics used by a mainstream media outlet, particularly at a time when Far Right agitation is becoming increasingly evident across our communities.”
They are wearing that excuse thin. It was Labour that claimed Ms Ogbu came to claim asylum because her husband was murdered, but that narrative is now shifting. Why shouldn’t we find that strange? Why shouldn’t questions be asked and answered? Essentially, we now have a slew of newspaper articles essentially amplifying the Labour party message: It’s racist to question Helen Ogbu, an elected public representative. That is, of course, nonsensical as public representatives are answerable to the people. Isn’t it amusing to see Bacik and the Labour party with egg all over their faces screaming ‘Far Right’ and ‘Racist’ when they are caught lying?