Ijaw is the worst hit of Okowa’s failed govt, he did nothing in Ijawland –Ebiakpo

A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, APC in Delta State and a former State Financial Secretary of the party, Hon. Ebiakpo Ezebri in this interview with our reporter Akpos Oghenetega, spoke on the chances of APC in Delta state come 2023 election, noting that if the party brings all its members onboard, APC will take over Delta. He also hinted that Governor Okowa and the PDP have nothing to campaign with in Ijawland come 2013, he disclosed that the Okowa-led government can’t point to any 2km road project it initiated and completed in Ijaw land.

 

You contested for APC Delta State chairman during the last party congress and at the venue, you stepped down after being prevailed on by some party leaders to do so, since then we have not heard anything from you, why the silence?

 

I am a career politician, I started my politics from grassroot, as a councillor, back then in 1999. The 1999 elections were credible, I was elected as a councillor in my ward and since then. I have been consistent and stayed faithful to every cause I believed in. In politics, you must grow and not be stagnant, so, after being a councillor and contesting for Council chairman and House of Assembly at different times and was rigged out. And when 2013 the merger came, I was elected APC State Financial Secretary, and when our tenure ended, I was elected at our party congress as the State Treasurer of the party, but it was cut short by the Oshiomole issue. Going into another state congress of our party in 2022, we believed that power should be shared within the three Senatorial zones, and for that reason propelled me to contest as a chairman. I did everything and I spent a huge amount of money before I was prevailed upon to step down, which I did at the venue minutes before the voting. I stepped down without collecting anything from anybody believing the leadership of the party wanted it that way, I left, and since then nobody has invited me for any talk or meeting. My local government is being run from wherever nobody knows, and nobody is reaching out to us, and in the build-up to our national convention, the issue of national delegates came up, if they understand what politics is all about, as a pioneer leader of the party in Ijaw, not even Burutu Local government, as the one who set up APC in Ijaw land, they picked delegate for us without any consideration for a person like me. I would have left APC, but decided to stay back because those who are in power today, may not be by tomorrow. In politics, if you offend some sets of people, whatever chances you have might be spoilt by the people you undermine. The manner in which they have been treating all of us, I don’t know if it’s because we are loyalists Olorogun O’tega Emerhor? I have been following him since 2013, and when Emerhor was the leader of the party I was loyal, I was among those who received Senator Ovie Omo-Agege into the party in 2018, and the picture is on my phone here. Olorogun Emerhor then handed us over to Senator Omo-Agege, he is now the leader as the Deputy Senate President, yet the system is still not accepting some of us, so at some point, I may be forced to take a decision, nobody can coerce me to belong to a group that I am not wanted. At my age, I am not afraid of anybody, I am close to 50, and I have always been a loyal person, but you can’t push me to the wall and expect me not to fight back.

 

To be frank with you, the party has not been fair to us, they want to purposely push us out of APC but they cannot push us out, I will be in APC, it is their regime that will go, I will not go and bend down because I want to be known. I can deliver and spoil an entire local government votes, everybody knows that, but I have remained calm. I have not spoken from that time to date because I have been watching their activities, they value those coming in more than those in the party. You don’t win an election with the mouth, the PDP has had a structure in every unit and ward for the past 20 years, those who are coming in won’t change the narrative without us, we have been on ground. I told them during meetings we held at the local government, that my case is with the state party leaders, and I am aggrieved. I can also tell you that the State Party Chairman, Chief Omene Sobote is not working, can he say he has visited the 25 local governments of the state to see party leaders and members since he was elected? I don’t even know if he is even calling meetings of the state EXCO, every time is Abuja, is it Abuja that will come and vote here? What we need in Delta is grassroot mobilization, but when a state chairman has not reached out to the 25 local government leaders when elections are just about 6-7 months away, you know that we are not working hard enough. However, I am still a very loyal and committed member of the party as of today, though I am aggrieved.

 

Considering what you just said, what are the chances of APC winning the election in the state come 2023?

First and foremost, APC should not delude itself because of the crisis in the PDP, we should rather be putting our house in order. I have always said the Ijaw people are the worst hit by the PDP bad government. Any Ijaw man that votes PDP come 2023 is a slave, and a curse to his family. PDP has ruled this state since the Chief James Ibori era, Chief Ibori through the Bomadi bridge opened up Ijaw land, Ibori by that singular act is appreciated till date, there was no 13% derivation as at that time, he started that bridge in his first tenure, completed it in his second term and Senator James Manager was the then commissioner of works. During Dr Uduaghan’s first tenure, nothing was done, when he was going back for the second tenure he initiated the construction of the Ayokoromo Bridge, and built the school of Marine Technology and some model secondary schools in Ijaw land, but he couldn’t complete the bridge. Then, Dr Okowa came, Ijaw people supported Okowa and up till now Ijaw people have been crying to him to complete the Ayokoromo bridge, but he has done anything about it. Governor Okowa is in the last lap of his administration but has refused to do anything about the bridge even with all the monies he has been borrowing. How does he hope to pay the loans back, and with whose wealth does he hope to pay the loans back? Is it with the wealth from Owa Alero or Delta North that he wants to pay all these loans that he is taking? The State will repay these loans with the commonwealth of the people of Delta South and Delta Central. Let Governor Okowa and his praise singers in Ijaw land point to one project he has done in the whole of Ijaw land that is the same man that wants to come back as Vice President, then the Ijaw man will go and vote for him? You can’t continue to patronise somebody who does not want your progress, 8 years of governance, it took Ibori four years to cross Bomadi Bridge with lean allocation. I challenge Governor Okowa and his Ijaw supporters to point to any 2 km road he initiated and finish in Ijaw land? It’s high time Ijaw people take a decision, Ayokoromo people have been supporting Okowa till date and have nothing to show for their support.

 

From my permutations on Delta politics, APC has a chance of winning the state, all we have to do is work more to unite the party by bringing everyone on board by ensuring that all internal crises are resolved, so if at the end of the day PDP settles their issue, we will still be ready to take over. We don’t have issues with our gubernatorial candidates battling each other, we have only one candidate, so we need to put our house in order, the only issue we have is this issue of some persons not satisfied with how they are being treated in the party. I think that APC should wake up, some of these people who are decamping may have different missions, let’s not forget how former Governor Uduaghan came into the party and could not win his ward and local government, and soon after that, he left back to the PDP. You can’t come to the party and promise what you can’t do, just to get your way through. The people of Burutu and Patani local governments know me as an APC man. So, they can’t just come into APC and you will give them the position, I want to win election, I cannot be in the party and not win election, I cannot be in opposition and not win the election. So, let us share power that is the only way to win the election.

 

 

 

Are you by any chance saying that Delta South or Ijaw has not been carried along?

Yes, Ijaw has not been carried along, not one person, not one got an appointment, go to Delta north, you have them there, go to all the senatorial districts you have people in the system yet Ijaw was not empowered like the rest.  In Delta South, it is very few in Isoko and Itsekiri that got appointments, but no one in Ijaw got. How do you expect to win elections without empowerment? Even with all the appointments you have in Delta Central, it will be difficult to win an election there, except they work hard. As I speak, PDP has so many appointments in my ward, same in all other Ijaw local governments. So on election day, when you bring 20 million naira, maybe 1 million naira will come to my ward, from that one million we will charter a boat and pay other people involved in the election; and with 5 villages in my ward, by the time you share that 1 million naira, it will N200,000 for each village. Sometimes the people you hand this money to could even disappear on Election Day, but that is not the PDP case, they have men they have empowered over the years who will spend their money to deliver their units and ward. What I am saying now is that for you to monitor elections, you just have to be ready, because by the time you appoint one person here, he will help to relieve the burden of delivering the state on election day, so we must work hard to win this election.