Ogboru, Emerhor Berates Okowa, Says Comment Irresponsible and Disingenuous

By Onitsha Shedrack——DELTA—

 Chief Great Ogboru, and Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, governorship candidates of Labour Party, LP and All Progressives Congress, APC, have berated the Delta State Governor, Sen. Ifeanyi Okowa over his recent comment on the Delta 2015 guber election, describing it as irresponsible and disingenuous.

Okowa in an interview published in Vanguard had stated that Chief Ogboru and Olorogun Emerhor didn’t campaign for the governorship election, but rather, were busy fighting to control the Urhobo votes as they were contesting for Delta central Senatorial district election.

Chief Ogboru reacting to the statement through Mr. Efe Duku, head, Labour Party media & strategy committee, he stated that the statement credited to Okowa is very unfortunate and unbecoming of a governor who by the grace of Nigeria questionable judicial system.

Emerhor in his reaction stated that though Okowa is entitled to congratulate himself for the victory awarded to his by the compromised judiciary, his statement on APC guber campaign is to say the least very dishonest and disingenuous.

In a press statement sent to ADVOCATE, Duku stated that,” Our attention has been drawn to comments made by Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa in an interview in today’s Vanguard (February 7, 2016). Okowa took a rather infantile advantage of his recent unhealthy release from election petition hooks by the Supreme Court to make incendiary, reckless and out rightly irresponsible comments about our 2015 governorship campaign. 

He added that, “In an apparently naive and opportunistic answer to a question on why he ever thinks a man of Chief Great Ogboru towering standing should apologies to him for taking the civilized option of challenging his bogus and senseless votes in the 2015 election in the tribunal, he rather than answer that question, disrespectfully said Chief Ogboru did not campaign to be governor of Delta State! What an insult from a man whom many believe did not win the election and therefore do not recognise as a governor.

“Okowa must be told that the Supreme Court may have cleared him on technicalities but to people who believe in substantial justice he is a usurper of the “senseless rigging” specie. It is surprising that a usurper who had no courage to show up for a debate during the 2015 governorship campaigns is now accusing a known genuine grassroots campaigner and mobilizer like Ogboru of not campaigning! His memory may have failed him but he has to be reminded that it was only him who ran into hiding when a debate agreed to by all the candidates came up in Asaba.

“Okowa’s was the first to sign up for the debate but he was the first and only one to bolt into hiding when it was confirmed that our Leader, Chief Ogboru accepted the challenge and was actually attending the debate. Whereas Chief Ogboru and Olorogun O’tega Emerhor of APC showed up for the said debate, Okowa ran into hiding. Okowa was in Asaba. The debate was in Asaba. But Okowa fled. He chickened out. So, the question must be: Who did not campaign; the one who ran into hiding or the ones who took the battle to his doorstep in Asaba?

“Furthermore, whereas Ogboru had town hall meetings to pitch his manifesto to Deltans, Okowa had no courage to face Deltans in the face. Without a roadmap for governance, he just could not face Deltans. Our party campaigned everywhere. As for Okowa he just breezed through space, trusting in means other than the electorate. If that is what he prides as campaign then maybe we should ask him to just sit by his television for just a day and watch CNN to get some tutorials on electioneering campaigns in this season of American presidential politics. He would learn a lot, obviously.

“We wish to strongly advise and warn Okowa to face his mediocre, debts-plagued regime in the hope he could just learn something to do on the job rather than acting like a bull in a china shop. That he undermined the electoral process using thugs and security personnel who violated our electorate and was rewarded for it is insufficient to change the truth and reality. How, as in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels, Okowa – a political Lilliputian – now hallucinates to think of himself more than Ogboru’s Brobdingnagian stature is a huge joke made possible by corruption that must be removed from Delta. If not, how can that happen???!!!

 

He stated further that, “True Deltans have no respect for election riggers. They also have no regards for gunrunners who seize elections by violent means, as it was in 2007 when an INEC official, as reported by Vanguard, was held hostage with guns in the senate election that took Okowa to the Senate. It is only in this clime that persons who rig elections senselessly see themselves as leaders. It is common knowledge that they rig and tell those who abide by the rules to go to court, trusting that it is easy to compromise proper processes that should ordinarily throw them out.

“Okowa may believe his own lies. Those lies may have imposed upon him a misinformed mindset. Those lies may have bred schizophrenia in him to forget reality and truth. Those lies may have sown the seed of open arrogance in him. Those lies may have made him to forget his equals. Those lies may have rented a fool’s paradise for him. But in all of these, he should at least endevour, no matter how hard, to refer to God who can help him to find the truth – the only cure to his problem.

Meanwhile Emerhor in an Email sent to us, asked Okowa to show some sign of remorse and ask for forgiveness and cooperation from Deltans whom he rob of their right to freely elect their leaders and face the task of governance and enjoy his awarded victory soberly.

According to him, “Okowa’s statement is to say the least not only dishonest but also disingenuous. Granted that he is entitled to congratulate himself for the victories awarded him by a judiciary that is now swamped in controversies, does he truly believe that the PDP court victories in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and other states were also because no one else but the PDP did all the campaigning in those states?

“Okowa should know better and enjoy his awarded victory soberly. He ought to, not only show remorse but seeks forgiveness and cooperation. He should not be rubbing salt to injury.

“More importantly, he should know that Nigeria is on a new path and the days of might is right are almost over. Other than Okowa and his PDP band, no other Nigerians is in support of INEC and the judiciary returning the nation to the dark days of ‘CARRY GO’ elections as the recent controversial Supreme Court decisions that awarded Okowa and co their victories, clearly indicate!” he added.