By Idi Presley
My attention has been drawn to the ongoing campaign of calumny and falsehood by some faceless group against our revered national leader and former Delta governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori.
The groups allegedly sponsored by immediate past Delta governor, Okowa Ifeanyi, has taken it upon themselves to malign the name of James Ibori owing to his refusal not to support the preferred candidate of their benefactor in the March 18 gubernatorial polls.
The sponsored attacks against our leader which has raged on for a while now reached new heights yesterday following the very partial judgement given by Judge Tomlinson over the retrial of his confiscation hearing, which he had already emerged victorious in 2013.
While I am tempted to expantiate and talk about the confiscation hearing itself, I will refrain from doing so because our leader has personally and painstakingly clarified the issue, so my focus will remain on the Okowa attack dogs.
It’s pertinent I draw the attention of these schemers that no matter what they do or say, it’s clear like the early morning spring that James Onanefe remains the undisputed leader of Delta politics.
Again, I wish to enlighten them that there’s no politician in the state today that didn’t pass through the Ibori leadership school, including Ifeanyi Okowa. That Okowa ever had the opportunity to dream of becoming governor was because of Odidigborigbo.
We know that Okowa has been having sleepless nights over the strong connections between our leader and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The open arms which Mr. President continues to welcome Chief Ibori with into the villa has left him feeling unsteady especially as he is aware that the monumental fraud he presided over during the gubernatorial elections will soon be unraveled by the tribunal and there will be no one to cover his tracks.
Unlike Okowa, our national leader is not vindictive, neither do we have in PBAT a president who will practice selective justice and go after members of the opposition. Okowa should be rest assured that whatever fate that will befall him owing to his failure and abysmal performance in office will come only through legal means.
It’s on record that Chief James Onanefe Ibori remains the best performing governor in the history of Delta state. So he good he was JIMRA (James Ibori Must Rule Again) was coined after just two years of his leadership as Delta 001.
Ibori’s projects, many of which were constructed over twenty years ago, stands strong till this day. While majority of the projects undertaken by Okowa especially the many poorly constructed roads have all washed away and it’s been only two months since Okowa left office.
Finally, for those microscopic few that will want to dance around the confiscation case here’s a brief except from the statement released by our leader- “At this point in time words fail me and so the question for me as I take my case to the Court of Appeal, is, if I continue to believe that I may finally get some Justice is this the definition of madness? I know one thing for sure, that if I do not go to the Court of Appeal to contest this outrageous Order then my people will definitely say that I am a madman!”.
We all know that the day the EFFC or any other financial watchdog will beam their searchlight on the eight years of Okowa’s governance, the revelations will leave us with a gaping mouth for weeks.
Idi Presley writes from Asaba, capital of Delta State.