By Fred Latimore Oghenesivbe Esq
There are about twelve or thirteen governorship aspirants jostling to grab the gubernatorial ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Delta State, but media attacks has been consistently focused on one of the star aspirant, Rt Hon Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, the Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly.
The reason for the attacks is well known to all Deltans, and it is coming from one particular direction using several faceless groups. It is shameful and a sign of political irrelevance in the ongoing contest.
And I make bold to say that all the attacks against Oborevwori were sponsored and still being sponsored by Olorogun David Edevbie’s campaign organisation, openly supported and bankrolled by the political family of former governor of the State, Chief James Onanefe Ibori.
This is politics of desperation and acute bitterness orchestrated by David Edevbie Campaign Organisation.
It is no longer news that Edevbie is the second in command in Ibori Political Dynasty, and served as Commissioner for Finance during Ibori’s tenure as governor. Edevbie has global banking connections and widely known to be the Brain box of looted funds from the state Treasury during Ibori’s administration due to his deep knowledge of the British, European and Asian banking networks.
The enviable roles played by Edevbie in the unscrupulous looting of the state treasury placed him far and above all other members of the Ibori political family. And the group strongly believe that David Edevbie can do the looting again if voted governor in 2023. He has the wealth of experience, connections and doggedness to launder money as posited by SaharaReporters in 2008 while describing Edevbie as Ibori’s partner in financial crimes.
Those who benefitted from the looted funds are currently scheming seriously for the return of the Oligarchs in 2023. This is the reason why they are bent on attacking any strong contender that is not of the Ibori’s deep political stock. And Oborevwori happens to be the victim of their evil attacks. They see him as the only stumbling block on their way to recapture Delta State Treasury in 2023. This is the simple truth of the matter.
For them, it is fight to finish in order to control the state treasury again, and their desperation can be felt via the numerous sponsored attacks on Rt Hon Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, the incoming governor of Delta State, come 2023 by the grace of God. He is a divine project. God is not a man. It is a complete waste of time to fight the Lord’s anointed.
They started by saying Okowa will handover to Delta South. When that failed, the next propaganda was that Ejele and Bashorun Askia were forcing Oborevwori on Okowa and he refused. From there, they sponsored another propaganda saying that Okowa has settled for Oborevwori.
Before you say Jack, they went to town with yet another propaganda saying Okowa asked his Chief of Staff, Rt Hon Festus Ovie Agas to resign and join the race with Joan Mrakpor as his deputy. That one did not fly. They said Okowa has again settled for Dr Peter Mrakpor and that also failed.
They said Oborevwori was disqualified by the PDP Governorship Aspirants Screening Committee in Port Harcourt, simply because he did not post his clearance certificate on social media like other aspirants. In fact, Edevbie and his media handlers are shameless. Over desperation is their first and middle names.
The next day, we saw certain unverified academic certificates flying on social media, and they said Oborevwori had case to answer because Francis and Sheriff featured in different certificates. They said Oghareki Grammar School was founded in 2014 whereas his School Certificate had 1999 on it.
From there they said Francis and Sheriff are conflicting names and they started to link it to the Bayelsa case. It is shameful. What a lousy and lazy campaign by Edevbie!
The last failed propaganda was that PDP National Chairman, Senator Iyocha Ayu, had been mandated by the party’s NEC to come to Delta, so as to handover David Edevbie to Okowa as the party’s preferred candidate. Ayu came, only to commission projects and commended Okowa for his monumental achievements and flew to Abuja.
They became speechless for days after Senator Ayu left for Abuja without handing over Edevbie to Okowa as they claimed; only to sponsor publications in the Vanguard Newspaper to further display their self inflicted political frustrations. That too has failed woefully and they shall continue to fail in every attempt to unjustly crucify Oborevwori, the incoming peoples’ governor of Delta State.
The Edevbie campaign organisation is still pressing forward by sponsoring all kinds of lies and wicked allegations against Oborevwori. Their focus is to capture Delta State treasury for the second time and have it looted again and again. Their desperation is monumental and shameful. Affliction shall not arise again against Delta State Treasury.
Oborevwori’s surname is constant in all the certificates. His other names; Francis and Sheriff are obvious. I knew him as Sheriff Francis Oborevwori way back in the 70s but Sheriff has been his most popular name far and above his okpe native name and Francis. He has done no wrong and his detractors will continue to fail.
Discrepancies in names points to either impersonation or document fraud within criminal jurisdiction, and the prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The Court will rely on verifiable evidence to decide whether or not Sheriff is the same person as Francis, as far as his certificates are concerned. There is no social media court of justice recognised by Law. Oborevwori shall prevail.
The school certificate in question has his passport photo scanned on it by the issuing authority. Only evil doers would say that Oghareki Grammar School that was very popular in the early 70s was founded 2014. Lies on social media won’t change the fact that David Edevbie has been openly rejected by PDP delegates ahead of party primaries.
The old former Oghareki Grammar School Old Boys And Girls Association operates a WhatsApp group till date. It consists of 1974 to 2011 Sets of Oghareki Grammar School, Oghareki. It was renamed Baptist Missionary School in 2011. The group name on WhatsApp is OGSOSA 74 (Oghareki Grammar School 1974 Set).
Delta State Government under Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan established the new Oghareki Grammar School in 2014, different from the old former Oghareki Grammar School. The two schools have no connection whatsoever, operating at separate locations in Oghareki community till date.
Edevbie Campaign Organisation’s major focus is on Oborevwori. They want to destroy him politically so as to have another access to the state treasury. It won’t work because our treasury must never be looted the second time. It won’t happen, no matter the attacks on Oborevwori.
The latest threat from Edevbie’s desperate camp is that the Ibori political family will defect to APC to deliver DSP Omo Agege, another Ibori’s political godson, should they fail in their dirty fight to grab PDP guber ticket for Edevbie, the crown prince of Ibori political dynasty.
Well, this kind of political alignment is not new. They did it during 2019 election against PDP and Hon Evelyn Oboro, wherein they assisted Ovie Omo Agege to go back to the Senate via Ethiope West votes conspiracy. It is a common knowledge.
The threat goes to no issue and Delta PDP will not sneeze at all. This is the truth of the matter. Landslide victory is sure for PDP in 2023, defection or no defection to APC. Time shall tell.
As far as the governorship election in 2023 is concerned, Ibori political family alleged possible defection to APC will not give APC victory over PDP. Never.
They are about to make the grave mistakes of former governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, who defected to APC before governorship election in 2019, only to return after elections. APC didn’t accord him the kind of respect and recognition he enjoyed in PDP, and he quickly made a U-Turn to his political family, PDP.
I know for sure that former governor James Ibori will never make the deadly mistake of defecting to APC. No, he will never do that.
What may be possible is coded anti party activities, as was the case in 2019 under the supervision of Chief Ighoyota Amori, against PDP and Hon Evelyn Oboro. It may happen again in their desperation to recapture Delta State Treasury at all cost.
One thing is crystal clear, Oborevwori is a Pan Delta Project, bigger and greater than what his detractors may think or imagine. He is coasting to victory.
Therefore, the threat of defection to APC should Edevbie not grab PDP governorship ticket is desperation taken too far. It will backfired and I am pretty sure that Chief Ibori will not buy any retrogressive political option against PDP in Delta State.
