Ahead of the 2023 general election, the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Delta State, His Excellency, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi OON, has said that if elected in 2023 his administration would have and show zero tolerance for corruption.
The former chairman, Delta Development Property Authority (DDPA), narrated how a former military administrator of the state,
Air Commodore Ibrahim Kefas (rtd), wanted him to share about N800 million proceeds of DDPA, he raked in less than two weeks.
He noted that sharp corrupt practices have crippled the growth of the State for too long, saying, “I have a very serious disrespect for Nigerians or people who wants to put their hands into taxpayers money.
“I see them as idiots and people who have no head because Nigeria, is such a blessed country that if you put your mind in doing anything right, you will get it done”, he said.
The SDP governorship candidate who spoke with clergymen in Asaba, the state capital recently said allowing corruption to deprive Deltans of the dividends of democracy would not be accepted in his government.
Hear him: “I am not corruptible. But because you are a Deltan, I use to be the former Chairman of Delta Development Property Authority, I was appointed by Colonel Bassey Asuquo.
“Bassey Asuquo had come to me much earlier to say to me that I am been made the military administrator and you will work with me as my Commissioner for Works and I said to him, I am very sorry, I cannot be your Commissioner for Works, so, he left.
“He came back again and said that I know you have rejected the Commissioner for Works, I want you to please consider something. Delta and Edo will share their assets and General Augustus Aikhomu, is my boss.
“I tell you, in the asset sharing between Delta and Edo, if they weigh the sharing, it will favour Edo and if Aikhomu calls me that I should do it this way, he said I will have no option order than to do but because you are highly respected if you were the chairman in that asset allocation, even if they say anything to me, I will say you are the chairman and that will make everybody to back off.
“It sounds real but I then said to him that the chairman of DDPA, reports to the Commissioner for Works, if I rejected Commissioner for Works before, how be it that I want to be chairman of DDPA now reporting to the Commissioner?
“He said no, what I want from you, is your acceptance. Were you to agree, I will change it and I said I agree on the grounds that it will help Delta State.
“The following day, a new law was passed with the chairman of DDPA to report directly to the governor and not the Commissioner.
“When I accepted the job, there was one Dr. Anazia, who was the Deputy GM and one Mukoro, they said look we are owing five months salary, there is no money to pay, the whole place is dead and we do our meetings between three to four days.
“I said God forbid, I will not hold meetings three to four days. However, we went into the board meeting that day about 5:15pm that evening and the meeting lasted to about 1:45am the next morning.
“But before we left, DDPA has no money as we have been told. The records are there for all of us. I then said that there are people who have landed properties that have been sold to them in Delta from Mid-western then we came to Bendel now they are sharing Edo/Delta.
“I just did a little mathematics that for everybody that have landed properties in the whole of Delta State but have no CofO, they should pay N10, 000 and I will give them their lands, in less than two weeks, I have more than N800 million.
“I was in my office when I was told that the military administrator wants me to see him in Asaba. So, when I went, I brought out my card, then I was a Criminologist and he used his red pen to cross that word Criminology.
“As soon as he cross that word that I hold so sacrosanctity to my heart, I was already annoyed. He then said I should transfer either N240 or N440 million of that my N800 million from taxpayers to IK Angunyo to Citizens bank.
“Sell Stabalili House to IK Angunyo, sell Koko House in Ibadan to one group captain Oloku, Delta boatyard, sell it. So, I told him sir, this is stealing, I cannot do it and he told just go and do it, so I left.
“I was in my office when one Victor Umuabor, came to interview me. He said I have just interviewed Kefas, the military administrator and he said a lot of things but we cannot go to press so we came to hear your version.
“So, I asked should I say all what I want to say, will you publish it and he said I give you my word. Then I said Kefas, is a mad man, God himself has made a mistake by bringing such a man to be military administrator of Delta State and then I listed all the things he had wanted me to do that I rejected.
“This fellow was the Deputy editor of Tell Magazine, on Monday of that morning, everything came out as I said it. That was what brought me to limelight in politics, I didn’t believe in politics, I was not a politician, I am a businessman.
“All the kings went to Kefas that they are with him and that they are not with Gbagi. As I left, he sold all the properties and took all the money.
“Nothing in this world that is ill gotten that lasts. So, when it comes to the issue of corruption, you have no problem, I can tell you that, take my word to the bank.
“If you are close to this governor, he will tell you. He has told me over 50 times that Gbagi, you are the only one that can solve this problem in Delta.
“I have nothing to do with taxpayers money because there is nothing in this world that God has not given to me. God himself is biased in my favour.
“Today, I go everywhere, I pride myself as the riches Nigerian lawyer. In Delta State today, I have employed more people than any politician.
“We will have zero tolerance for corruption; block leakages and cut the cost of governance. Our total commitment to transparency and accountability in government business is the only credible way to achieve zero corruption”, he stressed.
