The former governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, may have gone into hiding, following arrest rumour, over weighty allegations of financial misappropriation levelled against him.
Former minister of Information, Elder statesman, Edwin Clark, has accused Okowa of financial misappropriation to the tune of over N1 trillion of the 13 per cent oil derivation fund accruing to the state.
The 13 per cent derivation fund comes from the federation account to oil-producing communities through state governments as contained in section 162 (2) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Clark, an influential voice in South-south, spoke when he appeared as a guest on Wednesday 14th June 2023, on Arise TV’s “The Morning Show”.
He alleged that Okowa misappropriated the funds during his time as governor of the State.
According to the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), leader, he and others had been blaming the federal government for the lack of development in the South-south without knowing that the governors in the region have been “stealing the money” for the region’s development.
He disclosed that he confront Okowa, through a letter, to account for the funds but he claimed that Okowa told him that he had been spending the money.
He lamented that the answer given to him (Clark) was that they spent N5 billion on paying pensioners. How does that come under 13 per cent and that they also spent the money building a university in Okowa’s village.
Dissatisfied with the former governor’s response Clark, hired a lawyer who obtained, from the accountant general’s office, the certified copy of all the derivation funds paid to the state from 2007 to December 2022.
He was able to verify that what was paid to Delta State came to N1.767 trillion.
The PANDEF leader said the law establishing the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) noted that 50 per cent of the 13 per cent should be given to the DESOPADEC. However, the governor held the whole funds.
DESOPADEC is an interventionist agency established to manage a 13 per cent oil derivation fund to drive infrastructural development of the oil-producing communities in the state.
He said “Instead of paying 50 per cent (of the N1.760 trillion) to the DESOPADEC as provided by the law, which is automatic, he (Okowa) now held the 13 per cent fund- the entire money, dishing out instalmentally and approving every contract the DESOPADEC had awarded,” he said.
Clark said he wrote a second letter to Mr Okowa and also copied the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) complaining that the governor had floated a private commercial bank, Premium Yrust Bank, which he allegedly used to lodge all the derivation funds.
“I also mentioned in the letter that he (Okowa) has 13 companies. I told him he put the 13 per cent (derivation funds) into these 13 companies and let him deny it.”
“So, Okowa has embezzled our money. It’s not even accounted for in his annual budget,” Mr Clark stated, pointing out that embezzlement had made some governors wealthier than their states.
He did not, however, mention if the EFCC responded to his letter.
When reminded by one of the programme anchors, Reuben Abati, that Mr Okowa had denied ownership of the Premium bank, Mr Clark said the former governor lied, insisting that he knew the bank’s history.
Okowa was the running mate to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who hails from Adamawa, a state in North-east Nigeria.
Clark accused Okowa of betraying the Southern Nigerians and People from Middle Belt by accepting to be Atiku’s running mate and spending Delta State’s funds on their campaigns despite a decision by Southern and Middle Belt leaders against the north-producing president in 2023.
“But he (Okowa) violated it. He was very happy going about (as Atiku’s running mate), claiming that he is Igbo man,” Mr Clark said, explaining that Mr Okowa’s alignment with Atiku, a northerner, made them oppose their ambition.
Shortly after Clark’s bombshell, thousands of Deltans under the auspices of oil and gas producing Communities, stormed the Abuja office of EFCC, demanding for the immediate arrest and prosecution of Okowa, for alleged illegal diversion and misappropriation of over N1 trillion as in Clark’s claims.
The money, according to them, is in respect of the 50% legally proscribed allocation to DESOPADEC, from the 13% Oil Derivation Fund for rehabilitation and development of the oil producing areas in the State.
The protesters led by Delta born human and environmental rights activist, Chief Comrade Sheriff Mulade, demanded the Commission to invite Okowa to account for the 50% exclusively earmarked for oil and gas producing communities through DESOPADEC to develop the communities as being diverted for his personal interest.
Chief Mulade, of the Ijaw Ethnic Nationality, with the title of the Ibe-sorimowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom, who spoke on behalf of
Sir Mathew Itsekure, (Itsekiri Ethnic Nationality), Mrs Patience Ego Afujue, (Ndokwa Ethnic Nationality, Hon Mark Ikpuri, (Urhobo Ethnic Nationality) and Chief John Etenero,
(Isoko Ethnic Nationality), said Okowa must be arrested.
Okowa wanted to be Nigeria’s Vice President
In February 25, Deltans and the entire South-south voted massively against former Delta’s governor, Okowa, who wanted to be Vice President.
He has been labeled “betrayal”, as he believed to have betrayed the South-south because of his vice presidential ambition after the Asaba Declaration when the South-south governors met first in Delta, Enugu and finally in Abuja for the presidency to come to the south only for him to turn around to be vice presidential candidate to Alhaji Atiku Abubarkar, by a PDP agreement.
Although, he tried to explained his part but Okowa’s explanations fell on deaf ears as people like the former president Olusegun Obasanjo, former information minister, elder statesman and foremost Ijaw national leader, Chief E. K Clark, former Minister of State for Education and governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi, a host of others and ethnic nationalities were at the forefront of a southern president.
For now, it has not been established that security authorities, EFCC, and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have invited him but they have been placed on red alert by Clark’s petition and that of a Delta-born human rights and environmental activist and National Coordinator, Center for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ) Sheriff Mulade, over misappropriation of over N1.8 trillion.
It would be recall that the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, had in November 2022 revealed that the federal government had paid a backlog of oil derivation funds to the oil-producing states in the country.
Shortly after Mr Wike’s revelation, Garba Shehu, the spokesperson to then President Muhammadu Buhari, released details of the funds released to nine oil-producing states, with Delta State said to have received the highest allocation totalling N296.63 billion.
