Former Secretary to the Delta State Government (SSG), Ovuzorie Macaulay, has demanded a retraction and an unreserved apology from Matthew Edevbie, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) contractor handling the controversial, abandoned Ozoro 132 KVA substation electricity project in Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State. Macaulay warned that failure to comply would result in legal action over alleged defamation.
According to the former state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC), Edevbie who is the Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Income Electrix Ltd, handling the infamous NDDC contract, allegedly defamed him in a statement suggesting that he (Macaulay) was one of those that allegedly sabotaged the abandoned Ozoro 132KVA substation and portrayed him in a negative light before his Isoko kinsmen.
The Nigeria Police Force had last Friday allegedly under the orders of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) contractor Matthew Edevbie and elder brother of former Delta State finance commissioner and PDP governorship aspirant David Edevbie, arrested and detained Isoko born Delta based comedian, Ajirioghene Otagba, popularly known as MC 2Kingdom.
The arrest followed a facebook video posted by the comedian, in which he criticised the abandonment of the Isoko 132 KVA substation electricity project been handled by Edevbie’s firm Income Electrix Ltd as a result of a petition filed by the contractor, accusing Otagba of defamation and cyberstalking.
In trying to explain the circumstances surrounding the abandoned project, Edevbie through his firm, Income Electrix Ltd, in a statement titled “The Mc 2 Kingdom Comedy Saga: Our Position-Income Electrix Ltd” explained that the project was awarded by former governor James Ibori and “Upon Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan taking over in 2007, with Comrade Macaulay Ovuozorie as Commissioner for Energy, the project was stalled on the basis that the new governor was not interested in the project.
“Our company battled for 4 years to get the state government to budget for these projects to no avail. With agreement in place we proceeded back to the Delta state government to do a letter releasing the project to NDDC, which governor Uduaghan directed his commissioner, Comrade Macaulay to give to us.”, the firm explained.
The firm went further to make other comments that did not however go down well with the former SSG, which he perceived as defamatory and malicious to his person and as a respected leader in Isoko nation, saying that he has already instructed his team of lawyers to begin the process of a legal action against the contractor, unless a retraction and unreserved apologies is carried.
Addressing Journalists, in Asaba, Wednesday, the former SSG, Ovuzorie Macaulay, who debunked what he called “defamatory and malicious statements” against him by Matthew Edevbie, the NDDC contractor handling the controversial abandoned Ozoro 132 KVA substation electricity project, said as a commissioner for power and energy under Uduaghan, he did all he could to see that the project was completed but wonders why the firm failed to deliver the job as expected.
Macaulay said: “For me, I am going to take the matter up with him legally, I have already instructed my team of lawyers to begin the process of instituting a legal action against Matthew, unless he apologises and strengthened the facts.
“He should not incite my people against me, I have done everything to help the development of Isoko land. Coming to my role in the Ozoro 132KVA substation electricity project, I became commissioner for power and energy in 2007, November precisely, before then, the Ozoro 132KVA substation contract had been awarded in the last tenure of James Ibori.
“I met it and I tried to revive the contract by taking it up with my boss, then, governor Uduaghan and we invited the contractor back to site, Matthew Edevbie for Income Electrix Ltd and News Engineering, and it was there we learnt the owner of News Engineering was involved in a plane crash and passed on.
“And the wife who now became the new MD/CEO of the News Engineering came to the Ministry of power and energy in Asaba and I know too well that under Uduaghan’s administration they were mobilised.
“Some money were paid to them to go back to site and we meet up with continuous payment and as a state government, the project was not abandoned, it was still on going. It was under Uduaghan’s administration and myself as commissioner for power and energy that Matthew Edevbie built that substation in Ozoro.
“Let him come out with the documents, I left that office almost 19 years now and of course, I am not expected to go home with official documents but if anybody want to know, go to the office and the documents are there.
“So, saying that we stalled the project is another tissue of lies. It was on his own, thinking that he will have a better deal in NDDC that he, Matthew made a request which he admitted that the job be transfered to NDDC and he brought the letter for me to sign for him and of course the governor who has such powers to approve, directed me to sign which Matthew also admitted.
“If Matthew Edevbie, anybody anywhere under that project gave me a kobo let him say so in the public, I want him to come out and categorically say the money meant for the project was put in Macaulay’s ministry and Macaulay diverted it or when I was paid, Macaulay took so much from me and that is why I couldn’t complete the project.
“Why dishing out lies which people are believing to be truth.? Matthew has his own reputation which he should not drag me into. He has issue of reputation which someone is taking him on, he should face it squarely with the person and make facts available and not cooked up stories.
“He dropped so many Isoko names, General Ogomudia was never his company’s chairman as at the time of this job. I am saying that Matthew spent four years to get his transfer of the contract to NDDC is also a fat lie. The whole matter didn’t take up to one week when the governor said, sign for him and I did sign for him immediately and this was two years of my been in the ministry.
“Let him bring out that letter that I signed for him and publish it and let’s see the date that project was signed off the state to NDDC. But, basically, it was his own request and how come that he has completed the other projects in Oghara and Afisiere and it’s only that of Isoko that he is now claiming somebody stalled, if these contracts were all awarded to him at the same time?.
“He just have his own reasons why he decided not to execute the Isoko 132KVA substation electricity project and he should never put it on the head of anybody. Let him face the issue on his own. I am really surprised that somebody of the level of Matthew will descend to that level of dropping names instead of defending the action of his company or telling the truth.
On his claim that he removed darkness from Isoko land and brought light to the land, Macaulay also dismissed Edevbie’s claims, describing it as “The biggest joke and falsitied facts of the year if not the century. Everything in that statement are all tissue of lies.
“Starting with the fact that he brought light to Isoko, giving the routes it passed through. It was General Paul Ufuoma Omu (rtd) that brought light to Isoko.
“Matthew was just a staff of Ogoro, who is the elder brother to General Omu’s wife, who was an electrical contractor and Matthew was just one of the young staff working in Ogoro’s company and it was on that basis he participated in electrification of Isoko.
“The sole person, is not negotiable and arguable who brought light to Isoko land was General Omu. The next person who have contributed to extending light to every nook and cranny of Isoko land is my very humble self.
“I will tell anybody to challenge me that I was not the one who brought the 7.5MVA transformer that is today at Oleh, the one at Olomoro and the one at Owhelogbo, apart from the one NDDC installed in Ozoro that is serving the whole of Isoko land. It is also a lie from the pit of hell that Matthew Edevbie designed and brought light to Owhelogbo, my own community.
“I singlehandedly brought light to Owhelogbo and other Owhe villages apart from Otor-Owhe. All the other villages benefitted from my effort and it was in the administration of Chief James Ibori as a governor.
“That was even before I came into government, the I was an NLC chairman in the state. I was not even in government when I brought light to Owhelogbo and other neighbouring villages. It was through my personal relationship with James Ibori. I did not even know Matthew then, let alone he influencing it. So those are tissue of lies from the pit of hell.
“I published my stewardship, the only politician who came out publicly to publish his stewardship since 2015 and till today nobody has contradicted it because the facts are there for all to see, the projects are there and still working till tomorrow as well as the transformers.
“If he did anything, he did it in the cause of his job either as a staff of Ogoro or as a contractor. To tell us that he removed Isoko from darkness is an insult to the sensibility of Isoko nation and he should retrace those steps and correct his statement.”, Macaulay stated.
