The Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Vive Presidential candidate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa’s visit to Sokoto State was a charade; the visit made no electoral meaning nor seen to have added any value to the PDP’s strained unity, Chairman, Anti Corruption and Integrity Forum, Comrade Prince Kpokpogri, has said.
Kpokpogri, who is also the
Chairman, PKR Multi Service Nigeria Limited, described as more shameful Okowa’s so called ‘triumphant entry’ into Delta State as Delta political jobbers termed it after being unveiled as the PDP Vice Presidential running mate to Atiku, pointing out that the huge waste of resources and face saving return to Asaba was greeted with disdain by majority of Deltans.
Kpokpogri in an open letter to the PDP said: “it was only the pretentiously aggrieved PDP members and their #2000 per person rented crowd that welcomed him. If he was given a rousing welcome as claimed by his dummy social media boys, why didn’t the two former Governors, Chief James Ibori and Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan come?
The open letter tagged: “PDP’S National Reconciliation Committee/Delta Governor’s Visit To Sokoto: A Charade” the publisher of Integrity Watchdog Magazine and Board Member, Int’l Human Rights Commission, queried why prominent PDP politician from the state was not in the crowd, not to talk of leaders from other South-South and South Eastern States, because they claimed he is the Southern choice.
See details below:
OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY
PDP’S NATIONAL RECONCILIATION COMMITTEE/DELTA GOVERNOR’S VISIT TO SOKOTO: A CHARADE
… Ortom, Fayose’s Statements Vindicated Us On Our Position Against The Southern Betrayal
It must be said to the People’s Democratic Party, PDP that its old game of setting up Reconciliation Committees after sorely witch-hunting and oppressing its members is no longer in vogue. That tactics of *’kill and raise to die slowly again’* is now well understood, and it has got a very effective antidote – sanctimonious anti-party loyalty or call the party’s bluff and dump it. You cannot beat a baby and expect him not to cry. So therefore, the Reconciliation Committee is dead on arrival, of no effect and inconsequential. The PDP stakeholders should jettison the Reconciliation Committee because, this pattern of unifying all aggrieved members under the guise of deceit is no longer in existence.
In recent times, we have seen intense desperation on the side of Delta State Governor to redirect public opinion over the way and manner he betrayed his Southern colleague Governors and the agreement of the people of Southern Nigeria to have the Presidency come to them in 2023. He had quickly visited Sokoto State where he was received by another alleged betrayal, Governor Aminu Tambuwal with rented crowd. That is our Delta Governor for who he is; cunning, slimy, deceitful, crafty, bare-faced liar and master of treachery.
Going to Sokoto was to prove his electoral relevance in the North West when in actual sense he has been ostracised by his South-South people. The South-South Governors and all the people of Niger Delta should in fact, keep June 5 in history to symbolise the Memorial of the Day of the Southern Betrayal.
Let me for the umpteenth time, commend the Northern Governors who came out strongly to support the Southern Presidency of Nigeria in 2023. They are not only patriotic and peace-loving; they are Democrats whose names will be etched in history when the history of this era comes to be written.
The Delta Governor is finding it difficult to atone for his sins. He could not even muster the courage to visit his brother and colleague, the Rivers State Governor to apologise for stealing his mandate, yet he shamelessly visited Sokoto State to buy time. Even the visit of the ADC Presidential candidate, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu to Sokoto State made more meaning politically. Mr. Kachikwu was received by genuine crowd who came out to support him and to pledge their loyalty to the young and dynamic ADC Presidential candidate.
The PDP VP candidate’s visit to Sokoto State was a charade; the visit made no electoral meaning nor seen to have added any value to the PDP’s strained unity. His alleged fellow betrayal, Aminu Tambuwal can no longer deceive those of us from the South-South. Governor Nyesom Wike gave all to support him when it mattered most to him, and helped to build formidable structures around him in 2018. He maintained that relationship with utmost faith and trust, but when it was time to return such favour, he betrayed his best friend.
What was even more shameful was the Delta State Governor’s so called ‘triumphant entry’ into Delta State as Delta political jobbers termed it after being unveiled as the PDP Vice Presidential running mate to Atiku. That huge waste of resources and face saving return to Asaba was greeted with disdain by majority of Deltans. It was only the pretentiously aggrieved PDP members and their #2000 per person rented crowd that welcomed him. If he was given a rousing welcome as claimed by his dummy social media boys, why didn’t the two former Governors, Chief James Ibori and Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan come? Which prominent PDP politician from the state was in the crowd, not to talk of leaders from other South-South and South Eastern States, because they claimed he is the Southern choice.
In case the Nigerian people do not know, the Governor is a total failure in terms of project execution and promise of prosperity for all Deltans. There are uncountable projects that are abandoned in territories seen as enemies territories. The enemies territories are places where he has oppositions like the Cairo Ojougboh’s area of Ika land, the Victor Ochei’s are of Aniocha North, the Ayiri Emami’s area of Itsekiri land, the Ovie Omo-Agege area of Orogun and Asaba residential street and so on and so forth.
Now, talk of wealth creation and business empowerments, majority of Deltans are enmeshed in abject poverty, even in the midst of plenty. People like us cannot be deceived with his non existent skills acquisitions and entrepreneurial empowerments propaganda, that is what he positioned his professor brother to be doing at the Job Creation Office.
Where is PDP today? The party is in tatters, and it is fast drifting towards polarisation. I love the courage of the former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose to dump the PDP. He is one man who has consistently believed that the Presidency must come to Southern Nigeria in 2023. He believed in the PDP Constitution which provides for the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness. Where is the equity in the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar when the current President is a Northerner and completing his second term in office? Agitating like Fayose is what leaders in the party who still value their integrity and honour should be doing.
Meanwhile, I also thumb up for Governor Samuel Ortom who has equally openly demonised the PDP for sorely offending Governor Wike and has been marking time to go beg him. The interview the Benue State Governor granted Arise TV is a clear indication that PDP is headed for its final breath. He didn’t stop there, he was also interviewed on Politics Today on Channels Television where he said he has gone into hibernation and only by divine instruction from God will he support any Presidential candidate. This is a supposed PDP critical leader and Governor of a state saying such on a national television. This is to tell you that there is nothing left of PDP other than to wait for its devastating and shameful defeat in 2023.
Governor Ortom revealed the true story behind the Committee set up by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to help select his running mate, stating that 14 out of the 17 committee members chose Governor Wike to become the PDP Vice Presidential Candidate. The report was submitted to Atiku and the National Working Committee of the PDP, but instead of implementing it, Atiku turned back and announced the Governor of Delta State as his running mate. Can such a man ever be trusted? If he knew he had his running mate already to his chest, then why waste energy in setting up a committee whose report he would never work with.
The former Vice President and PDP felt that after the whole shenanigans, they will set up a Reconciliation Committee to pacify aggrieved members. That’s an old tactics that doesn’t work in this time and period. Governor Nyesom Wike should not be deceived by such sanctimony and political gimmicks that seek to humiliate him in PDP. They have already hatched their plan to whittle him down and he should not take that lying low.
Governor Wike is the hero of PDP and Democracy in this political season. However, he should not be deceived by PDP leaders who are now changing statements to get his attention and continue to curry his political favour. This is the time to move and prove those pundits wrong about his political relevance and integrity. The Benue Governor had already hit the nail on the head by letting the PDP secret out in the open.The same Atiku who set up a committee to help him pick a running mate from the South-South Geopolitical Zone, was the same person who turned down the report of the Committee after its members were done with their job. Is he the man to be trusted with the destiny of Nigeria? Thank God for Ortom for coming out to say that 14 out of the 17 members of the selection committee for which he was a member, chose Governor Wike to be Atiku’s running mate.
Perhaps, dropping the genuine decision of the committee to unveil Delta State Governor over the Rivers State Governor was the height of insincerity and damning back-stabbing. While serious minded politicians and patriotic Southern leaders were pursuing a collective agreement of getting the Presidency to the South, the Delta Governor was scheming to instead, become a Vice President to a Northern President.
Even though the Delta Governor had achieved the Vice Presidential ticket, that grave political error will continue to hunt PDP and eventually stop it from accomplishing its mission of taking power back from the APC led Presidency.
While this political miscalculation has tainted the PDP Presidential candidate as a man who lacks honour and does not keep to his words, the Vice Presidential candidate is worst by his treacherous betrayal which has now earned him the nickname “Southern Betrayal”. The Delta Governor sold his Southern people to a desperate serial Presidential gunner, who even had the temerity to declare the traitor a President in waiting and after him. That was an insult on the people of South-South, Southern Nigeria and even Nigeria as an entity. The PDP Presidential Flagbearer has not even been able to pull through with his years of ambition, yet he is projecting a hoax ambition of a successor after him.
Why is the candidate and PDP running around in circles? Why have they not been able to visit Wike in Rivers State, when in absolute recognition of his formidable electoral value, other candidates had been visiting him.
Choosing Delta Governor over Governor Wike is a collateral damage that has brought imminent decimation of PDP. How did they come up with the political arithmetic in choosing a traitor over another who came second in the Presidential primary election, scored 14 votes of the 17 votes cast by the Vice Presidential Candidate Selection Committee and had been the pillar holding the party before the likes of Atiku returned after prostituting around different political parties. When they were busy engaging in aimless peregrination, Governor Wike was building the party and funding it to meet the obligation of a formidable opposition party and one that isready to get power back. Today, such a man is treated with levity, disdain and contempt.
Let me remind the Southern Traitor and all his cohorts in Government and outside Government that it is not yet uhuru. I could see some of them rejoicing over the jailing of Senator Peter Nwaoboshi by the Appeal Court sitting in Lagos. Like Nwaoboshi, I have written a 150-page petition against this Government which is with the EFCC and other anti graft agencies. Another 200-page petition tagged “NO MERCY” is in the offing, and I will leave no stone unturned to ensure that all the looters in Delta State are served breakfast in jail.
I am not happy that Nwaoboshi’s case got to this messier level, but what can I do? The stubborn fly will always, definitely go to the grave with the corpse. I want to urge as many that are in Delta State Government, stealing and crying for Nwaoboshi, to cry for themselves, because their date in prison is coming.
Comrade Prince Kpokpogri,
Chairman, Anti Corruption and Integrity Forum,
Chairman, PKR Multi Service Nigeria Limited,
Publisher, Integrity Watchdog Magazine and,
Board Member, Int’l Human Rights Commission.
